# What are some things that can't really be taught? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 24, 2017, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-things-that-cant-really-be-taught/802627 "2017-11-24T22:10:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2017, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-things-that-cant-really-be-taught/802627/21 "2017-11-25T16:24:13Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > Looks like sexing chicks [can be taught.](https://www.motherearthnews.com/homesteading-and-livestock/sexing-day-old-chicks-zmaz74zhol) First perfected by the Zen Nippon Chick Sexing School in Japan, I believe. And zennipponchicksexing.edu would be the coolest domain name ever. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2017, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-things-that-cant-really-be-taught/802627/22 "2017-11-25T16:35:46Z")
Throwing rocks. You just have to practice and learn it using your own arms - you can watch someone else doing it, but I don’t think that’s the same as being taught - you pretty much have to self-teach ---
**Author:** ![Filbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/filbert/32/3433_2.png) [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2017, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-things-that-cant-really-be-taught/802627/23 "2017-11-25T17:37:57Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > I have heard that some hatcheries sell, or even donate, their extra males to labs, schools, and raptor rehabilitation centers, or sell them very cheap for meat to anyone who wants them. Please correct me if I’m wrong. I used to work in a zoo, and we got boxes of frozen day-old male chicks. Some larger places would get them delivered even cheaper, live. At a former job, my Dad often had the task of killing thousands of them. Really not why he wanted to work at a zoo… Most physical stuff can’t really be _taught_ exactly; you can show someone a thing you can do, you can tell them practicing methods that worked for you, but really, it comes down to people just trying it enough to get it to work. Doing circus stuff, it’s pretty common for people to ask you to tell them how you’re doing something. They’re rarely happy with the explanation of ‘I tried it a lot of times until it worked’, but that’s often the truth. ---
**Author:** ![Patx2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/73ab20/32.png) [@Patx2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patx2)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2017, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-things-that-cant-really-be-taught/802627/24 "2017-11-25T20:16:07Z")
Common sense? I don’t know if it can be taught. I think a lot of it’s instinctual and some of it is a learning curve based on experience, but some people just don’t seem to have it. ---
**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:** [November 25, 2017, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-things-that-cant-really-be-taught/802627/25 "2017-11-25T20:48:23Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > IMHO, how to play music by ear, or how to compose music. I’m not 100% sure it _can’t_ be taught, but it could be extremely difficult to transport from a teacher’s brain into a student’s brain. I want to take issue with the second part of this, composing. Songwriting is a very well understood process. Anyone should be able to learn it as easily as learning to write coherent paragraphs. Velocity, I share your burden. I’d love to be a virtuoso on any instrument but despite numerous attempts competent is the best I’ve achieved. However, songwriting is a lot simpler than learning to play was. “A red guitar, three chords and the truth” ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2017, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-things-that-cant-really-be-taught/802627/26 "2017-11-25T21:33:52Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > Throwing rocks. You just have to practice and learn it using your own arms - you can watch someone else doing it, but I don’t think that’s the same as being taught - you pretty much have to self-teach Odd the you’d mention it, but tomorrow night I will be teaching people exactly that. Specifically curling, but the act of delivering the stone down the ice is sometimes referred to as throwing a rock. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2017, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-things-that-cant-really-be-taught/802627/27 "2017-11-25T22:16:24Z")
> [@Lickety\_Split](#): > > Computers CAN and DO provide perfectly accurate potential trajectories for space flights. As well as for ICBM’s. And they have been able to do so for at least a couple decades now. Once a craft is in orbit or in space, there really are no more significant variables to deal with. Orbit is locked into by mere Newtonian and Keplerian physics. Space is a vacuum. > > As far as people who allegedly “figure them out intuitively” this is an old myth. I had a client for physical therapy once who told me that when he was in the Army he banged his head one day, in fact was concussed, when he fell off of a tank. And when he came to he could immediately and inexplicably do this. And so his CO sent him to the Army’s Missile Command Center, or NORAD, or whatever the hell it is, and he worked there TDY for a couple months and wowed everybody. Then the “gift” disappeared and he was sent packing back to his regular command post. > Turns out the story was complete BS. His wife told me that he had a bunch of stories like that he makes up all the time. Oh…I suppose there might be the odd “Rainman” type of savant who could figure trajectories, but this is far too rare to say that “people” figure them intuitively, as if the skill is akin to being able to multiply three-digit numbers. LOL. > Anyway…as I said, there is no need nowadays for somebody who could do that, since we have those computers. > > That said, back in the late 60s when NASA was preparing to fulfill JFK’s promise to get to the moon by the end of the decade, they DID have those room-sized second-generation ENIAC-type super computers to help them. But the old-timers at NASA did not trust them. So they always double checked everything the computer spit out with their old school trusty slide rules. A couple of nitpicks. Actually, a bit more than a nitpick regarding the reference to “second-generation ENIAC-type super computers” which is wrong on several counts. ENIAC was hardly “second generation” and inasmuch as it didn’t even contain a stored program, and was barely a computer at all by contemporary standards. It was a very primitive early type of computer, the only one of its kind, that went into operation in 1946 and was quickly superseded. By the late 60s, the world – and NASA – was well into the third generation of solid-state computers. There may still have been second-generation machines like the IBM 7090 at NASA, but the System/360 was already well established, a modern computer architecture that defined the classic mainframe architecture that persists to this day. Neither the second generation 7090 class nor the System/360 class third generation bore any resemblance whatsoever to ENIAC. That said, I basically agree with your statement about the use of digital computers to compute ballistic and orbital trajectories, and that has been the case since around the 1940s with analog and primitive digital computers and most universally at least since the early 60s. The idea of extraordinary humans being somehow able to do these things in their heads is indeed just a myth. It is, however, also true that NASA did employ people as so-called “computers” in the 50s and early 60s – in fact this is the subject of the Oscar-nominated film _Hidden Figures_. But these were not so much amazing mystical savants as skilled mathematicians and specialists in analytic geometry plying their skills using calculators, and they were pretty much superseded by second-generation computers like the 7090 and eventually System/360 class mainframes as the space program got seriously under way. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2017, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-things-that-cant-really-be-taught/802627/28 "2017-11-26T03:24:33Z")
> [@Lickety\_Split](#): > > Computers CAN and DO provide perfectly accurate potential trajectories for space flights. As well as for ICBM’s. And they have been able to do so for at least a couple decades now. Once a craft is in orbit or in space, there really are no more significant variables to deal with. Orbit is locked into by mere Newtonian and Keplerian physics. Space is a vacuum. That’s why I figured. They know where all the objects will be. They have the physics equations. What part do they need someone who banged their head and became Rainman for? I am of the opinion that unless something is beyond a person’s cogitative or physical abilities, pretty much any skill can be taught if one has the desire (which can’t be taught). Physical stuff absolutely can be taught. At one point, I could not shoot a basketball, ice skate, ski, golf, ride a bicycle or skateboard or any number of other physical activities. Later, I could. Maybe not awesomely, but certainly competently. I don’t believe I could learn to dunk a basketball however. Simply because it’s probably beyond the capabilities of my 5’10" frame to jump that high. But who knows? Maybe if I put 10,000 hours into jumping. > [@Lickety\_Split](#): > > Leadership: that is, the ability to not only effectively lead men but to have them instinctively respect you and be willing to put themselves into danger for you. Again, if I’ll bet if I put someone through several years of West Point / Harvard MBA style schools of leadership and management, I could create a reasonably competent leader. So long that person had the desire and interest. Maybe not Patton. But certainly decent enough. ---
**Author:** ![P-man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/p-man/32/3606_2.png) [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2017, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-things-that-cant-really-be-taught/802627/29 "2017-11-26T03:51:10Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > It’s probably substantially impossible to teach adequate social skillz to people who lack that in varying degrees. You can try to teach it, and you can scratch the surface maybe, but that’s often about it. Normal social skillz that most people learn seem to be based upon some underlying hard-wired substrate, and people who are lacking in that just can’t get it. I could never read those signals that people send when there is romantic interest. My girlfriend before I met my wife said she sent signals for months, but even in hindsight I couldn’t see it. I can play music by ear, though. I can’t see it being taught to someone without the knack. ---
**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:** [November 26, 2017, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-things-that-cant-really-be-taught/802627/30 "2017-11-26T04:18:24Z")
> [@P-man](#): > > I could never read those signals that people send when there is romantic interest. My girlfriend before I met my wife said she sent signals for months, but even in hindsight I couldn’t see it. I can play music by ear, though. I can’t see it being taught to someone without the knack. Ditto on both counts. I’ve almost never been able to tell when a woman was romantically interested in me except when she told me so directly or made it very, very obvious. And I can also play piano by ear. I don’t know how I’d teach it to someone if they don’t have the ability to convert heard notes to piano keys; perhaps the only way that would work is that most people can sing songs by ear and so maybe that can translate into fingers on keys. I’d say that in general, the ability to generate creative ideas is something that is almost impossible to teach. Someone either has that inner wellspring of creativity or they do not. Closely tied to this might be the ability to hear music and “see” appropriate scenery or scripts to match to it for a music video. ---
**Author:** ![P-man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/p-man/32/3606_2.png) [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2017, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-things-that-cant-really-be-taught/802627/31 "2017-11-26T05:04:25Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > Ditto on both counts. I’ve almost never been able to tell when a woman was romantically interested in me except when she told me so directly or made it very, very obvious. And I can also play piano by ear. I don’t know how I’d teach it to someone if they don’t have the ability to convert heard notes to piano keys; perhaps the only way that would work is that most people can sing songs by ear and so maybe that can translate into fingers on keys. > I’d say that in general, the ability to generate creative ideas is something that is almost impossible to teach. Someone either has that inner wellspring of creativity or they do not. Closely tied to this might be the ability to hear music and “see” appropriate scenery or scripts to match to it for a music video. Other person: How’d you play that? Me: I dunno; I just did. Ms. P: Did you see how she looked at you? Me: No. Ms. P: She was totally giving you “that look”. Me: I didn’t see anything. I’ve known her for three years. She’s never noticed me at all. ---
**Author:** ![DorkVader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/73ab20/32.png) [@DorkVader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DorkVader)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2017, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-things-that-cant-really-be-taught/802627/32 "2017-11-26T07:41:55Z")
> [@P-man](#): > > I could never read those signals that people send when there is romantic interest. My girlfriend before I met my wife said she sent signals for months, but even in hindsight I couldn’t see it. I can play music by ear, though. I can’t see it being taught to someone without the knack. And after they finally send a signal via clue-by-four (in my case anyway) and you get all “giggly and stuff” (the ex-wife’s term for adult-naughty-fun) a lot and get married and have kids and buy a house and all that, making the relationship work and last. You can pick up tips and hints and things, but making a relationship a lasting success, you learn as you go, it just can’t be taught. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2017, 7:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-things-that-cant-really-be-taught/802627/33 "2017-11-26T07:45:21Z")
> [@guestchaz](#): > > And after they finally send a signal via clue-by-four (in my case anyway) and you get all “giggly and stuff” (the ex-wife’s term for adult-naughty-fun) a lot and get married and have kids and buy a house and all that, making the relationship work and last. You can pick up tips and hints and things, but making a relationship a lasting success, you learn as you go, it just can’t be taught. Yeah, I’ve never been able to pick up those kinds of signals, either. Or there just have never been any signals to notice. ---
**Author:** ![Enola\_Gay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3ab097/32.png) [@Enola\_Gay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Gay)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2017, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-things-that-cant-really-be-taught/802627/34 "2017-11-26T08:05:31Z")
Common sense. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2017, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-things-that-cant-really-be-taught/802627/35 "2017-11-26T08:12:56Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > The semi-realistic movie “The Martian” has one of them in it as a plot point. Nobody else knows how to do his job or can even if they had to. _The Martian_ was a movie made by a Hollywood studio. Hollywood is know for cars that explode in a fireball when bumped by a shopping cart, bare-knuckle fist fights that go on for many minutes on end, and imperial storm troopers who could not hit the broad side of a star destroyer unless that was not what they were aiming at. The flaws in _The Martian_, some of them critical plot points, are numerous and absurd. If you want realistic science, stick to _Futurama_, because Groening knows his shit. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2017, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-things-that-cant-really-be-taught/802627/36 "2017-11-26T13:50:19Z")
Achieving a high degree of proficiency is almost never accomplished by being “taught” how to do it. I’ve worked in engineering for many decades. I have been asked on numerous occasions to “mentor” some of the young engineers. I always refuse. I tell my supervisor, “The skills I have can be learned, but they can’t be taught.” ---
**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:** [November 26, 2017, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-things-that-cant-really-be-taught/802627/37 "2017-11-26T15:20:02Z")
Being a Certified G or 7 feet tall. You can’t teach that. ---
**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:** [November 26, 2017, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-things-that-cant-really-be-taught/802627/38 "2017-11-26T20:18:49Z")
> [@P-man](#): > > Ms. P: Did you see how she looked at you? > > Me: No. > > Ms. P: She was totally giving you “that look”. > > Me: I didn’t see anything. I’ve known her for three years. She’s never noticed me at all. Well, it makes sense that a woman would have a finely tuned radar to picking up on signals when another woman is interested in a man. Speaking of detecting clues: Does the username P-Man mean “Piano Man?” maybe you said so before but I don’t recall. ---
**Author:** ![P-man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/p-man/32/3606_2.png) [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2017, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-things-that-cant-really-be-taught/802627/39 "2017-11-26T21:39:25Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > Well, it makes sense that a woman would have a finely tuned radar to picking up on signals when another woman is interested in a man. > Speaking of detecting clues: Does the username P-Man mean “Piano Man?” maybe you said so before but I don’t recall. Nope, I don’t even play piano (guitar is my instrument). I had a nickname that began with P in school, and there were a couple of episodes of Pee-Wee’s Playhouse where he was called P-man by members of the puppet band, so a couple of friends hung the moniker on me. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2017, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-things-that-cant-really-be-taught/802627/40 "2017-11-26T21:50:47Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > I once worked with a man who could take anything apart, fix it, and put it back together again, blindfolded with his hands tied behind his back. (I’m exaggerating slightly about that last thing.) You can’t teach that either. I totally agree. I’ve worked with men that just knew how things came apart and went back together. It was instinctive. I knew a guy that rebuilt transmissions. Sometimes he had to wait a couple weeks to get parts. He still could reassemble that transmission from a box of parts. I’m reasonably mechanical and can fix things. I don’t have skills like those guys. I take lots of pictures to remind me how parts originally fit together. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-things-that-cant-really-be-taught/802627.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-things-that-cant-really-be-taught/802627.md?page=3)