IQ-related threads or threads about how early people started reading are invariably threads full of outlandish claims. A recent “what would your D&D stats be” thread suggested many superheroes post to the SDMB.
So this is the thread to say what you’re not good at. Where are you below average? Where is your weakness? What can you simply not do as well as the average slob?
There are rules!
No posting things in a way that youi’re really bragging about something you ARE good at. “Well, I’m not good at relating to people because I’m so much smarter than anyone else” is bullshit. Stow it.
No posting things that constitute whining. “Wahhhh, I’m no good at dating because girls don’t know I’m a nice guy once you get to know me.” Shaddup!
You can’t say you’re no good at math, even if you really aren’t. That’s just too cliche, sorry. Boring.
So what do you suck at? Be as general or as specific as you like.
Hmm … drawing, music, reading maps, pretty much anything athletic or requiring spatial skills. Also, most social skills, particularly the art of making conversation with people I don’t know well.
I can’t ride a bike; I can’t seem to keep my feet on the pedal or pedal for more than a minute. Walking straight is a problem. I can’t swim straight. I get cramps in my calf if I try to climb over, say, a low fence. Even wtih a ruler I cannot draw straight lines.
And my handwriting is horrible. I stutter. I just can’t seem, well, to be accurate.
I am terrible at drawing things and I really wish I was good at it. People say it is something you can learn. But, I really don’t think I can get much better than my current second grade art skills. I would love to be better at it, too. There are tons of talents that I lack that I really don’t care about. But, I would love to be able to draw and make all sorts of things. Oh well, I can buy my tshirts from talented people.
My skills at being patient could use a lot of work. I tend to not work on it, but instead set things up so I have lots to do while I am waiting for something.
Many things involving fine motor skills and spatial perception, really. For example:
1.) Drawing & art in general. Can’t even do a decent stickman and don’t ask me to color within the lines!
2.) Crafty things like metal- and wood-working. I got a D in 8th grade wood shop. It was a gift.
3.) Those tests with the folded pieces of paper, where you’re supposed to figure out the shapes? Hopeless at them.
4.) I was an pretty craptastic athlete. Though I sort of enjoyed soccer and basketball, I was very mediocre at them ( dribble and run without a travel? hell no! ). I was worse at stuff like tennis or baseball - whiff city.
Now I was still a decent swimmer, I can read and rather like maps, I can thread a needle ( slowly ), perform minor mechanical repairs, etc. - I’m not completely hopeless or terminally klutzy. But the commonalities in my main list of failures seem to be things involving some dexterity and spatial analysis. For another example I sometimes have to glance twice over my shoulder to tell if a car in my blind spot is in the lane next to me, or the next one over.
Socially, I’m slightly agoraphobic ( crowds, not open spaces ).
Anything creative/artistic. There’s the standard can’t draw/can’t play music/etc, but it’s more then that, even if I wanted to draw, I wouldn’t be able to think of something to draw. My brain just isn’t wired that way.
The other thing I’m not good at, but should be is building things. I can fix a car, I can put together a model, I can diagnose and replace a burned out motor in a fridge, but you need me to build a small step stool…sure…is it okay if it looks like a parallelogram? I don’t know what it is about me and building, I can measure something 10 times, set up a fence on the table saw, run it through and the cut will still be crooked. I can get out my square and my clamps and nail two pieces of wood together, but it’ll still wind up being at an 94 degree angle. Pisses me off because I have the math skills and the ability to visualize this stuff that i should be good at it. But when you can’t saw in a straight line to save your life and all your angles are just a hair off and things don’t wind up level it always looks like it was built by a four year old.
Patience. I try really hard, but it is probably one of my worst faults, particularly when I’m driving (ARRRGGGH, WHY can people not learn how to MERGE?).
Why doesn’t math count? Lack of math skills has been the bane of my existence for a long time. If it weren’t for my lack of math skills I’d probably be making about twice what I do now, and would be much further along in my career.
Navigation, I have ZERO sense of direction, I could get lost in a one room building if I’d never been there before. Though this fault has taught me to develop some better navigation compensation skills over the years. I still don’t have any natural sense of direction, but I have learned how to tell directions and use tools to cope.
I am too silly. I’m 51 for crying out loud, and I still giggle and have way too much fun with things. I am “perky” and perky is frowned upon in many circles, and there are times when I can’t stifle my perkiness when I’m supposed to.
I’m lazy (this is a more recent development, middle middle age maybe). I work two jobs and too frequently allow home chores to slide by the wayside.
I can’t do anything even remotely art related, despite my entire maternal family being filled with michael angelos and… Stuff.
I’m not good at being corrected. I don’t speak up often, and only on subjects that I’m very familiar with (especially in real life), so I don’t usually vocalize something that’s factually incorrect (I am often incorrect, I just don’t vocalize things unless I’m positive about them). This leads to me frrequently being aggressive and boisterous when people try to correct me.
I’m not good at being a subordinate. I have a low tolerance for bullshit, arrogance and mindless authority and I have a very bad tendency to tell my bosses that they’re acting badly.
I can’t sing for shit.
I have almost no artistic skill of any kind. Bums me out, I really wish I had some.
Languages? I absolutely SUCK at trying to learn other languages.
I’ve been told that I have a great voice. I’d probably be excellent at voice work if I didn’t have a bad combination of no ability to memorize things in a hurry and a the occasional issue with speaking in a fluid manner (stutter slightly, pause, mispeak words, etc)
Did I mention the bad habit of being completely unable to tolerate bullshit even from people at the highest levels of the companies I have worked for? Yeah, not great for the career. For example (one of many); Telling the CFO of a billion dollar company that he’s making a mistake on employee benefits - even when it succeeds in convincing him that he IS wrong, tends to convince the levels between you and him that you’re a loose cannon. (Yeah, I did that once, and he did change his mind based on my argument.)
I won’t mention mathematics because you said we shouldn’t. But I very likely have dyscalculia, anyway.
I am one of the least physically coordinated people I know. You know how people make fun of Mary Sue characters that can hardly walk down the hall without life-threatning injury? Well, that’s me. I have the incredible ability to trip over my own feet, bang my shins on anything remotely bangable, get papercuts from thick cardboard, fall over just from standing up and locking my knees, and waking up with mysterious bruises and scratches. And don’t even talk to me about dance. This probably has something to do with my faulty vestibular system.
-I’m bad at food control- once I’ve started eating, I have a very hard time NOT finishing my portion.
-I’m bad at interior decorating- my roommate the designer has to tell me how to arrange everything.
-I’m bad at making small talk, even with people I know.
-I’m bad at saying no to favors, even with the vague sense I’m being taken advantage of.
-I’m also bad at requesting favors, even small ones, from good friends; I always come across as sheepish.
-I’m bad at reading music and sightsinging.
-I’m bad at maintaining the momentum of projects through to the end.
-I’m bad at doing the small regular house maintenance that keeps clutter away.
-I’m bad at remembering to pay my credit card bills.
-I’m bad at melting chocolate on the stove.
-I’m bad at talking on the phone- it makes me feel awkward. This also means I’m bad at keeping in touch, since so much of keeping in touch is phone conversation.
-I’m bad at programming. C++ in college almost KILLED me.
-I’m bad at figuring out which direction I’m facing when I’m outside.
-I’m bad at talking to very young children… a knack which, insofar as I can tell, mainly consists of stating the obvious.
-I’m bad at taking down holiday decor- there’s still a NOEL sign in my room.
-I’m bad at walking in stilettos- this makes my shoe-fetishy boyfriend very unhappy (but he still thinks I am capable of learning!)
