# Do you excel at anything? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 11, 2019, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-excel-at-anything/835377 "2019-06-11T15:17:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2019, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-excel-at-anything/835377/1 "2019-06-11T15:17:48Z")
I’m not suggesting things you are pretty good at, but things you are REALLY good at - better than most people who do that thing. For example, I’ve been a pretty good golfer at times throughout my life, but I’ve only been below a 10-handicap for brief periods. While that is very good compared to most recreational golfers, it really isn’t all that good. The difference between a 10 handicap and scratch - or even below 5 - is amazing. I play upright bass, and can definitely hold my own in some pretty high-level jams. But I’m very aware of my significant limitations. My limitations result from both limited skill AND limited willingness to put in the needed practice. Just about the only thing I would say I am REALLY good at is spelling. Serious and non responses appreciated. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2019, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-excel-at-anything/835377/2 "2019-06-11T15:20:03Z")
Yes; I do. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2019, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-excel-at-anything/835377/3 "2019-06-11T15:21:08Z")
1. Software development. Although that was mainly in the earlier era when memory was measured in Ks. 2. Driving my wife crazy. Just ask her, she’ll confirm. ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2019, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-excel-at-anything/835377/4 "2019-06-11T15:21:52Z")
Lots of people can write, very few get paid to do it. I’m one of those few. Among the ranks of professional writers, however, I’m low-rent hack, churning out content for an E-list website at a few bucks per post. I’ll never win a Pulitzer, but it pays the bills. I always thought I was exceptionally good at trivia, but for the fact that I get my butt handed to me at actual trivia contests (like that barroom trivia game). Again, compared to the Average Joe, I’m exceptionally good at trivia. Compared to people who are good at trivia, I suck ass. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2019, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-excel-at-anything/835377/5 "2019-06-11T15:43:39Z")
I have an impressive talent for pissing off people on the Internet. ---
**Author:** ![peccavi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peccavi/32/388_2.png) [@peccavi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peccavi)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2019, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-excel-at-anything/835377/6 "2019-06-11T16:21:31Z")
“I just thought you’d like to know I can read. You got anything needs readin’ I can do it.” ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2019, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-excel-at-anything/835377/7 "2019-06-11T16:27:06Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > I have an impressive talent for pissing off people on the Internet. If I put the effort in I’m sure I could excel at that. It’s only an occasional effort on my part now. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2019, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-excel-at-anything/835377/8 "2019-06-11T16:36:35Z")
Is obesity a thing? ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2019, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-excel-at-anything/835377/9 "2019-06-11T16:56:11Z")
Memory. I remember most everything. I did nothing to develop this talent, I was born this way. A childhood of physical abuse gave me an enormous talent for living with pain. So much it will probably kill me some day. I fell pain, but it does not bother me. I can also be unncotiable to the point where I am practically invisible. Until people (don’t )see it, they do not believe it. ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2019, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-excel-at-anything/835377/10 "2019-06-11T17:05:35Z")
I’m fast and accurate at taking Gregg shorthand, and earned the best grade in my shorthand class. The shorthand course was beginning to be phased out of the business department at my college even when I went there, so I was probably among the last wave of students who learned it. I still use it every day at my job, too. I don’t know how I’d function without it. ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2019, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-excel-at-anything/835377/11 "2019-06-11T17:10:14Z")
I’m the second-best programmer I know, and based on that and other factors I think I’m easily in the upper tenth of programmers overall. I outproduce my co-workers in various ways without hardly trying. I’m probably not exceptional in any other way. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2019, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-excel-at-anything/835377/12 "2019-06-11T17:11:08Z")
Trivia. Besides being on Jeopardy, which I got on the first time I took the test which I found easy, I’ve won all sorts of stuff in trivia contests at restaurants and on ships. I was also pretty good at hacking my way through impossible programming tasks, like converting the Zurich Pascal compiler to a compiler for the language I designed. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2019, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-excel-at-anything/835377/13 "2019-06-11T17:13:18Z")
Reading, spelling, and being on time. You know, stuff nobody really cares about. ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2019, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-excel-at-anything/835377/14 "2019-06-11T17:23:01Z")
Oh yeah! I have “being super-annoying about time”. I’m the dude who when you ask the time will give it to you down to the second. I am beloved for it. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2019, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-excel-at-anything/835377/15 "2019-06-11T17:58:05Z")
I’m an excellent motorcyclist. 180,000+ miles, no crashes, despite regularly riding in a sporting fashion (sporting != reckless). As with the OP, my survival/success has depended on understanding my limitations, and scrupulously staying on this side of the boundary. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2019, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-excel-at-anything/835377/16 "2019-06-11T18:08:56Z")
I’m pretty damn knowledgeable about travel. Unfortunately, it’s not really a way to get paid these days. Still, just yesterday I helped my ex bf’s sister save a lot of money by advising her not to convert dollars to Yen at the airport but to use a debit card to withdraw Yen in Japan. My job has a lot of downtime so I usually spend it on travel forums, I’m always thinking about my next trip. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2019, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-excel-at-anything/835377/17 "2019-06-11T18:10:20Z")
I’m a very good writer. Journalism mostly. I’ve had hundreds of thousands - millions? - of words published in various newspapers, magazines and websites. But what I’m best at - truly great - is public speaking. I know how to engage and audience, get them participating and communicate my message to them, whether it’s technical or non. I just booked a short speaking tour, as a matter of fact. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2019, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-excel-at-anything/835377/18 "2019-06-11T18:53:00Z")
Piano, maybe also some sports. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2019, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-excel-at-anything/835377/19 "2019-06-11T18:54:19Z")
I seem to be “good” at nearly everything I try to do, but I don’t know that I really excel at any. Probably because I’m not really a specialist as far as career or hobbies are concerned. I am pretty good at trivia type stuff though- I was on my university’s quiz bowl team for three years straight- so one of four for what’s now the nation’s second-largest school. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2019, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-excel-at-anything/835377/20 "2019-06-11T20:14:25Z")
Several folk mentioned trivia. I have somewhat of a reputation of knowing at least a little about a lot of things. You know - the lake that is miles wide but inches deep? I remember one time in college, some folk asked me to be on their college bowl team. I was useless as tits on a bull. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-excel-at-anything/835377.md?page=2)