Back then, my sister had so much trouble getting from the airport to her Boston hotel in her rental car that she finally paid a taxi to lead the way.
Things I’m terrible at:
Whistling
Any kind of arts and crafts
Small talk, mingling
Maintaining an organized workspace. It doesn’t matter what I am doing; within a very short time of starting something, it looks like a hurricane came through. I will often have to regroup several times a day just so I am not tripping over things. Not good at multitasking, I lock into one specific thing and I have to finish it before I can do anything else. Organizing a home, thank God for women. My wife and I were a pretty good team; she would give me an assignment and then run interference for me until it was finished.
I’ve said this before in the “what are you least good at” thread, but: fishing. Random children who had never fished before and don’t even have bait on their hooks literally have a better chance of catching fish than I do. It’s not that I’ve never caught anything, I’m just really low percentile-wise.
There are those who say that fishing can be successful if you have fun, but I don’t even have fun while fishing. At best, fishing would be the last activity I’d try even if in a place where it’s one of the only activities, such as a canoe. I’d rather spend most of my time just looking at the water. And if I’m not in a canoe, I can do other things like walk around or surf the web. Or just surf. I’m much better at surfing than I am at fishing, at least the few times I’ve tried it.
Same here. The people I was with gave me a lot of pointers and kept telling me how easy it was. I tried maybe 10 times and could not get up on the skis. I must have swallowed a gallon of nasty river water while getting dragged (this was the Detroit River-- in the 80s).
The next day my hands were so sore from gripping the water ski handle for dear life, I could not hold onto anything- I had zero grip strength. As luck would have it, my girlfriend and I had planned to play laser tag, which I was looking forward to since I was a decent shot and figured I’d be good at it. But I sucked at it that day because I could not hold onto the laser gun and pull the trigger properly.
Smelling maybe?
I have never been able to smell very well. (My mom couldn’t smell at all). If it is a strong smell I can tell that it’s “something” and it’s either good, bad, or neutral but that’s it.
But I don’t know how this compares to the rest of the world.
And also.. fine motor skills are low. So, if it involves good motor skills and smelling I’m sure I would be worse. Oh, and add whistling to it. I never have whistled.
You’d have to ask one of the people competent at shoe-tying. I’m glad to hear there’s another bunny ear person out there though–unless it turns out you’re a very advanced 6 year old.
In a message dated 5/31/2026 10:21:12 PM Central Daylight Time, notifications@straightdope.discoursemail.com writes:
I have fished all my life and still consider myself to be a lousy fisherman. I have had some success if I were in the right place at the right time but finding the right place and the right time are just happenstance for me. The main thing I like about fishing is that it fools my brain into thinking I am actually doing something and allows me to relax in a way few other things can do.
I sympathise.
I had 5 years of French at school (taught by rote 
) so still can’t hold a conversation in that language.
I do speak English, American, Canadian and Australian though. 
Math.
Any math.
I missed that memo when they handed out math skills.
I depend heavily on a calculator and send my husband’s bills/tax papers/anything with numbers to his CPA. Yeah. No. Not gonna(cannot) do that!
Artistic skill of any kind. Drawing, painting, sculpting, you name it, I suck at it.
Cursive writing. Both of my sisters won county-wide handwriting competitions. My brother and I both had barely-legible entries. Thank goodness that skill is rarely needed these days.
Ineptstein.
*tucks away for a future date
I stole borrowed it myself.
Me three! I can at best utter a monotone, and an atonal one at that, screechy whistle by making a sharp “s” sound. In fact I have to work hard at not whistling my esses in normal conversation.
Actually, about 4% of the US population are 3 years old or under, and another 6% are severely disabled in one way or another, so I suspect there actually isn’t anything a healthy adult would be worse at than at least one of 99 other people.
I draw worse using my hands than 99 random people who draw…using their feet.
While they were wearing clown shoes.
Any sport involving a racquet. My hands are just not strong enough to hit the ball/birdie/shuttlecock far enough over the net. Keeping the racquet straight for any length of time is hell. It’s not a matter of coordination, I’ve been plenty good at other sports in my time, and hand eye is used in piano and crochet so it isn’t that. It’s specifically hand strength that gets me. I tried for years to build up my grip but it just doesn’t work.
Okay, but if high school me compared myself to 100 other kids in my high school, I’ll say running. In gym class we were supposed to run around the field 4 times. I made it only 3 times and was still the last kid to finish. Yes, there were a few kids who were disabled that i might have beaten, but there were 400 kids in my class, i think o really was in the bottom 1 or 2 percentile. And I’m sure I’m no better at it now.
I’m bad at these, too. I think it’s a combination of poor proprioception, wearing glasses, and mediocre gross body coordination. My fine motor coordination is excellent. (Although not as good as it was when i was 15.) I don’t think gross and fine motor skills are tightly linked.
But I’d guess I’m in the bottom 10-20%, not the bottom 1-2%.
I’m awkward as hell making small talk, and utterly incapable of initiating it.