# What do you have a great talent for and no interest in? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 3, 2010, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-have-a-great-talent-for-and-no-interest-in/552507 "2010-09-03T17:37:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2010, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-have-a-great-talent-for-and-no-interest-in/552507/41 "2010-09-06T20:39:29Z")
Not a great talent, but a long time back I got interested in Go (the board game) and some guys who were quite accomplished said I was making excellent progress. But I had to give it up - it pretty much literally made my head hurt. The concentration necessary to play well became actively unpleasant. My vision would get weird - with a respectable number of stones played, the board would sort of “swim” in front of me. I haven’t gone back to it. Indeed, the thought of doing so is itself unpleasant. ---
**Author:** ![Todderbob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e47774/32.png) [@Todderbob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Todderbob)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2010, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-have-a-great-talent-for-and-no-interest-in/552507/43 "2010-09-07T04:23:02Z")
> [@Briderella](#): > > I am a phenomenal fiction writer. At age 19, halfway through college, I had three short stories published in extremely prestigious national magazines and was courted by two different agents. I’ve written three novels that would be bestsellers with the right marketing push from a publisher. > > But I have almost less than no interest in the above because I’m a musician and all I want out of life is to make records and record all the time. if you’re a good writer I beg you to publish. There isn’t enough good reading out there! Or at least send me copies… 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Dereknocue67](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/6de8d8/32.png) [@Dereknocue67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dereknocue67)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2010, 8:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-have-a-great-talent-for-and-no-interest-in/552507/44 "2010-09-07T08:55:13Z")
Teaching. ---
**Author:** ![kittenblue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ba8739/32.png) [@kittenblue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kittenblue)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2010, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-have-a-great-talent-for-and-no-interest-in/552507/45 "2010-09-07T16:45:50Z")
Well, now I look like a copycat, but…teaching. I have taught something to someone since I was in sixth grade. I have a teaching degree, and did some substitute teaching for a few years. I have taught adult education classes in the crafts I love. I train people at work all the time. I am a natural teacher, and I love begin up in front of a group of students, helping them learn something new. But to be a full-time teacher in a school, especially a high school these days? Zero interest. I don’t want to deal with petulant teenagers, crazy parents, or school bureaucracies. I think a lot of the teaching techniques used today are crap. I didn’t like how the school systems treated my less-than-perfect kids, and a lot of school policies are just counter-productive. Yes, it seems a waste of a degree and talent…but I just have zero interest right now. ---
**Author:** ![corkboard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9bcb4/32.png) [@corkboard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/corkboard)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2010, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-have-a-great-talent-for-and-no-interest-in/552507/46 "2010-09-07T18:59:20Z")
I don’t know how unusual this is, but evidently I’m a natural marksman. The first time I picked up a rifle my stance and (not sure what you call it) ‘manner of holding it’ were perfect, according to the lifelong hunter in my company at the time. I nailed all targets without any misses. Granted, I’ve never actually been hunting; we were just shooting at stationary targets, but according to her I looked as if I had been trained. The 2nd and last time was on a cruise ship shooting at skeet. I hit my five out of five and just figured I was a lucky shot, but who knows, maybe that’s my true calling. Of course, I have zero interest in hunting or anything that has to do with firearms. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-have-a-great-talent-for-and-no-interest-in/552507.md?page=2)