Inspired by a similar thread in Threadspotting, is there any particular skill you lack that the majority of others seem to have mastered?
OR, vice versa… is there anything you can do easily that others find well nigh impossible? (Stealth bragging alert!)
No judgements about whether these skills (or lack thereof) make you a superior/inferior being.
My own contribution… not personally, but an ex-girlfriend of mine could not wink (and notably, her attempts to do so could put me and our friends into high hysterics, her facial contortions resembling those of someone suffering a stroke or perhaps a difficult bowel movement.)
On the flip side, I can solve a Rubik’s cube (standard 3x3) in about 5 minutes. Although I imagine this skill is not as rare among Dopers as among the general population.
I could never see those pictures that were supposed to appear if you stared at them for a few minutes. I still think they were an elaborate troll attempt.
Anything relationship-wise totally eludes me, and I can only wink with my right eye (Most right-handers seem to wink with their left).
On the other hand…
I’m excellent at map reading, and finding my way around in general.
I can juggle.
I can solve a Rubik’s Cube (used to do it in about 1:30, probably longer now).
I have a really hard time backing up, especially in a big truck or SUV. My roommate sometimes lets me drive his greatbighuge Lincoln Navigator SUV, and I often have to have him back it up to face forward to the driveway. I can’t see where I’m going, and it just doesn’t seem to be intuitive to me like it does to others. Makes parallel parking a nightmare.
Remembering people’s names. Seriously. I know a lot of people claim to have trouble here but I think my issue borders on mental disorder. I just can not remember a person’s name after it’s been told to me. Usually even after multiple times being told. Of course there are exceptions and sometimes a name will just get stuck in my head and I’ll have no trouble extracting it when needed but those times are few and far between. Many times I’ve found myself in that awkward situation of being much too far along in a social relationship with a person to go back and admit I didn’t remember their name, so I continue to just hope I never get called out on it and just address them with “Hey, what’s up man”, etc.
I can’t curl my lip/snarl on the left side. I can lift the right side of my lip and squinch down my right eye all day long. But there is absolutely no response when trying to move the left side.
Not sure if this is how everyone works, tho. I always forget to poll people.
I can’t raise my left eyebrow. I can raise my right eyebrow but not my left. And I’ve been trying for years. All I’ve ever accomplished is a weird, kinda confused-looking, brow-furrowed squint.
I can’t whistle, but I can wiggle my ears. Yes, really - there are tiny muscles running from the rear of the mid-point of the ear and aft at an incline. I have no idea why these are voluntary in my case and not normal folk’s. I cannot operate them independently of each other.
Like Ambivalid, I have a really rough time with names. I’m a part-time teacher in the evenings, and I just warn every class it will be 5 or 6 weeks before I start getting the names right.
As far as the second half of the OPs question, I’m a savant at backing up vehicles. I routinely pull two trailers behind my truck (camper + boat). I can back the entire rig up with relative ease. This has surprised people several times, who thought I was trapped at a dead end. I just back the entire 70 foot rig into the nearest driveway and turn it around.
Forgive me if you’ve seen it already, but here’s a pic of what I’m talking about. It’s almost a useless skill, but I really can do it.
There are more than a dozen people I go camping with every year. We bond, we laugh, we cry, we drink copious amounts of mead around the campfire, and damned if I could match a single face to a name. But, I mean, hey, give me a little time, okay? It’s only been 12 years we’ve been doing this together! :smack:
But I am the master of packing a car for a camping trip. I can fit 10 pounds of shit in a 5 pound sack, and still leave you the rear window open so there’s no blind spot.
I can’t play a musical instrument worth diddly. I can sing, and I can pick out a tune on a keyboard on a guitar, but I just can’t relate to the instrument where it sounds like anything you’d want to hear.
When singing, I can’t slow down my vibrato. Actually, I had no vibrato at all until a few years ago, when it suddenly appeared while singing a Patsy Klein medley. But it’s so fast, I sound more like Woody Woodpecker than a human singer.
What can I do? I can pack a suitcase for any kind of trip, without including anything extraneous and without leaving anything out.
