# What is the most useful skill you could learn in two hours? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 15, 2021, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-useful-skill-you-could-learn-in-two-hours/930620 "2021-01-15T19:13:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2021, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-useful-skill-you-could-learn-in-two-hours/930620/41 "2021-01-16T22:01:05Z")
> [@Ulfreida](#): > > Do something enough times and you will be able to make almost every possible mistake. In farming, however, “enough times” would probably be several lifetimes. During which the conditions would change, and you’d need to at least partially start over, as some of the things which had been right before would have become mistakes. – what the most useful skill is will depend a great deal on what the particular person needs to know, won’t it? Most people could learn the “drownproofing” technique they taught me in college in a lot less than two hours. (Basically: go limp while you slowly exhale; minimum effort technique to get your face above water long enough to rapidly inhale; repeat.) College was quite a while ago, and I haven’t found this useful at all so far\* – but if circumstances had been different, it might have saved my life. / / \*I did learn fairly quickly not to practice it anywhere without warning other people in the area, relaxing though it is. During most of the cycle it looks like you are drowning, or have just done so. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2021, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-useful-skill-you-could-learn-in-two-hours/930620/42 "2021-01-16T22:16:13Z")
> [@Ulfreida](#): > > How to make bread. How to sew on a sewing machine. How to milk a cow. How to butcher, pluck, and clean a chicken. Probably the most useful variant of this that could be learned solidly in less than two hours is: How to sew on a button and sew up a ripped seam or hem, by hand. If a button pops off your shirt or your sleeve splits open fifteen minutes before you have to give an important presentation, for example (making the pre-COVID assumption that you’re not giving this presentation in the immediate vicinity of your own wardrobe), then there is not much you can do by way of a “hack”, even with safety pins or duct tape, to restore your non-tattered appearance. But if you can manage the very simple manipulations with needle and thread required to fix the problem properly, you can look good as new in about three minutes. ---
**Author:** ![filmore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7993a0/32.png) [@filmore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmore)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2021, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-useful-skill-you-could-learn-in-two-hours/930620/43 "2021-01-16T22:43:03Z")
You could become proficient in a handful of very useful knots in two hours. Although knot tying isn’t a skill you use daily, it’s really nice to have just the right knot when you need it. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2021, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-useful-skill-you-could-learn-in-two-hours/930620/44 "2021-01-16T23:46:32Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > To make $47,000 at that hourly rate in a 50-week work-year, a person would have to work 25.55 hours of time-and-half overtime each week, for a whopping 65.55 work hours each week. Assuming 1 day off, that would be 11+ hour workdays every single week. That’s possibly what is happening. I have a bit to do with postal couriers and they do massive hours. 12 hours / day, 6 days / week. Could be that medical couriers also put big hours in. I also wonder if they’re actually paid per delivery rather than by the hour. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2021, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-useful-skill-you-could-learn-in-two-hours/930620/45 "2021-01-17T02:34:47Z")
> [@Ulfreida](#): > > In reality there are no skills one can learn perfectly in two hours that don’t rely on building on other skills previously mastered. Language speaking, reading, math… But one can do a 1040ez with just those and I think we can expect everyone to have those. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2021, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-useful-skill-you-could-learn-in-two-hours/930620/46 "2021-01-17T11:16:42Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Language speaking, reading, math… > > But one can do a 1040ez with just those and I think we can expect everyone to have those. Language acquisition is a separate category, really. Reading and math, I think one might assume that everyone _on this board_ has some basic facility in, but that is absolutely not true in the general population. ---
**Author:** ![DemonTree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/demontree/32/8646_2.png) [@DemonTree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DemonTree)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2021, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-useful-skill-you-could-learn-in-two-hours/930620/47 "2021-01-17T12:23:26Z")
> [@BippityBoppityBoo](#): > > Breastfeeding a newborn infant. Unfortunately it can take the infant a lot more than two hours to learn how to do it. ---
**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:** [January 17, 2021, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-useful-skill-you-could-learn-in-two-hours/930620/48 "2021-01-17T15:22:29Z")
The idea of this thread is not that you become a worldbeating expert in two hours, which is unlikely. It’s to understand the basics, have a degree of proficiency and be able to apply the skill to simple common applications. ---
**Author:** ![Bear\_Nenno](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bear_nenno/32/3358_2.png) [@Bear\_Nenno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bear_Nenno)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2021, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-useful-skill-you-could-learn-in-two-hours/930620/49 "2021-01-17T16:11:30Z")
I guess if we count natural biology as “learned skills”. If so, then I nominate “breathing”. Very useful skill to learn! ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2021, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-useful-skill-you-could-learn-in-two-hours/930620/50 "2021-01-17T17:00:27Z")
How to reduce the filesize of the 1GB pictures that you want to paste unaltered in our shared documents, Bob… ---
**Author:** ![Dag\_Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@Dag\_Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dag_Otto)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2021, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-useful-skill-you-could-learn-in-two-hours/930620/51 "2021-01-18T16:51:16Z")
> [@FigNorton](#): > > If you learn any of those things in two hours, you will suck at them. The chicken would have learned her lesson, though. ---
**Author:** ![Saintly\_Loser](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saintly_loser/32/4045_2.png) [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2021, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-useful-skill-you-could-learn-in-two-hours/930620/52 "2021-01-18T17:04:06Z")
> [@AHunter3](#): > > Well, in 1986 I was taught how to use a Mac, how to do word processing in the free MacWrite that was on the floppy disk they handed to us, including setting margins, cut, copy and paste, printing, setting tab stops, saving document, saving changes subsequently, opening an existing document, etc. > [@mbh](#): > > That’s about how I learned to do spreadsheets. The professor wanted an assignment done on a spreadsheet, so she took about half an hour out of a lecture one day, and taught us pretty much everything we needed to know about Lotus and Excel. You may have learned everything _you_ needed to know about Lotus or Excel, but nobody is learning to be a serious spreadsheet jockey in two hours. Or how to do serious word processing (which, these days, encompasses a hell of a lot more than typing up a letter) in two hours. ---
**Author:** ![ratatoskK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ratatoskk/32/2987_2.png) [@ratatoskK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ratatoskK)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2021, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-useful-skill-you-could-learn-in-two-hours/930620/53 "2021-01-18T20:39:37Z")
Swimming ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2021, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-useful-skill-you-could-learn-in-two-hours/930620/54 "2021-01-18T21:11:09Z")
You could probably learn how to correctly read out several phonetically-written languages e.g. Spanish, German, Chinese (Pinyin) in a couple hours. I don’t mean understand of course, I just mean read aloud words and names. ---
**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:** [January 19, 2021, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-useful-skill-you-could-learn-in-two-hours/930620/55 "2021-01-19T01:16:52Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Some here might know that 3D design is a hobby of mine. My introduction to it was someone telling me “Here’s Tinkercad. You’re going to be teaching a bunch of middle schoolers how to use it in about five minutes.”. I’ve learned so many things this way! I taught at a Design School, and got a reputation for being the guy they could throw into the deep end. One time, I had a two-hour notice on teaching an animation class. Now, it’d be perfect for this thread if I’d been able to teach myself Adobe After Effects by class time. But I was able to give an overview, then ask “Anyone here already know this stuff? And would you like to teach the rest of today’s class?” Got a bite! … > [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > Learn to drive a clutch. The only downside is that you’ll love it. And you’ll find yourself spending your evenings searching for fun cars with a manual, and “spending money you don’t need to, because you have a perfectly good slow, boring car.” ( - - my wife) ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2021, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-useful-skill-you-could-learn-in-two-hours/930620/56 "2021-01-19T02:11:48Z")
> [@Saintly\_Loser](#): > > You may have learned everything _you_ needed to know about Lotus or Excel, but nobody is learning to be a serious spreadsheet jockey in two hours. Or how to do serious word processing (which, these days, encompasses a hell of a lot more than typing up a letter) in two hours. What I learned in two hours (less, actually) was sufficient to let me figure out oodles of other stuff by simply poking around in menus and trying things. I went into the room as a person for whom a computer was a black box of UNKNOWN; I came out with a fundamental grasp of the Macintosh environment. Over the next five-six years I divided up software into good — meaning that it was written in a sufficiently intuitive way that you could learn it simply by poking around in it — and bad — meaning that it wasn’t. I learned CricketDraw and SuperPaint, MS Works spreadsheets and databases, the better database called FileMaker, Fontastic the font editor, SoundEdit 16, Digital Darkroom and its better competitor Photoshop, and a whole slew of other programs without ever touching a manual or having an instructor. Then there were PageMaker and Illustrator, MacKermit and Microsoft Access and AutoCad which were powerful programs but a lot less elegantly designed, less intuitive to use. But I digress. The relevant point is that I learned a general skill in two hours that let me self-teach a wide variety of software and develop a general proficiency on the Mac platform. ---
**Author:** ![Saintly\_Loser](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saintly_loser/32/4045_2.png) [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2021, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-useful-skill-you-could-learn-in-two-hours/930620/57 "2021-01-19T02:15:31Z")
> [@AHunter3](#): > > The relevant point is that I learned a general skill in two hours that let me self-teach a wide variety of software and develop a general proficiency on the Mac platform. If the skill you’re talking about is “learning how to learn on the fly,” I couldn’t agree more. That’s probably the most useful skill anyone can acquire, and it doesn’t take much time to pick up. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2021, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-useful-skill-you-could-learn-in-two-hours/930620/58 "2021-01-19T03:15:46Z")
> [@Saintly\_Loser](#): > > “learning how to learn on the fly,” I was told that “learning to fly” was easier than learning to drive. But I don’t know how useful that would be… It took less than 2 hours for my kid to learn to ride a bike. He did it with me running alongside, yelling “look where you want to go” (because beginners naturally look at what they are afraid of running into, and yelling is an effective method of direct instruction), and catching him when he stopped, so I _know_ it was less than 2 hours before he was ok on his own. ---
**Author:** ![Saintly\_Loser](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saintly_loser/32/4045_2.png) [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2021, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-useful-skill-you-could-learn-in-two-hours/930620/59 "2021-01-19T03:36:31Z")
> [@Melbourne](#): > > It took less than 2 hours for my kid to learn to ride a bike. He did it with me running alongside, yelling “look where you want to go” (because beginners naturally look at what they are afraid of running into, and yelling is an effective method of direct instruction), and catching him when he stopped, so I _know_ it was less than 2 hours before he was ok on his own. Yes, same experience with my older daughter. She picked it up really fast. I told her two things before we started. First, like you, I told her to look where she wanted to go, and especially don’t look down, because the bike would go where she was looking. And second, to _keep moving_, that the bike wouldn’t fall down as long as she kept it going. She retained this information, and the whole process was pretty quick and painless. There was an episode shortly afterwards when she wanted training wheels, because her friends had them, but I did manage to get her to understand that she didn’t need them because she, unlike her friends, actually knew how to ride her bike. ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2021, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-useful-skill-you-could-learn-in-two-hours/930620/60 "2021-01-19T04:45:43Z")
> [@ekedolphin](#): > > Riding a bicycle? Can that be taught in two hours or less? It makes me wonder: can you teach a adult to ride a bicycle faster than you can a child? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-useful-skill-you-could-learn-in-two-hours/930620.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-useful-skill-you-could-learn-in-two-hours/930620.md?page=4)