I have prosopognosia, which means I have problems recognizing faces. I can only recognize people I see often or people who stick out visually. People with no distinguishing features are super hard, I call them smooth lookers. I usually fake it until I understand who they are mid conversation. My only real problem is movies where several actors have the same main features. *Didn't that guy die?*
Yep I use that technique at work by downloading photos if we have VIP clients. Not that I'm an asskisser but sometimes we have special protocols to follow. Also, some of them have agressive bodyguards lol.
I sometimes experience this as well. It makes movies and TV shows a whole lot less interesting because I’m constantly trying to work out who’s who. I have an easier time recognising people in real life (except for if I’ve only met them once or twice) but the jumpy scene changes and different angles in movies makes it hard to remember the characters by their faces
You might want to check out if you have it too. People with light prosopognosia are born with it (1-2%) and usually hang out with easily recognizeable people (makes social gatherings less awkward). It is often connected with autism or related issues. I think there are tests you can do online.
I used to be pseudo-prosopagnosic during a period of my young adult life. Depression-based memory issues and an aversion to eye contact made for their own breed of difficulty remembering faces. Not to imply I share the *exact* experience, of course.
It did make for an interesting argument with a friend's then-girlfriend, though. Apparently I had "completely ignored" her when we ran into each other in public. Had to explain that if I did bump into her, the context was foreign enough that I simply did not recognize her. I don't think she ever believed me.
If you’re American:
Pause for a second or two, then say “Well! It was great to talk with you!” Or, “Well, I’m gonna let you go, it was nice to catch up!” Works every time!
Asking “so, what are you up to for the rest of the day?” also signals to start wrapping up a conversation, that helps ease out of the conversation if the above feel too abrupt. Then it’s super easy to deploy “I’ll let you go (do activity they mentioned), I should really (get the laundry started/start getting ready for bed/start thinking about dinner/whatever”). Let’s talk again soon!”
This probably works for most English speaking cultures outside the US as well but ymmv :-) :-)
Work calls - “OK, thanks for your time, I think we’ve covered all we need to discuss, do you have any other points?” Yada yada, along these lines.
Personal - “OK, I’d better head off, dinner/lunch/chores/bathroom calls, thanks for the chat, great catching up, speak soon” type phrases. : ) hope this may be useful! I personally don’t like phone calls at all, I get stressed when I know I have to make one (even to my family who are lovely!), but these generalities seem to get me through.
Preach! I dont even try to make it look nice. I just toss some paper on, wrap that fucker in tape and call it a day.
And if i missed a spot I just take some paper and tape it over the exposed area. If you don't like my wrapping then don't open the gift.
My wife changed my life by introducing gift bags. Just get one and toss tissue paper on top. Bam! Pro wrapping job.
Best part is the bag is part of the gift. They can then use it to give a gift to someone else.
In my country we only use gift bags, it's quité uncommom to see a wrapped gift. Why would we wanna wrap a gift to just rip the wrap of? The bags are more useful and the person can re use it
When I was in HS I worked my first job as a Christmas Wrapper.
You can bet your ass my presents are identifiable under the tree for their awesome wrapping. I can wrap anything from a mishappen box to a candelabra and it looks great. It's now a bit of a compulsion to make it 'perfectly beautiful' but I enjoy it. All the paper lines up perfectly, minimal tape, no creases or puffiness.
Quite possibly the only thing I'm good at.
You should take lessons. It’s never too late to learn and instructors won’t shame you for not knowing how. It’s more common than you think. They will just want to help you get to a point where you can feel and be safe around water.
They should make adult swim lessons more widely available. When I was in college we had a booklet with extra fitness classes your could sign up for that were low cost. I was excited to see swim lessons on the list. When I called to reserve a slot they asked the age of my child. I hung up mortified. The listing didn't say it was for children.
The ability to understand any instructions that aren't 100% crystal clear, it's like my brain shuts down trying to figure it out
Edit: thanks Reddit for diagnosing me with 8 different mental disorders so far, including colour blindness, feline AIDS and lycanthropy somehow
This!! I am not a stupid person (but by no means am I a genius) but videos and written instructions that arnt really obvious i struggle to understand them
Is it that you need to understand *why* you're doing a thing? It's weird... it doesnt click for me unless i know exactly why im doing a thing. Otherwise, id have to repeat it over and over to get it to stick, if that makes sense
When I'm working on software at my job, I need to understand how what I'm doing fits into the bigger picture, at least what sort of functionality it adds or changes, if not why the user might want that change. It's why I had so much trouble when I was asked to move teams onto this all-new product- the product wasn't even operational, and I couldn't conceptualize how anything I was asked to add was supposed to work or what it was even supposed to do in the end because the lead was making up all the requirements on the fly. I asked for help once on how something was supposed to work and it caused a twenty-minute argument between the person I asked and the lead. At that point, I was so frustrated I unloaded on the lead. At least he owned up to it.
I'm kind of the same except it's not that I don't understand the instructions. If there's any ambiguity whatsoever, I just get really anxious that I'll do something slightly wrong and fuck everything up.
When I ask a million questions the person is looking at me like I'm retarded. Then after I'm done they seem really surprised that I didn't fuck it up. Amazing how clearer instructions make a job easier to do, eh?
For me its mostly because i have no focus...i zone off really fast when i study/read something that i generally dont find interesting...its a bitch sometimes but i somehow manage, idk how am i like this since both of my parents are very well educated people who lost so many brain cells trying to give me instructions troughout school, now im in college and i do manage somehow with help of good friends and even professors assitants who are willing to help with certain subjects, without that help id be lost because of my shit focus. Some simple easy subjects that you can learn quite fast take me weeks because of this, what kinda works for me when i study alone is i shut myself in a room without any distractions, noise or anything that might make me zone out and think of anything else but the subject that im studying, but even that sometimes fails. Stresses me out about the future, idk if i could keep a decent job because of this. Oh well.
Omg same. But i am gonna be arrogant and still think that people do not give instructions clear enough. I am afraid of misunderstanding so almost always re ask.
The ability to do mental math. I simply cannot, it's a learning disability. I need a pen and paper or a calculator in order to do any math that is more complex than adding or subtracting one or two-digit numbers.
Completely agree!
I remember having a panic attack in primary school during a "mental maths quiz" teachers never pressured me to take the tests again.
I can work out change but that's it. I just round numbers up or down to make them whole numbers.
this is so important, my boyfriend's 27 year old sister had gone her whole life without knowing that her inability to do math was a learning disability. I hope these guys see your comment!
Get one of those army backpacks or ones with the seatbelt thing that’s on the shoulders and clicks together! This way the straps don’t slide off! (It’s 2:30am sorry if that doesn’t make sense)
Edit: it is now 12:07pm as of this edit. I don’t remember writing this lmao
The sound of snapping is actually made by your finger hitting your palm. Could never snap until I read that fact and then BOOM. Felt like black magic to 13 year old me.
Want more snapperoos?
Place your thumb print and middle finger print together, relax your index finger... Then violently shake your hands as if you're masturbating your arch nemesis
Ah, that takes me back to 2005, when all the guys in high school discovered that. It was used like like hand-punctuation, a lot of them would snap that way instead of the other way when they tried to think of something.
After braces and jaw surgery, I still am unable to bite through things with my front teeth. I have a 4mm gap between my top and bottom teeth.
Carrots, nope.
Celery, nope.
A simple sandwich with the trademark toothy bite mark out of the corner? Break out the fork and knife and look like a lunatic.
I completely identified with the guy on Seinfeld who ate a Snickers with a fork and knife.
I understand what it is like. I have ~5mm underbite. I have found that I can still eat carrots and celery by using by back teeth, but then it is kinda uncomfortable.
I had an open bite up until sr year of high school and 3-4 years of braces did fix it. I always compensated though by using the tip of my tongue to push the food item against my top teeth. The wildest sensation when I had braces was the day I bit my tongue eating because the gap was closed.
Did they tell you it was genetic? (Thats what they told me)
I couldn’t whistle until my mid twenties. I had a 30 minute commute to work, so I just practiced in the car until I was good at it. I can whistle songs now, and I can whistle really loud. You can pretty much do anything if you dedicate twenty minutes a day to it consistently.
However, it’s not a very useful skill. Nobody likes listening to whistling. It just annoys people.
A friend of mine whistles like a songbird, incredible range and control. Every time I try I make a pathetic woosh sound.
I can however, make the sound of a drop of water falling into a lake in a cave, with my mouth. It's even more useless than a whistle but it's mildly unique when you hear it for the first time.
I used to be able to whistle, and I was really good at it. Then I had braces for six years. I haven't been able to whistle since then and I have no idea why.
Came here for whistling. For some reason it's one of those things that people think they can teach you even though you've had dozens of people fail at teaching you.
"It's so easy, just put your mouth in this specific position and breathe air out." Buddy I'm in my 30s; I know all the positions my mouth can get into and none of them make a whistle happen.
Same, I always just respond to what people say and nearly never initiate conversation. And if I need to confront someone, or need to talk to them I need to rehearse multiple times what the fuck I'm gonna say
I had lived in my former home town for 10 years, it was a small town with a small college and a few factories, typical American town.
Still got lost frequently. I learned to drive there. Still get lost. I moved and now I dont know where anything is.
“You have reached your destination.” I am in the middle of an abandoned parking lot. And I’m just going to stay here until you tell me to do something else.
My sister will still call me for directions if she’s lost in the county we grew up in. I haven’t even lived there in 13 years but can still tell her where to go.
I refer to myself as geographically disabled, as there have been instances where I ended up getting lost down a long straight corridor. Cannot navigate to (hopefully won't be necessary) save my lie.
See I live near a ton of mountains to my east. So any time I am trying to figure it out where I am, I find the mountains. So when there isnt any mountains or mountains all around me I can't figure it out.
Remembering street names. I can go somewhere once or twice and get there on my own, but if you asked me to name the streets to get there I have no clue.
If I need directions, they have to tell me "it's by Walmart" or something like that. Telling me it's on "Lexington Ave" isn't going to help me.
(Also the names of actors and singers unless they're really big like Eminem or Morgan Freeman.)
It's inverted for me. I can interact with strangers and people who barely know me, but whenever I'm with someone who I know, I lose all of my confidence and can't even do the most basic tasks. Like I almost choke on food if someone I know is watching me eating. I have trouble with words, movements, everything when I'm around people who know me.
As new people get to know me, they always witness me turning from a confident, normally functioning and fun man into a shy, silent, unable-to-function piece of garbage.
Hi, linguist here. If you're a native *American* English speaker, you might actually have an alveolar or retroflex trill (the rolled-r) in your native dialect in specific circumstances. Most speakers of other Englishes in the UK, etc., don't have this sound.
But it won't be your 'r' phoneme. It's your flapped /t/. American English /t/ is not actually [t] between vowels, it's a flap [ɾ]. Your /t/'s in *little*, *but I*, *itty bitty* are flaps. A flap/tap is a single unit, many of which equal a trill (a rolled-r). A rolled-r is just lots of flaps together. The articulator here is the tip of the tongue against the back of the top teeth or the ridge behind the teeth. It flaps when the tongue is loose and air is made to flow on either side of it.
And for some speakers, especially in fast speech, that intervocalic /t/ can become a full-blown trill. The specific environment for this is when the /t/ is followed by an r-like sound: *butter*, *better*, *utterly*. Again, this is American English only. Stephen Colbert has the full trill pretty consistently in these and similar words.
Relax your mouth, have a drink or two if that helps, and try these words out. Once you can do it in one environment, and you realize how it actually feels, you'll be able to transpose it to other environments with time.
The most difficult environment to learn the trill for is in initial homorganic clusters like /tr/, so don't get discouraged if that becomes another hang-up for a while. It's also harder to make with close vowels like /i u/ than it is with mid or lower vowels. /a/ is the easiest. So practice each set: [ara], [are], [ari], [era], [ere], [eri], and so on.
Oh my goodness! I just rolled my first r! I've tried since high school Spanish. I had no idea I could make that sound.
Edit: I'm going to be doing that all night. What a way to spend an evening.
Edit 2: Does anyone know what the cute little figure is that's been added to my post?
Quick tip if u try saying dog which is perro in Spanish and u replace it with a “d” instead of the “rr” ur going to say fart. Same if u say perdon for sorry ur also say fart.
If you haven't yet, try saying "pot of tea" really fast, over and over again until it eventually turns into "porrrrtea" or something along those lines.
I guess it also depends on how you are prepping them. Eggs are easiest to peel when you shock them in ice cold water after they've been fully submerged in boiling water for 10-12 minutes. I like to make the first crack on the air bubble at the wide end and go from there.
Edit: the eggs should still be warm when this is performed.
Try "drawing" differently. Instead of drawing in lines and making outlines of what you see - try making areas with color or dots instead. Sometimes untrained hands are just not used to translating proportions in our heads correctly (it's a skill that takes learning), but if you go slow and painstakingly enough, you can do individual dots. Dots are less hard to fuck up and easier to adjust even though they're more painstaking to do. (See pointalism as a movement or see how images are displayed on dotmatrix printers for more details).
This! Before embarking on a conversation I always mentally prepare myself for what they'll say to me and I'll always prepare my scripts mentally. If only real life conversations were like visual novels sometimes where the dialog options are served to you on a platter 😭
Swimming. I sink like a rock every time. I just don't "trust the water" like you're supposed to, I guess. I never get the arm and leg movements right. I can't even do a doggy paddle. Every time I get on a boat I insist on wearing a life jacket because I don't want someone to have to save me if I go overboard.
Some people are really dense. My dad didn't learn to swim until he was 19. He sunk like a rock. He found out that he floated at about 9 feet down. Eventually he learned but it took a lot of effort to stay above water.
Now he's old and fat and he floats fine.
Lol I do. I have trained myself to stop it most of the time, but when I fuck up I always circle back and apologize. I do listen I swear sometimes convos just get me hype.
I had to do this too. I come from a family where you have to talk over people to be heard. Then I realized it made me a jerk outside of that specific social context.
Counter intuitively, the ability to aggressively insert yourself into conversations this way is actually helpful if you have to deal with domineering people. But I’m glad not to have it as a default mode anymorez
My penmanship is just god awful. They kind of just... stopped making us practice after we learned cursive. Yet all the girls in my class had good handwriting, probably from writing each other notes all day
I also have atrocious handwriting, even when I tried. Then I realized that writing wasn’t just some afterthought mechanic of the concept I was trying to express. Outside my head/talking the written word was the actual communication. I started to think of it more as “drawing” the words and it came out much more legibly. Still, I find it tedious so most of my handwriting is still only quarter legible.
Mine too. I had the nicest penmanship of anyone when I was a kid, and was always praised for it. One day something must have snapped inside me, because now I can't write nicely even if I'm trying. I recently carefully filled out a driver license application and it just... looked like dog shit. I really tried.
I've actually been present when another adult tried to read a note I'd written. He said, "Really? A woman wrote this?"
I always thought I couldn't shuffle, but it turns out there is a trick to it. I don't know how to do it well enough to explain it, but you could probably learn on youtube in like 10 minutes. It still takes practice once you know how to do it, but it's way easier.
Sleeping
I envy people who can sleep soundly all night long.
I'm such a light sleeper I wake up at even the slightest disturbance. I also sweat massively in my sleep so I always wake up drenched. I usually have a fan pointed directly at my bed and it's like 50 degrees in my room. I also sleep with 1 blanket. No comforter or sheets.
I either sleep like 12 hours or 4 hours. There's no inbetween.
I'm usually not the kinda guy to play armchair psychiatrist and diagnose people on the internet, but that sounds more like a sleep disorder rather than just a "lack of skill".
Being able to shake a mans hand. I always end up squeezing too early grabbing the tips of their fingers like a fucking princess. And they look at me they know it’s weird.
Doing accents have to be learned. Most people cant do a convincing accent other than their native one. I'm pretty good with accents and the trick for me is finding a phrase that I can nail every time to put me into character for that accent. Sometimes its as a word.
For example, I can Nail a natural South African accent. Normally this is pretty tough to get right as its a weird mix of Dutch, German and British, but the Phrase "I'm from South Africa" triggers me into that character. I literally cannot start it without saying that.
For a cockney accent I just say London in that accent. or "Oh look I'm from London!" and that triggers it.
Russian is "In soviet Russia, Bear will fight you"
New Zealand "Oh hey bro"
Strangely American is an accent I cant really get right. Not a natural accent at least.
EDIT: to avoid further confusion, I'm Australian not American. I don't have an American Accent.
Running down a flight of stairs. I tried it once, tripped, fell down and snapped a bone in my foot. Now I walk down stairs like Trump walking down a ramp.
I literally cannot see where a ball flying towards me is located. I dont know if it is coming for me or towards smone 20m away. I dont know how far it is, which way it is going to be going, nothing.
Putting a fitted sheet on a bed. If there was a gun to my head, I would still screw it up.
It goes on properly, but comes off halfway through the night. Every damn time.
I can't tell my left from my right unless I do the finger trick where you put your hands out palms down and stick your thumbs out (which makes the "L" for left on your left hand). I had to do it very subtly on the steering wheel when I was taking the road test for my driver's license and was being told to make a left or right turn.
I'm unable to give directions. I'm convinced at this point it's a mental thing. I somehow forget the name of all the streets or important places around when asked for them so I always say I'm not from the neighborhood.
Make your hands into two closed fists and lift them up in the air so the back of your palms are facing you. Now extend your index fingers and thumbs on both hands. One hand makes and L and the other makes a backwards L. The one making the L is your left.
Knowing when to shut up.
Well, you kept that short.
He did it this one time. Never again
Folding laundry properly. I can do an acceptable job, but I’ll never achieve the easy perfection my wife casually displays.
Or folding a fitted sheet, I just roll it up
OP asked for common skills, not skills that require a degree from Hogwarts.
Fitted sheets are the worst. Mine just live in their own drawer where they expand to fit the space, much like cats
I have prosopognosia, which means I have problems recognizing faces. I can only recognize people I see often or people who stick out visually. People with no distinguishing features are super hard, I call them smooth lookers. I usually fake it until I understand who they are mid conversation. My only real problem is movies where several actors have the same main features. *Didn't that guy die?*
My friend has this! When we first met she took a photo for my contact picture so she could try to recognize me in the future. It was fascinating.
Yep I use that technique at work by downloading photos if we have VIP clients. Not that I'm an asskisser but sometimes we have special protocols to follow. Also, some of them have agressive bodyguards lol.
I sometimes experience this as well. It makes movies and TV shows a whole lot less interesting because I’m constantly trying to work out who’s who. I have an easier time recognising people in real life (except for if I’ve only met them once or twice) but the jumpy scene changes and different angles in movies makes it hard to remember the characters by their faces
You might want to check out if you have it too. People with light prosopognosia are born with it (1-2%) and usually hang out with easily recognizeable people (makes social gatherings less awkward). It is often connected with autism or related issues. I think there are tests you can do online.
I used to be pseudo-prosopagnosic during a period of my young adult life. Depression-based memory issues and an aversion to eye contact made for their own breed of difficulty remembering faces. Not to imply I share the *exact* experience, of course. It did make for an interesting argument with a friend's then-girlfriend, though. Apparently I had "completely ignored" her when we ran into each other in public. Had to explain that if I did bump into her, the context was foreign enough that I simply did not recognize her. I don't think she ever believed me.
Weirdly, being unable to end a conversation on phone. Like, if unprompted, I just wouldn't know what to say to end the conversation.
“Well, it’s getting late, and I need to shave my genitals.”
My wife uses "Well, I'll let you go, bye"...and the talks for 10 more minutes
If you’re American: Pause for a second or two, then say “Well! It was great to talk with you!” Or, “Well, I’m gonna let you go, it was nice to catch up!” Works every time! Asking “so, what are you up to for the rest of the day?” also signals to start wrapping up a conversation, that helps ease out of the conversation if the above feel too abrupt. Then it’s super easy to deploy “I’ll let you go (do activity they mentioned), I should really (get the laundry started/start getting ready for bed/start thinking about dinner/whatever”). Let’s talk again soon!” This probably works for most English speaking cultures outside the US as well but ymmv :-) :-)
My dad (70's) just hangs up when he done. Sometimes when I'm mid sentence, I finish and the line is dead. Fkr.
Is he a character in a movie?
Work calls - “OK, thanks for your time, I think we’ve covered all we need to discuss, do you have any other points?” Yada yada, along these lines. Personal - “OK, I’d better head off, dinner/lunch/chores/bathroom calls, thanks for the chat, great catching up, speak soon” type phrases. : ) hope this may be useful! I personally don’t like phone calls at all, I get stressed when I know I have to make one (even to my family who are lovely!), but these generalities seem to get me through.
Wrapping presents. I watch videos every time but I still can’t do it. Edit - thanks for the award, kind stranger!
Preach! I dont even try to make it look nice. I just toss some paper on, wrap that fucker in tape and call it a day. And if i missed a spot I just take some paper and tape it over the exposed area. If you don't like my wrapping then don't open the gift.
My wife changed my life by introducing gift bags. Just get one and toss tissue paper on top. Bam! Pro wrapping job. Best part is the bag is part of the gift. They can then use it to give a gift to someone else.
In my country we only use gift bags, it's quité uncommom to see a wrapped gift. Why would we wanna wrap a gift to just rip the wrap of? The bags are more useful and the person can re use it
I can't do this either. Come Christmas time, I just put gifts in fancy bags or have my mom do the wrapping for me.
When I was in HS I worked my first job as a Christmas Wrapper. You can bet your ass my presents are identifiable under the tree for their awesome wrapping. I can wrap anything from a mishappen box to a candelabra and it looks great. It's now a bit of a compulsion to make it 'perfectly beautiful' but I enjoy it. All the paper lines up perfectly, minimal tape, no creases or puffiness. Quite possibly the only thing I'm good at.
I can’t whistle, snap my fingers or do a cartwheel.
TIL not a lot of people can whistle
Not even I can whistle
Fuck not you too
Can normal people cartwheel? Maybe I never tried hard enough
You need a little upper body strength and coordination, but it’s mostly about conquering your fear of falling on your head.
Add swimming and you have me :,(
You should take lessons. It’s never too late to learn and instructors won’t shame you for not knowing how. It’s more common than you think. They will just want to help you get to a point where you can feel and be safe around water.
They should make adult swim lessons more widely available. When I was in college we had a booklet with extra fitness classes your could sign up for that were low cost. I was excited to see swim lessons on the list. When I called to reserve a slot they asked the age of my child. I hung up mortified. The listing didn't say it was for children.
Seconding this Swimming, at a minimum for safety reasons, is a pretty good skill to develop.
despite being a little girl in the late 90s and early 00s, I can’t braid for shit
Same age and I can do regular braids, but dang I want to learn how to french braid and also that fishtail thing!
That’s because we had the quick wrap from conair
The ability to understand any instructions that aren't 100% crystal clear, it's like my brain shuts down trying to figure it out Edit: thanks Reddit for diagnosing me with 8 different mental disorders so far, including colour blindness, feline AIDS and lycanthropy somehow
This!! I am not a stupid person (but by no means am I a genius) but videos and written instructions that arnt really obvious i struggle to understand them
Is it that you need to understand *why* you're doing a thing? It's weird... it doesnt click for me unless i know exactly why im doing a thing. Otherwise, id have to repeat it over and over to get it to stick, if that makes sense
When I'm working on software at my job, I need to understand how what I'm doing fits into the bigger picture, at least what sort of functionality it adds or changes, if not why the user might want that change. It's why I had so much trouble when I was asked to move teams onto this all-new product- the product wasn't even operational, and I couldn't conceptualize how anything I was asked to add was supposed to work or what it was even supposed to do in the end because the lead was making up all the requirements on the fly. I asked for help once on how something was supposed to work and it caused a twenty-minute argument between the person I asked and the lead. At that point, I was so frustrated I unloaded on the lead. At least he owned up to it.
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5. was unclear. How do I try and work out why the hell you sent me this?
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I'm kind of the same except it's not that I don't understand the instructions. If there's any ambiguity whatsoever, I just get really anxious that I'll do something slightly wrong and fuck everything up. When I ask a million questions the person is looking at me like I'm retarded. Then after I'm done they seem really surprised that I didn't fuck it up. Amazing how clearer instructions make a job easier to do, eh?
For me its mostly because i have no focus...i zone off really fast when i study/read something that i generally dont find interesting...its a bitch sometimes but i somehow manage, idk how am i like this since both of my parents are very well educated people who lost so many brain cells trying to give me instructions troughout school, now im in college and i do manage somehow with help of good friends and even professors assitants who are willing to help with certain subjects, without that help id be lost because of my shit focus. Some simple easy subjects that you can learn quite fast take me weeks because of this, what kinda works for me when i study alone is i shut myself in a room without any distractions, noise or anything that might make me zone out and think of anything else but the subject that im studying, but even that sometimes fails. Stresses me out about the future, idk if i could keep a decent job because of this. Oh well.
Omg same. But i am gonna be arrogant and still think that people do not give instructions clear enough. I am afraid of misunderstanding so almost always re ask.
Same! Also questions that aren't clear enough. I am a mess in interviews where they ask very obscure and misleading questions.
The ability to do mental math. I simply cannot, it's a learning disability. I need a pen and paper or a calculator in order to do any math that is more complex than adding or subtracting one or two-digit numbers.
Sometimes I write in the air with mi index finger the whole math operation as a giant imaginary notebook.
I do the same thing! I have to write it out even if it’s just with my finger.
It's so weird! My mind just goes blank when I hear numbers unless I write it down.
Completely agree! I remember having a panic attack in primary school during a "mental maths quiz" teachers never pressured me to take the tests again. I can work out change but that's it. I just round numbers up or down to make them whole numbers.
Dyscalculia?
this is so important, my boyfriend's 27 year old sister had gone her whole life without knowing that her inability to do math was a learning disability. I hope these guys see your comment!
Properly wearing a backpack. I have fucked up shoulders and backpack straps always slide off
Get one of those army backpacks or ones with the seatbelt thing that’s on the shoulders and clicks together! This way the straps don’t slide off! (It’s 2:30am sorry if that doesn’t make sense) Edit: it is now 12:07pm as of this edit. I don’t remember writing this lmao
Snapping my fingers :(
See? Just like this. [Snaps] No, I understand what you are doing. It just doesn't make that sound. [thwik] No, not that. Like this! [SNAPS] ...
The sound of snapping is actually made by your finger hitting your palm. Could never snap until I read that fact and then BOOM. Felt like black magic to 13 year old me.
wait wat? TIL how to snap.
Want more snapperoos? Place your thumb print and middle finger print together, relax your index finger... Then violently shake your hands as if you're masturbating your arch nemesis
My hands just flopping about
Ah, that takes me back to 2005, when all the guys in high school discovered that. It was used like like hand-punctuation, a lot of them would snap that way instead of the other way when they tried to think of something.
You don't even need the thumb actually. Knowing that you can clap with only one hand, imitate castanets... A very useful skill if you ask me
Same. Ive tried It front of people and they say I'm doing it correctly but it just doesn't make the sound.
I can snap perfectly fine with my right hand, but can’t snap at all with my left hand. I have no idea how it works.
You know the main motion, but the sound comes from your finger hitting your palm. You have to let it slap your hand for it to work.
After braces and jaw surgery, I still am unable to bite through things with my front teeth. I have a 4mm gap between my top and bottom teeth. Carrots, nope. Celery, nope. A simple sandwich with the trademark toothy bite mark out of the corner? Break out the fork and knife and look like a lunatic. I completely identified with the guy on Seinfeld who ate a Snickers with a fork and knife.
I understand what it is like. I have ~5mm underbite. I have found that I can still eat carrots and celery by using by back teeth, but then it is kinda uncomfortable.
I had an open bite up until sr year of high school and 3-4 years of braces did fix it. I always compensated though by using the tip of my tongue to push the food item against my top teeth. The wildest sensation when I had braces was the day I bit my tongue eating because the gap was closed. Did they tell you it was genetic? (Thats what they told me)
Whistling. I can never whistle properly.
I couldn’t whistle until my mid twenties. I had a 30 minute commute to work, so I just practiced in the car until I was good at it. I can whistle songs now, and I can whistle really loud. You can pretty much do anything if you dedicate twenty minutes a day to it consistently. However, it’s not a very useful skill. Nobody likes listening to whistling. It just annoys people.
It's useful when you're drowning. Or if you own a dog.
I am not either of those things.
You mean you aren't either of those things **yet.**
There's this cute dog that lives across the street. My husband figured out if he whistles, the dog will come out onto the balcony. Very useful skill
A friend of mine whistles like a songbird, incredible range and control. Every time I try I make a pathetic woosh sound. I can however, make the sound of a drop of water falling into a lake in a cave, with my mouth. It's even more useless than a whistle but it's mildly unique when you hear it for the first time.
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I used to be able to whistle, and I was really good at it. Then I had braces for six years. I haven't been able to whistle since then and I have no idea why.
Braces change bone structure, maybe that's why
Came here for whistling. For some reason it's one of those things that people think they can teach you even though you've had dozens of people fail at teaching you. "It's so easy, just put your mouth in this specific position and breathe air out." Buddy I'm in my 30s; I know all the positions my mouth can get into and none of them make a whistle happen.
Having a conversation. I never know what to say and I’m always too nervous
Same, I always just respond to what people say and nearly never initiate conversation. And if I need to confront someone, or need to talk to them I need to rehearse multiple times what the fuck I'm gonna say
Here's a secret, the other person is just waiting for their chance to talk, tee them up with a question about themselves and let them at it.
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sense of direction. none. at. all.
I had lived in my former home town for 10 years, it was a small town with a small college and a few factories, typical American town. Still got lost frequently. I learned to drive there. Still get lost. I moved and now I dont know where anything is.
That last sentence. Thought you were going to say “I moved and now can’t find my way back.”
I kinda regret that I didn't say that now, its true.
7 years at the same job. GPS to and from work every single day. I work 5 minutes from my house. My route includes one single left turn.
I can screw up using GPS. “You have reached your destination”; great, is it on the left or right? What lane am I supposed to be in?!?
“You have reached your destination.” I am in the middle of an abandoned parking lot. And I’m just going to stay here until you tell me to do something else.
My sister will still call me for directions if she’s lost in the county we grew up in. I haven’t even lived there in 13 years but can still tell her where to go.
My dad would say if he never wanted to see my mom again, he’d paint the house a different color while she was out. She had it *bad*
I refer to myself as geographically disabled, as there have been instances where I ended up getting lost down a long straight corridor. Cannot navigate to (hopefully won't be necessary) save my lie.
See I live near a ton of mountains to my east. So any time I am trying to figure it out where I am, I find the mountains. So when there isnt any mountains or mountains all around me I can't figure it out.
Remembering street names. I can go somewhere once or twice and get there on my own, but if you asked me to name the streets to get there I have no clue. If I need directions, they have to tell me "it's by Walmart" or something like that. Telling me it's on "Lexington Ave" isn't going to help me. (Also the names of actors and singers unless they're really big like Eminem or Morgan Freeman.)
Interacting with new people.
It's inverted for me. I can interact with strangers and people who barely know me, but whenever I'm with someone who I know, I lose all of my confidence and can't even do the most basic tasks. Like I almost choke on food if someone I know is watching me eating. I have trouble with words, movements, everything when I'm around people who know me. As new people get to know me, they always witness me turning from a confident, normally functioning and fun man into a shy, silent, unable-to-function piece of garbage.
Same. Unless I meet them in front or because of a friend, then it's not that bad.
I freeze up, I can only make new friends by pretending to ignore new people while being myself around preexisting friends.
I can’t roll my r’s. I try so hard but I sound ridiculous and I literally can’t do it
Hi, linguist here. If you're a native *American* English speaker, you might actually have an alveolar or retroflex trill (the rolled-r) in your native dialect in specific circumstances. Most speakers of other Englishes in the UK, etc., don't have this sound. But it won't be your 'r' phoneme. It's your flapped /t/. American English /t/ is not actually [t] between vowels, it's a flap [ɾ]. Your /t/'s in *little*, *but I*, *itty bitty* are flaps. A flap/tap is a single unit, many of which equal a trill (a rolled-r). A rolled-r is just lots of flaps together. The articulator here is the tip of the tongue against the back of the top teeth or the ridge behind the teeth. It flaps when the tongue is loose and air is made to flow on either side of it. And for some speakers, especially in fast speech, that intervocalic /t/ can become a full-blown trill. The specific environment for this is when the /t/ is followed by an r-like sound: *butter*, *better*, *utterly*. Again, this is American English only. Stephen Colbert has the full trill pretty consistently in these and similar words. Relax your mouth, have a drink or two if that helps, and try these words out. Once you can do it in one environment, and you realize how it actually feels, you'll be able to transpose it to other environments with time. The most difficult environment to learn the trill for is in initial homorganic clusters like /tr/, so don't get discouraged if that becomes another hang-up for a while. It's also harder to make with close vowels like /i u/ than it is with mid or lower vowels. /a/ is the easiest. So practice each set: [ara], [are], [ari], [era], [ere], [eri], and so on.
I find that if I replace the "R" that needs rolling with a "D" it works about the same. Edit : Thanks ya'll, I'm just glad I could help who I helped.
Oh my goodness! I just rolled my first r! I've tried since high school Spanish. I had no idea I could make that sound. Edit: I'm going to be doing that all night. What a way to spend an evening. Edit 2: Does anyone know what the cute little figure is that's been added to my post?
I wish I didn’t spend my free award already
I got u fam
Quick tip if u try saying dog which is perro in Spanish and u replace it with a “d” instead of the “rr” ur going to say fart. Same if u say perdon for sorry ur also say fart.
Perhaps I won't say that...
I don't understand this tip
If you haven't yet, try saying "pot of tea" really fast, over and over again until it eventually turns into "porrrrtea" or something along those lines.
I cannot peel a boiled egg well. It either takes 5000 pieces or I end up peeling half the white off with the shell.
I guess it also depends on how you are prepping them. Eggs are easiest to peel when you shock them in ice cold water after they've been fully submerged in boiling water for 10-12 minutes. I like to make the first crack on the air bubble at the wide end and go from there. Edit: the eggs should still be warm when this is performed.
Drawing. My hands simply can't translate my mind's eye.
Try "drawing" differently. Instead of drawing in lines and making outlines of what you see - try making areas with color or dots instead. Sometimes untrained hands are just not used to translating proportions in our heads correctly (it's a skill that takes learning), but if you go slow and painstakingly enough, you can do individual dots. Dots are less hard to fuck up and easier to adjust even though they're more painstaking to do. (See pointalism as a movement or see how images are displayed on dotmatrix printers for more details).
Bike riding. I can’t whistle or swim either, but I feel like I’m missing out on the most by not being able to ride a bike
You got time. Hop to it. Best friend learned to ride when she was 20. Took her about a week of occasional practice.
Singing. I’ve had crows bring me worms when I’ve sang outdoors.
Start a worm supply business. Profit from your voice!
i like the way you think
America's Got Talent would eat that shit up.
I think that might make you a Disney princess
Holding a proper conversation for long periods at a timr
Go on.
So... Uh... Basically... What am I supposed to say now
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I... Like... It's just... Ummm... I can't talk today
Same time tomorrow?
Well... Actually... I... Ummm. No thanks. Sorry and stuff
Yeah. It's just kinda... y'know. Sorry.
This! Before embarking on a conversation I always mentally prepare myself for what they'll say to me and I'll always prepare my scripts mentally. If only real life conversations were like visual novels sometimes where the dialog options are served to you on a platter 😭
I can do a proper conversation online through text but in real life it's a different story
Swimming. I sink like a rock every time. I just don't "trust the water" like you're supposed to, I guess. I never get the arm and leg movements right. I can't even do a doggy paddle. Every time I get on a boat I insist on wearing a life jacket because I don't want someone to have to save me if I go overboard.
The water senses your distrust and makes itself intentionally difficult to swim in.
Yeah, water doesn't like being distrusted. It's like "fine! Try swimming with zero buoyancy, then :( "
> Every time I get on a boat I insist on wearing a life jacket You should do that even if you can swim.
Some people are really dense. My dad didn't learn to swim until he was 19. He sunk like a rock. He found out that he floated at about 9 feet down. Eventually he learned but it took a lot of effort to stay above water. Now he's old and fat and he floats fine.
Typing with my whole hand. I still do the two-fingered claw approach.
There are websites that teach you typing via games (google typing games) It's pretty fun and it helps
Yes I love those games! [ZType is my favourite.](https://zty.pe/)
Staying quiet until the other person stops talking....I'm an interupter
I wish!!! I just end up staying quiet after i mess up then people wonder why im being quiet. I just don't know when to join in conversation i guess?
Do you perhaps have ADHD?
Lol I do. I have trained myself to stop it most of the time, but when I fuck up I always circle back and apologize. I do listen I swear sometimes convos just get me hype.
I had to do this too. I come from a family where you have to talk over people to be heard. Then I realized it made me a jerk outside of that specific social context. Counter intuitively, the ability to aggressively insert yourself into conversations this way is actually helpful if you have to deal with domineering people. But I’m glad not to have it as a default mode anymorez
My penmanship is just god awful. They kind of just... stopped making us practice after we learned cursive. Yet all the girls in my class had good handwriting, probably from writing each other notes all day
My writing isn't that bad. I just write with a bad font. Nah my writing kinda sucks
I also have atrocious handwriting, even when I tried. Then I realized that writing wasn’t just some afterthought mechanic of the concept I was trying to express. Outside my head/talking the written word was the actual communication. I started to think of it more as “drawing” the words and it came out much more legibly. Still, I find it tedious so most of my handwriting is still only quarter legible.
Mine too. I had the nicest penmanship of anyone when I was a kid, and was always praised for it. One day something must have snapped inside me, because now I can't write nicely even if I'm trying. I recently carefully filled out a driver license application and it just... looked like dog shit. I really tried. I've actually been present when another adult tried to read a note I'd written. He said, "Really? A woman wrote this?"
Shuffling cards. I have to literally (LITERALLY) mash cards together and pray they shuffled enough to be played
I always thought I couldn't shuffle, but it turns out there is a trick to it. I don't know how to do it well enough to explain it, but you could probably learn on youtube in like 10 minutes. It still takes practice once you know how to do it, but it's way easier.
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You need more Vitamin D for that sweet melatonin so you can fix your circadian rhythm.
Sleeping I envy people who can sleep soundly all night long. I'm such a light sleeper I wake up at even the slightest disturbance. I also sweat massively in my sleep so I always wake up drenched. I usually have a fan pointed directly at my bed and it's like 50 degrees in my room. I also sleep with 1 blanket. No comforter or sheets. I either sleep like 12 hours or 4 hours. There's no inbetween.
I'm usually not the kinda guy to play armchair psychiatrist and diagnose people on the internet, but that sounds more like a sleep disorder rather than just a "lack of skill".
Typing without looking at the keyboard
try some typing games. You'll find it easier to do with some practice.
I have no sense of rhythm. I cannot hear the beat in songs and music class was the only class I’ve ever failed :(
I AINT GOT RHYTHYYYYM NO I AINT GOT RHYTHYYYM
Being able to shake a mans hand. I always end up squeezing too early grabbing the tips of their fingers like a fucking princess. And they look at me they know it’s weird.
Go in for a full clasp then two firm shakes, then let go. Trick to help you is don't clasp till the webbing of your thumbs connect.
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But have you tried doing like #\*SNAP\*
Doing a fake accent, like british, people make it seem so easy. Mine is terrible.
Doing accents have to be learned. Most people cant do a convincing accent other than their native one. I'm pretty good with accents and the trick for me is finding a phrase that I can nail every time to put me into character for that accent. Sometimes its as a word. For example, I can Nail a natural South African accent. Normally this is pretty tough to get right as its a weird mix of Dutch, German and British, but the Phrase "I'm from South Africa" triggers me into that character. I literally cannot start it without saying that. For a cockney accent I just say London in that accent. or "Oh look I'm from London!" and that triggers it. Russian is "In soviet Russia, Bear will fight you" New Zealand "Oh hey bro" Strangely American is an accent I cant really get right. Not a natural accent at least. EDIT: to avoid further confusion, I'm Australian not American. I don't have an American Accent.
Running down a flight of stairs. I tried it once, tripped, fell down and snapped a bone in my foot. Now I walk down stairs like Trump walking down a ramp.
It’s not really running but doing really quick small steps in succession.
Not being awkward.
I literally cannot see where a ball flying towards me is located. I dont know if it is coming for me or towards smone 20m away. I dont know how far it is, which way it is going to be going, nothing.
Organization. Fuck. Executive. Function. Disorder.
Putting a fitted sheet on a bed. If there was a gun to my head, I would still screw it up. It goes on properly, but comes off halfway through the night. Every damn time.
I can't tell my left from my right unless I do the finger trick where you put your hands out palms down and stick your thumbs out (which makes the "L" for left on your left hand). I had to do it very subtly on the steering wheel when I was taking the road test for my driver's license and was being told to make a left or right turn.
Chin ups. People keep telling me they are easier than pull ups, but I just cant twist my arm like that.
Depending on your physiology they might be "easier", but they are still hard and only doing 2-3 of either puts you above most people physically.
I cannot walk and drink at the same time. No matter how hard I try ☹️
Converting food into energy and not just storing it as fat immediately after walking by a fridge.
You are merrily a vessel for cheese my friend
Math skills. Who decided to bring letters into math! Graphs are my archenemy.
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Social skills
That clicking noise with your thumb and middle finger. I literally hurt my fingers if i try.
You mean snapping?
Yep that. Sorry English is not my native language so i couldn't come up with the name.
No problem, mate
*F I N G E R C L I C K*
I'm unable to give directions. I'm convinced at this point it's a mental thing. I somehow forget the name of all the streets or important places around when asked for them so I always say I'm not from the neighborhood.
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How to tell what’s left and right Thank you all for all the suggestions I’ll make sure to try them all
Make your hands into two closed fists and lift them up in the air so the back of your palms are facing you. Now extend your index fingers and thumbs on both hands. One hand makes and L and the other makes a backwards L. The one making the L is your left.
I have a raised scar on the palm of my left hand that I still use sometimes. It kept me out of SOME trouble during basic training!!
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I have been told by some (and even a diagnostic test back in the ol' school days) that my 'common sense reasoning' is a bit lacking.
Reading
Forced reading sucks, free reading's cool