# What are you good at? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 20, 2020, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-good-at/923375 "2020-10-20T01:53:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2020, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-good-at/923375/21 "2020-10-20T15:50:15Z")
I’m a good cook. Like at the “skilled amateur” level. My mom taught me the rudiments- how to measure and how to read a recipe, but the rest has been reading, experimentation and understanding WHY recipes work the way they do. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2020, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-good-at/923375/22 "2020-10-20T16:17:39Z")
I know U.S. and British history, flags, _Star Trek_, Sherlock Holmes and J.R.R. Tolkien pretty damn well. I can get to know just about any stranger. I’m open and friendly by nature and can win most people over, given the chance. I’m a good driver and also, I think, have good taste. I know the law pretty well and people trust my judgment in court. Last but most importantly, I’m a good husband and, I hope, a pretty good dad. > [@kayaker](#): > > … When boats were blown off trailers, everyone backed their boats off the trailer and tried approaching again, and again. One of them asked if I’d get in the water and push their boat like they’d seen me do with mine. I laughed. Jeez, they might at least have offered to pay you. ---
**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:** [October 20, 2020, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-good-at/923375/23 "2020-10-20T16:20:39Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Jeez, they might at least have offered to pay you. I’d have put my (wet) bathing suit back on for $50, another $50 to go back in the frigid water. 😆 ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2020, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-good-at/923375/24 "2020-10-20T16:26:54Z")
I crush Geography and History questions on Jeopardy. I also make a mean French Onion Soup. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2020, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-good-at/923375/25 "2020-10-20T16:58:58Z")
Darts, skiing, driving, kooky fabrication. ---
**Author:** ![Die\_Capacitrix](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/die_capacitrix/32/9_2.png) [@Die\_Capacitrix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Die_Capacitrix)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2020, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-good-at/923375/26 "2020-10-20T17:09:51Z")
Convincing other people that I am highly organized. Convincing my coworkers that I am always right. Finding errors in other people’s writing. Forgetting what I was going to say/write. ---
**Author:** ![Rhiannon8404](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rhiannon8404/32/17929_2.png) [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2020, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-good-at/923375/27 "2020-10-20T19:41:48Z")
I’m really good at doing math in my head, including prime factorization (which I do sometimes to put myself to sleep at night). Good at helping people declutter and organize their homes and/or help them stay on task when they are working on a home project. (It’s so easy to get distracted by that thing you haven’t looked at in 10 years.) ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2020, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-good-at/923375/28 "2020-10-20T19:55:52Z")
The thing I’m most confident in is my ability to write grants. Perhaps this is because I have tangible evidence of my success - I’ve raised over $1m in the last year and hundreds of thousands of dollars in the years before that. I’ve had bosses describe me as the best grant writer they’ve ever worked with. I take a lot of pride in my work. I’m also a damned good fiction writer, but I don’t always recognize that, and even though it’s my life’s greatest passion, I find it 1000x harder than grant writing. There’s no ceiling of greatness in fiction writing, or in the very least, it’s unattainable. I will never be Bradbury, and I write in such a weird subgenre I’ll be surprised if I ever achieve commercial success. But still, I can string together some pretty words and tell a good yarn. ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2020, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-good-at/923375/29 "2020-10-20T21:05:17Z")
Chess playing (FIDE Master) / chess coaching (English Chess Federation National Coach) / chess solving (Grandmaster of Solving.) Also I can touch my nose with my tongue. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![jaycat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jaycat/32/3015_2.png) [@jaycat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jaycat)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2020, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-good-at/923375/30 "2020-10-20T21:35:29Z")
> [@glee](#): > > Also I can touch my nose with my tongue My sister says she wants to meet you. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2020, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-good-at/923375/31 "2020-10-20T21:58:25Z")
I can figure out a way to improve almost any recipe. I also used to know a lot about dinosaurs. ---
**Author:** ![turner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/22d042/32.png) [@turner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/turner)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2020, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-good-at/923375/32 "2020-10-20T23:19:56Z")
I’m kind of the same way. I just phrase it differently. I’m a good technician. For example, I do wood working. I can follow a pattern really well. I just don’t have creativity when it comes to my hobbies. I am a pretty good cook, again because I learn and store. I’m a pretty good leader. I’m a Chief Engineer at work, but I’m successful in that more because of my leadership and common sense than my engineering skill. Actually, my success in my job is more linked to the 9 years I put in at a fish store in Chicago during high school and college than it is my 6 years of engineering education for my Bachelor’s and Masters. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2020, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-good-at/923375/33 "2020-10-20T23:34:10Z")
In increasing order: I’m a decent cook, but nothing special. I’m pretty good at memorization, such as of monologues in a play. I’m reasonably good at woodcarving. I’m very good at speaking loudly and clearly. Put me in a large auditorium without a sound system, and the folks in the back row will hear me. I’m great at 3D design. And in one very specific artform that’s mostly done in 3D design, I’m possibly the best in the world. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2020, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-good-at/923375/34 "2020-10-20T23:44:23Z")
> [@Enjoy\_Slurm](#): > > About 3 years ago I busted out all my old consoles and hooked them all up. I played SMB 3 to the bone when I was a kid. 20 years later after I got all the consoles hooked up again I put in SMB 3 and played. I played straight through from the beginning and my first death was world 5 level 4. It seemed like it was all muscle memory. A few years back I picked up a mini Nintendo, the one that looks just like a old NES. They must have used the original molds to make the controllers. As soon as I picked it up, I was transported 20+ years back and after a few minutes getting used to it again, could play SMB 1, 2 and 3 as well as I did back in the day. ---
**Author:** ![tavaritz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/71e660/32.png) [@tavaritz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tavaritz)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2020, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-good-at/923375/35 "2020-10-21T07:33:00Z")
I’m know how to laugh at myself and I’m pretty good at it. I’m also a passable cook eg. I can do almost everything if I have a recipe but my biggest successes and disasters have always been done without. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2020, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-good-at/923375/36 "2020-10-21T11:43:28Z")
I am good at troubleshooting. When faced with a technical or mechanical problem, I am able to methodically eliminate various possibilities until I am able to identify the cause, and in most cases fix it. And I’ve often been told my chili is so good, I should open a restaurant. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2020, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-good-at/923375/37 "2020-10-21T13:16:28Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > I am mediocre at everything I do. To the below-average folk, they may think I’m pretty good at some stuff, but the above-average people know very well that I am not. I wish I had the tenacity to stick with things longer to improve, but I get discouraged very easily and most things I do tend to peter out weakly, and I rarely finish things. Even when I do finish them and show them around, I get a chorus of “meh”. Then when I assess it, I realise it’s no fun if nobody cares, so I get down. This is crazy talk! I’m mediocre at so many things that I just love doing. I’m the worst person in our pick-up soccer games, and I don’t care! I’m having a blast running with the wind in my hair, the sun in my face, and that other player beating me to the ball. (I’m also a mediocre rugby player; there the other player beating me isn’t a metaphor.) I can cook, but I’m merely adequate, so I stick to the grill where I don’t need to balance exact measurements and techniques. And I love playing guitar, but I have to do it when no one’s home… I can sing along to my four or five chords, but it’s not pretty. And I make up tunes on the piano just based on music theory, because I can’t read music. You get the picture… all these activities are very therapeutic, and they might even be more fun because I’m not under any pressure to work at them and get better. ---
**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:** [October 21, 2020, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-good-at/923375/38 "2020-10-21T15:56:17Z")
I can snatch 40 quarters off my forearm. I can find something positive to say about almost anyone. If I can get my point across with 10 words, I don’t try to use 20. Dogs love me. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2020, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-good-at/923375/39 "2020-10-21T17:18:31Z")
I forgot. I can easily identify over five kinds of cheese. And I can detect the presence of jalapeño pepper (or hotter) in food, _even in fairly small quantities_. ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2020, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-good-at/923375/40 "2020-10-22T00:59:38Z")
I’m a good writer. I make a decent living (would be a good living if I lived anywhere but the Bay Area) from my self-published novels, and quit my day job three years ago to do it. I’m pretty good at coming up with out-of-the-box solutions to problems. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-good-at/923375.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-good-at/923375.md?page=3)