# Do you totally suck at anything? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 12, 2019, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-totally-suck-at-anything/835426 "2019-06-12T14:13:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Zyada](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zyada/32/3028_2.png) [@Zyada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zyada)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2019, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-totally-suck-at-anything/835426/61 "2019-06-13T15:15:08Z")
> [@SurrenderDorothy](#): > > Crocheting. > > It’s weird because I’m usually good at things like that. If it’s something to be done with your hands that requires neatness, precision, and a little bit of artistry, I usually pick it up quite quickly. Depending on what it is, I tend to have a decent bit of natural talent at it, but not enough patience to stick to it and really make it a skill. So I can knit, do macrame, sew, do origami, bake… all stuff that mostly requires following instructions carefully and then making your own tweaks when you’ve got the hang of it. And I’ve tried to learn to crochet repeatedly. Heck, there’s a crochet hook and ball of yarn next to me now from the last time I tried like four months ago. I’ve tried learning from books, blogs, video tutorials… and there’s just something about it that does not make any sense to me. That’s strange to me, because crochet makes perfect sense (to me) - it’s just a series of increasingly complex slip knots. I’ve never been able to do knitting though. ---
**Author:** ![RobDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f07891/32.png) [@RobDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RobDog)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2019, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-totally-suck-at-anything/835426/62 "2019-06-13T15:28:48Z")
Placing things in the past. Once something has happened any length of time ago I couldn’t tell you whether it happened last month, last year or ten years ago. Also, judging by the above, I will also submit “forming a coherent sentence”. ---
**Author:** ![Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a183cd/32.png) [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barkis_is_Willin)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2019, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-totally-suck-at-anything/835426/63 "2019-06-13T15:39:22Z")
> [@RobDog](#): > > Placing things in the past. Once something has happened any length of time ago I couldn’t tell you whether it happened last month, last year or ten years ago. > > Also, judging by the above, I will also submit “forming a coherent sentence”. This is 100% me, too. Literally just this morning I couldn’t remember what day a particular meeting took place. It was yesterday. About 20 hours ago. The days/weeks/months/years have just all run together. I have no idea if something took place 6 months ago or 6 years ago. I also suck at singing, which is unfortunate for those around me at home because I enjoy doing it. ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2019, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-totally-suck-at-anything/835426/64 "2019-06-13T15:52:03Z")
I can sing and I can play some basic tunes on stringed instruments, I have the muscle coordination for both, but musical notes/notation make no sense to me. In order to sing/play something I have to hear it and sing/play along over and over until it is muscle memory. When playing the simple stuff I can do, if I get lost or mess up I have to start all over - I have no ability to pick it up where I left off. It’s like when someone asks for the last 4 digits of my SSN. I have to mentally go through the whole thing in order to voice the last 4. And art, of any kind. Can’t do it, it might as well be alchemy. ---
**Author:** ![BrickBat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac91a4/32.png) [@BrickBat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrickBat)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2019, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-totally-suck-at-anything/835426/65 "2019-06-13T16:01:18Z")
> [@Anny\_Middon](#): > > I can’t whistle. I know, I know – “You just put your lips together and blow.” Come to think of it, neither can I. Never could whistle the “normal” way, as you describe. I can only “sort of” whistle by doing so by gently exhaling putting the tip of my tongue slightly behind the upper row of my teeth. It makes more of a screech than a whistle, and so it’s more like an extreme “s” sound, though I can draw it out. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2019, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-totally-suck-at-anything/835426/66 "2019-06-13T16:42:39Z")
Enumerating distances. I can tell if one thing is farther away than another, but I can’t say how much. 50 feet? 200 feet? I have no idea. So those GPS directions to turn right in 100 feet? Ugh. Just count down: “Turn right in 5, 4, 3, 2, … 1”. I’m really good with numbers in general so this is an odd duck. ---
**Author:** ![DummyGladHands](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/49beb7/32.png) [@DummyGladHands](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DummyGladHands)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2019, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-totally-suck-at-anything/835426/67 "2019-06-13T17:27:14Z")
Geometry. Honor student and the teacher kindly gave me a D in geometry because I simply did not get it. Directions. I say I can get lost in a big home. And it’s true, I have. My first husband’s father was a minister and they live in a huge parsonage that had maid’s quarters and 3 stairways. I would get lost upstairs forever. In fact, I got lost driving Tuesday despite very clear written in red ink directions. Craft kits. You know those little kits that have a beautifully done thingie on the front. Nope, never again, mine looked like hash. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2019, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-totally-suck-at-anything/835426/68 "2019-06-13T17:34:59Z")
My spirographs _never_ looked like the examples. ---
**Author:** ![ThisSpaceForRent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thisspaceforrent/32/345_2.png) [@ThisSpaceForRent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThisSpaceForRent)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2019, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-totally-suck-at-anything/835426/69 "2019-06-13T17:44:18Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > Humility. Damn, it’s hard to be humble. [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCsNunGnqE0) ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2019, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-totally-suck-at-anything/835426/70 "2019-06-13T17:52:05Z")
Small talk. I can barely manage if someone else takes the initiative/lead, but if it’s up to me to start things only awkward silence will ensue. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2019, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-totally-suck-at-anything/835426/71 "2019-06-13T18:10:40Z")
Handwriting, printing. I can barely read what I write. No one else has a hope in hell unless I slowly print in block letters specifically so they can understand and even then I can screw it up. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2019, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-totally-suck-at-anything/835426/72 "2019-06-13T18:52:25Z")
[quote=“ThisSpaceForRent, post:69, topic:835426”] [/QUOTE] I humbly suggest [Glenn Campbell as a superior talent](https://youtu.be/ETkzK9pXMio). 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![JohnGalt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johngalt/32/184_2.png) [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2019, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-totally-suck-at-anything/835426/73 "2019-06-13T19:02:06Z")
> [@BrickBat](#): > > Come to think of it, neither can I. Never could whistle the “normal” way, as you describe. I can only “sort of” whistle by doing so by gently exhaling putting the tip of my tongue slightly behind the upper row of my teeth. It makes more of a screech than a whistle, and so it’s more like an extreme “s” sound, though I can draw it out. Yep, same with me. Many have tried to teach me but to no avail. ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2019, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-totally-suck-at-anything/835426/74 "2019-06-13T20:10:48Z")
Throwing a baseball. Not to be sexist, but to use the vernacular: I always have thrown like a girl and always will throw like a girl. Also to crib off other peoples paper: my hand writing and memory for names is at the level of disability. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2019, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-totally-suck-at-anything/835426/75 "2019-06-13T22:41:38Z")
> [@Treppenwitz](#): > > Me either. And hey - faces too. The other week I spent time in the hospital walk-in centre after a minor bike crash. Saw a nurse, had an X-ray, saw another nurse. The second nurse had to explain to me, gently, that actually she was the first nurse. There had been maybe twenty minutes between my two sessions with her, and I had lost her face completely. I’m so bad at this that I’m no longer embarrassed by it - it’s not me being disrespectful, it’s more like a disability. j > [@Hermitian](#): > > Recognizing faces and remembering names. A few weeks ago I introduced myself to the same guy twice in 10 minutes. > [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](#): > > Not just names, but faces too. It’s not crippling, but it can lead to awkward interactions (or deliberate avoidance of such interactions). [There’s a name for that. Two, in fact.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosopagnosia) I’ve got it too; not as badly as some people (there are people who can’t recognize their own face in a mirror, or their mother’s, who they see daily, in an expected context), but badly enough that I could easily be talking to you face to face for half an hour at lunch, and five minutes later be unable to pick you out of a couple dozen people at the same conference. Especially if in the interval you took off that distinctive red sweater. I’m also bad at names, but not as bad as at faces; and the problem’s partly that people expect you to remember their name when all they did was tell you once orally. If I can write it down a few times, or at least see it written down, that helps. I am absolutely no good at ball games. I duck if the ball comes anywhere near me. I can’t sing. I’m a klutz: I drop things, I walk into things. And I have a physical labor job that involves working with things like tractors and chain saws – which I do with extreme caution. No major injuries so far; but it’s utterly normal for me to be walking around with bruises that I don’t even remember getting, because the extreme caution I use around the PTO shaft or the chain saw blade is impractical to keep up all the time while I’m doing less hazardous stuff. Joining in with the people who can’t multitask; at least, at many things. I can carry on a conversation and cook or weed or set transplants at the same time; but if I’m sorting out field plans or bills or schedules for next week, I need to be able to concentrate. I have a poor sense of direction, but years of practice and using maps – old style maps, that give you a general orientation over a wide area and not just a bit on a small screen – have helped with that. My social skills are a lot better than they used to be; but boy a lot of that came hard. And I don’t seem to be much good at staying off the internet. ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2019, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-totally-suck-at-anything/835426/76 "2019-06-13T23:31:47Z")
pretty much anything in the creative arts. can’t play an instrument worth a damn, can’t sing, can’t draw worth a damn. ---
**Author:** ![Esprise\_Me](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/esprise_me/32/2947_2.png) [@Esprise\_Me](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Esprise_Me)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2019, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-totally-suck-at-anything/835426/77 "2019-06-14T02:38:03Z")
I can’t nap for the life of me. When I was a little kid in daycare, they used to put candies on the mats of the children who were sleeping, and yes I’m still bitter about it. ---
**Author:** ![Steven\_Maven](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steven_maven/32/3272_2.png) [@Steven\_Maven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steven_Maven)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2019, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-totally-suck-at-anything/835426/78 "2019-06-14T14:38:18Z")
> [@](#): > > Can’t play guitar due to stubby fingers Perhaps a smaller instrument might help you. Try a so-called 3/4 length scale. ---
**Author:** ![TRC4941](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trc4941/32/6792_2.png) [@TRC4941](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TRC4941)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2019, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-totally-suck-at-anything/835426/79 "2019-06-14T14:41:23Z")
I have a terrible sense of direction - if I come out of a hotel room, I never know which way to turn to get to the elevator or lobby. We were a hockey family and traveled all over for tournaments. I couldn’t even count how many times I got lost looking for hockey arenas in other cities after being given directions. This was way before MapQuest. I’d stop at a gas station for help and as they’re giving me directions I could almost feel the words going in one ear and flying right out of the other. My son would be freaking out in the back seat that he was going to be late which only added to the delightful car trip. I can’t whistle. Names and faces - someone will introduce themselves and by the time they walk away, I’ve already forgotten their name. I’m sure people have thought me rude for not saying hello, but a lot of the time it’s because I’m not sure if I recognize them or not. Arts, crafts, sewing - I have no patience to do all of the appropriate steps. I just want to get it done and then it looks like crap. I can’t roll my Rs or make the telephone ringing sound. I’m terrible at small talk and mingling. Oh, how I hate mingling. I cannot just walk up and start talking to someone. Especially if they’re already talking to someone else. I just had that done to me last Fri at a wedding reception. I was chatting with someone and all of a sudden someone else that I didn’t know came up and says, “hi” to the person I was talking to. They started talking and I stood there like a dummy. Finally, I just walked away. Painting - I’m a very messy painter (as in walls). It’s kind of the same reason as my failure in arts and crafts. I just want it done. Luckily, my husband is a good, patient painter. ---
**Author:** ![Poysyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Poysyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Poysyn)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2019, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-totally-suck-at-anything/835426/80 "2019-06-14T15:23:06Z")
> [@Esprise\_Me](#): > > I can’t nap for the life of me. When I was a little kid in daycare, they used to put candies on the mats of the children who were sleeping, and yes I’m still bitter about it. The military cured me of this affliction - once sleep was so hard to come by, I learned to take the opportunity whenever I get it. I am not a completely non-athletic person, although I believed I was for years due to my inability to play some sports - looking at you, volleyball and soccer. I am also not a great hockey player, but probably could have been okay if I ever actually tried. Sense of direction in a city is terrible, but drop me in the woods, and I am pretty good at it. Remembering names, which is just embarrassing given what I do for a living - I am trying to work on it. I remember _faces_, so I will remember that I MET you, but I will not remember what to CALL you. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-totally-suck-at-anything/835426.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-totally-suck-at-anything/835426.md?page=5)