My moderate skill at hacky sack has surely prevented many things that I’ve dropped from becoming damaged.
I can carry 3 full pint glasses in one hand and 2 in the other. If they’re empty, I can carry 4 in one hand and 3 in the other. It comes in handy more than I would expect
I can cook and I’m good at it, I know how to grow veggies, I know how to fix things, both mechanical and electrical/electronical. But the best skill I have is that I know how to spend time when wifi/power is down.
Regular expressions
I really wish I’d spent a day learning regex 2 decades ago or so.
End up finding more complicated ways around everything because I never learned it properly.
Good at google. Which should be easy for everyone to learn, but a lot of people don’t.
If I pay attention to a written piece of information (name, phone number, address, short instructions, that kind of stuff) I will remember it for months and years. Comes in handy when working with complex policies and legislation!
This is balanced by the fact that I have trouble retaining auditory information. If you tell me your name, I’ve forgotten it before you’ve even finished talking. (But if I catch it on your badge out of the corner of my eye, I’ll remember it for years.) The only exception are dog names - those I have no trouble remembering.
Ability to calm down and read instructions or manuals. I don’t understand people’s insistence on figuring EVERYTHING out.
Don’t get me wrong I love solving problems, but sometimes the solution to the problem is just finding the answer- literally right there. RTFM.
Remarkably limber & agile & can contort myself into small tight tricky spaces, and balance on unstable surfaces, and climb anything.
What kind of everyday tasks does that help with?
I’ve been told I’m very good at reading people.
When I was a kid I did gymnastics, and skateboarded/rollerbladed. This combination of activities meant I was falling on my ass all the god damn time.
It also means that I am so accustomed to falling, that even as I age, those instincts survive, and in turn, help me survive. When I fall, I tuck, I roll, I break my fall with any number of instinctual responses. This has lead to me surviving some scary falls I’ve taken whilst home alone (off a ladder, in the shower, fainting once when I got up from a long squat), and I think will help me survive more in my elder years.
That’s great now, also have you considered working to improve your balance so you stop falling doing normal everyday tasks?
You might be so accustomed to falling your entire life, maybe it hasn’t occurred to you that falling off ladders and falling in the shower and getting dizzy from squatting to the point you fall over when you get up, those are not normal or healthy events. Quite the opposite of normal & healthy.
Same here. It took me a while to realize not everyone rode bike or skated then ate shit as kids so now they eat shit.
I know how to enunciate, speak with a voice supported by my diaphragm, and increase the intensity of my speaking voice without actually yelling. It’s incredibly useful. Virtually no one ever misunderstands me on the phone. I can have a conversation in a loud crowded place. I’m actually fairly conflict-averse, but when I need to “switch on,” I can usually short-circuit people’s inclination to argue by using a more focused voice.
Everyone should take a decent Acting 101 class where they teach you these skills.
I just imagine if everyone was able to do this 😅
increase the intensity of my speaking voice without actually yelling
People will still consider it yelling even when you’re not actually doing it.
Knowing four fluent languages and four that I’m not fluent in.
Spreadsheets:
I regularly catch stuff that accidentally drops nearby me with my hands or I manganese to soften the hit in the ground by changing it’s trajectory with my feet.
That comes in handy as i am clumsy as hell.
manganese, sodium, chloride, magnesium, potassium
Until it’s an iron pan…
I once hurt myself bc i tried to catch two bowls falling of the shelf. In the end I had a blue toe and a nasty wound on my wrist.
I forgot to mention I do not catch everything, preferably I avoid catching knives. And iron pans. Hammers also not. For some reason, my brain did a pretty solid job not to catch such items.
I’ve got a weird version of "net lazy"motivation. Anything I can do now to make a future task easier, I am strongly motivated to do. Anything that would be easier if I wait for [blank] I will ignore until the ideal moment that would make it the easiest.
It oftentimes leads to peculiar optimizations, but it has worked surprisingly well for me so far.
This is exactly what spurs me to wash my dishes right after using them. It’s much less stressful to clean a single plate & fork now, than to return to a sink full of dirty dishes later. I’d rather just get it over with while it’s still easy to do.
Yep, exactly this. Wash the plates and silverware now before stuff gets dried on there… Except that casserole dish with the crispy baked on border of crust. That is soaking for a couple hours to save me a little effort. I’ll was every dish but two just because it’ll be easier later.
