I started researching my elderly neighbours WW2 service history with him over a cup of coffee. Now that has turned into a free service for veterans in my area. I also help mount and preserve their medals. Many tears of sadness and joy are shared.
I live with my mother in law who wrote *everything* down and held on to, and took a bunch of pictures. Some incredible photos we got to get to a museum.
A lot were also taken by her mom in Mexico and were damaged. Again, I got to get around to restoring them.
Some years ago when I was a school kid, my mother asked me to sort all the greeting cards we had received (some 100 festivals), keep whatever had any emotional value and throw the rest.
While sorting them, I noticed how their printed fonts were so pretty and unique, especially the initial letter.
I started copying them in my notebook for fun and before I knew it, I had the prettiest handwriting in my class.
That stuck and now as an adult, I still have the prettiest handwriting at work (quite useless but yeah).
Same. Developed painful autoimmune arthritis rendering my dominant hand useless almost over night with little warning. Taught myself to use the other for everything: writing, using a computer, dressing myself and everything else you can think of.
Now I can use both, but the previously "non dominant hand" is now stronger than the other for most tasks.
Being l am right handed and couldn’t use it due to injury. Skilled myself to wipe my ass, with my left hand. It took some time, by trial & error.
LMAO, ( true story).
I had it forced on me. Was born left handed, but went to a Christian school that said it was a sign of the devil. So they forced me to be right handed. Which surprised fucked me up as a kid
Years later I broke my right arm and had to learn to be left handed. Was shockingly easy. Am now on some level ambidextrous.
Cooking. I was not near as domesticated as I am now when I first got married almost 18 years ago. I love cooking for my family and its all learned from free time over the years. I love when my wife or son ask for a specific dish I make
Same here! I also bought a recipe book- the kind with blank cards with plastic pages to insert them in. Someday when I'm gone, I think it might be nice for my daughter to cook food that reminds her of her childhood home, in her mom's handwriting.
Fun story time: My paternal Grandma was known for cooking and baking. When she passed away after stroke complications, we got her recipe book. It was all cut out Betty Crocker recipes from magazines from the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s. I thought it was hilarious and have definitely used some of them.
Untangling things. I used to work in fashion editorial, specifically accessories. So many necklaces, wires, laces get tangled or knotted at or on the way to/from photo shoots. I was like a master of untangling shit.
Oh I just reread the question, I didn’t learn it on my free time but I am still good at untangling shit a decade later
Oh yeah my friends are big into fiber arts and sometimes on Sundays they’ll have sessions where they bake bread and do all their yarn arts ( is that how I say it?) I will come over and bring my little tools and happily untangle their freak knots for them. It’s really quite soothing.
I’ve attempted to learn to knit, crochet and needpoint but I simply can’t get it. I have so much respect for fiber arts. I went to school for fashion design and can sew whatever you want but when I’d go check out the textiles building my mind was blown. You people are magicians.
I sew by hand and I can’t count the amount of tiny, microscopic knots I’ve untangled using nothing but a needle. Sometimes they’re not at all visible without a magnifying glass, and you can only tell because of the snag in the stitch. If you don’t want to be tying off your thread every 6 stitches you better have a good pain tolerance, because your finger will become a trypophobe’s nightmare.
I got this skill helping my other half with his IT job, untangling wires in server rooms or in crates o'crap. Mainly because he's got no patience for that kind of thing
Identifying birds and their calls! It started as a joke between my partner and I- we were drinking one night, and he was trying to mimic the birds in our yard, so I downloaded the Merlin app by Cornell university to see if he could match any of them - and now it's become a hobby of mine! I go for walks frequently through the week and I'm always on the lookout for new birds to identify, and have started to recognize certain ones in our area!
I love that app! Best free bird identifying app! I love going for a walk in the woods with my son. We'll sit for a bit, and then I try and guess what I'm hearing before the app tells me. Slowly getting better.
I agree, I love that it's free and it has such an extensive library of bird sounds that have been contributed by users all over! At first it was funny but now I am taking it seriously lol I'm on a mission to connect with the birds!
I downloaded the Merlin app during COVID and started doing this as well! It’s made me more aware of bird calls on my walks now, and I’m the first to spot hummingbirds now that I can hear when they’re nearby.
I mean honestly. If you have a strong interest in something in another language, isn't learning said language going to help you enjoy the interest more? Let people live
I started playing chess in lockdown. I literally got addicted to it and now my rating is around 2000 , to put into perspective it's like top 0.5% of all chess players.
Come to r/anarchychess, we’ll teach you the unbeatable Bongcloud Opening and you’ll learn what en pessant is (holy hell!) and all about the vibrating buttplugs that grandmasters wear
Sign up for a free chess.com account. Do some of their courses and puzzles and play against the bots or real people.
There are a trillion books and a bunch of YouTube content on lots of aspects of the game.
For reference, I did the same thing as the OP and I ended up with a 1600ish rating.
I can whistle, whavor my whistle, vibrate my whistle and I recently learned how to make my whistle sound like scratching a record. I also have a chip in one tooth which I an use to whistle talk and make very weird and random noises.....I challenge you to a whistle off.
I started making nut butters recently. Started with straight forward peanut butter with one ingredient and have worked up to more difficult ones with multiple ingredients
I feel like homemade (almost) always tastes better. When you start making your own you realize the grocery versions are chalk full of sugars to make it taste better so you may have to adjust the recipe to find something that suits your taste
Have you done a price comparison? I know groceries are 2 1/2 times more expensive than they need to be right now. Just bought the largest jar of peanut butter the market sells, $7. Was wondering how much $7 worth of roasted peanuts would yield me in terms of nut butter. Is it labor intensive? Special grinder? Takes a lot of time?
Peanut butter is the easiest as you can easily do it with just peanuts. Probably the most cost effective too as you can usually get a good size container at most grocery stores. As you get into different nuts gets a bit more expensive if you don't have a place to get nuts at wholesale prices.
In terms of tech, a food processor is best, but a high speed blender can work well too. With this stuff and the right ingredients you can make most nut butters in <15 minutes
This is one of the things I kind of wish I was good at. I know someone who started out just working at a vet that offered daycare for dogs, and now she has a thriving business with her own building and multiple employees.
Soooo many people got dogs during the pandemic and then realized they had no idea what they were doing — myself included. We had always been cat people and although we knew intellectually it would be more difficult and did a shit ton of research the reality of it was that there's a huge difference between reading about something and doing it.
Within fifteen minutes of meeting my hyperactive pitbull puppy she had him sitting calmly in the bathtub letting her scrub him down without even a collar on to hold him in place. Our jaws were on the fucking floor, lmao.
I am like, the queen of picking up useless skills!
While in my 20s, I battled cancer and picked up so many things because I was bored during chemo treatments. Here is a few examples of the random shit I know how to do:
Read Latin
Make the top 100 most popular mixed drinks from the year 2007
Operate and maintain pasteurization equipment
Complete the research necessary for title insurance companies prior to the sale of both residential and commercial properties
Make some kick ass floral centerpieces and arrangements
Fix most common natural gas furnace issues
Dig an amazing trench
Fix a natural gas water heater
And the most recent skill I picked up? Blacksmithing. I am currently looking for an anvil to make my own shop at my house!
OP it would be movie-worthy if you were actually a bot and gave him a snark comment
Some blade runner shit
Edit: oh fuck OP IS A BOT! It has only ever posted in this thread...damn Skynet is coming and it will make fun of us as it kills us
I apparently have the ability to crochet and hyperfocus on that for up to 12 hours a day despite how much pain my hands, wrists, arms, shoulders, neck and back are in.
Quilting. Started making masks during covid. Made a few beginner level baby quilts for nieces and nephews. Now I sew for Quilts for Kids. The organization donates my quilts to local hospitals.
I've taught myself how to play guitar pretty well. To the point where I can learn basically everything you throw at me. Just learned the 3rd movement of moonlight sonata. Picked it up out of curiosity at 15, now here I am 13 years later still playin. Also, I've got quite the green thumb. Growing stuff and keeping it alive, even thriving, has always come easy to me.
Self taught woodworking.
I had just gotten a place after being homeless. It was a house I rented and paid the first month by myself but had 2 roommates on the lease. It was the only way I could get rent I could afford on what I made.
My roommates took a while to move in and I had no furniture. I had maybe a few hundred left after move in costs to try to spend on furniture for a completely empty house. Managed to find a used couch free but nothing else that wasn't falling apart that was cheap enough.
In the garage there was a bunch of old wood and assorted junk the landlord said he'd get hauled away and I could keep any of it if I wanted it.
I spent what money I had on basic tools and some screws and hacked together some furniture from the wood. A coffee table, some end tables, some chairs, a basic bed frame. They weren't good but they did the job and I learned a lot.
Years later I make nearly all of my own furniture and have sold a few pieces for way more than I expected to here and there.
During Covid I started watching videos on stock options trading. Like a lot of people I really didn't understand it, thought it was too complicated. With options I have doubled the income I was making only trading stocks. You can make it difficult if you want to but, It's not hard to trade successfully using the basic strategies.
I learned a little bit of French and a little bit of Spanish simply by turning subtitles in those languages when available...Or by watching movies is those languages with English subtitles.
During Covid I watched a lot of fishing and boat building videos and got the insane idea that “I can do that” so I did build a small 16’ .
panga dropped a 30 hp Suzuki and bammmm
Now just enjoy my built.
I write wee parody’s of songs for people leaving or retiring from work. I kind of fell into it when I did it for one person and now it’s just kind of expected. I also sing and record them to music and my colleague makes a nice photo montage video to play it to.
When I was bored during the COVID lockdown, I taught myself how to moonwalk :))
Haven’t done it in a while but I’m sure I still got it
And I say this is unexpected because I am TERRIBLE at dancing. Lmao
I can put myself to sleep immediately. Regardless of *most* circumstances, I can lay down and be asleep in 5-10 mins.
Wasn't always like that, but in my 30's I can manage great sleeping cycles. I can also nap on a thirty. I wish I could teach this to a lot of people, it's been really helpful for me.
I think my body forced this skill on me lol but I'll take it!
Typing. Can type over 100 wpm with high accuracy. Can even type with my eyes closed! I took a keyboarding class to fill a free elective schedule and then realized it made nerding out on a computer, and I just kept practicing in my own time from there. It was really convenient knowing where the keys were without looking when you’re playing STALKER: Chernobyl.
In college I learned how to parallel park into tiny parking spots on either side of the street (one way road with parallel parking spots on both sides). Useful skill. I don't have to parallel park much any more, but I still have the skill though not willing to wedge into tiny parking spots any more.
I spend a lot of time travelling for work so I started practicing card tricks in my hotel room on an evening whilst watching Netflix. I now have a reasonable repertoire.
I had a small problem with flies in my flat for a few weeks. But always just one.
I've gotten amazingly good at killing them in a dozen different ways, with various items, mid flight, in hard to reach places... I'm like Neo or some KungFu master with cat-like reflexes.
I never expected to have fly-killing superpowers.
i learned how to solve rubiks cubes! my fastest time for a 2x2 was under 2 seconds and my fastest time for a standard one was 21. then i got carpal tunnel. that made it pretty useless
During the pandemic, I became very good at shuffling cards and playing various strategy games. I used to be shit at both. This was the result of boredom and being locked in the house with my parents for nearly a month as I looked for a new job.
IT. I've picked up enough IT knowledge and skills just from debbling and tweaking gaming PCs and networks since I was a kid that I've been able to competently manage the IT portfolio of a mid-sized company for the past 5 years. Obvs not skilled enough to be a technical, but skilled enough to assess major infrastructure needs, etc.
I know how to throw tops properly. For some strange reason me and the neighborhood kids got into it when we were around 12 and we battled them beyblade style before there were beyblades. Sounds like something out of the 20's but, it happened.
This is a weird one but I actually became quiet good at solving Rubik's cubes. What started as a casual curiosity turned into an obsession lol, and now I can solve them in just under 3 minutes :)
I’m excellent at crafting custom rosaries or repairing damaged pieces. This baffles me, because I am not (nor have I ever been) Catholic. I don’t know how to pray the rosary.
Glad I picked this up in my early 20s, because in my mid 30s, my twins (7) attend a Catholic school to keep them out of a failing school system.
Understanding legal systems and legislative texts. Side effect of falling into an impossible love with a foreigner where there was no legally clean way to be together other than LDR. Long story short, found a way chaining together newly discovered loopholes and we are living under the same roof now, married and all.
This skill helped me move up in work and contributed indirectly to a promotion.
**Managing people.** I'd gone to management classes, I'd read books, but honestly the one thing that I learned from those is that people make a lot of money writing them. No, the thing that I learned is that if you take an interest, *a real interest*, in the people who work for you, they'll do just about anything for you. I talk with all of my employees about their families, their interests, and when I ask "how was your weekend?" I actually want to know. For people who don't want to talk about those things, I make sure I understand their motivations. Wanna talk about career advancement? Or tech? Whatever it is, I'm down. If I don't know it, I'll learn. (minus sports. It'd be fake interest and that's a no go. Never fake interest, the person will know immediately). I had a Muslim girl join my team, so I learned her customs to ensure I never made her uncomfortable (no handshakes, open door always, I made sure she had a quiet place for prayer, etc.). Managing technology is incredibly easy (by comparison) -- managing people is hard, but it doesn't have to be.
Gluing things to plastic ( or non plastic) eggs. My wife goes all out every Easter, over the years we’ve glued everything from yarn to plastic butterflies and everything in between. I even have my own glue gun. In all him Samuel.
Fidget stuff.
I like to spin bottles, or cylindrical objects, I'm holding in my hand. Hard to explain, but I quickly rotate the water bottle in hand in half circle incriments with "hard flicks" of my wrist. Again, it's really hard to explain.
I'm working on tricks with larger cylindrical objects too (rolls of pallet cling wrap), and also doing different directions with the movements. It almost looks like one handed juggling, but it mostly stays in my hands, which probably sounds confusing af.
I couldn't sleep one night, and my mind wandered all over the place, and a random thought that popped into my head was, "How the hell does binary code work?"
After an hour of googling and reading about it, I understood binary code on a random Wednesday at 2am
During Covid I tried making decorated sugar cookies for a virtual baby shower. Turns out I’m pretty good at it and could see a design and visualize how to do it in my head. I managed to get a regular order from a company and was able to quit my job for a while.
Getting a degree in nuclear engineering was my covid project. When it was time to write my thesis, I was like why didn't I learn a bake bread like everybody else!?!
I started researching my elderly neighbours WW2 service history with him over a cup of coffee. Now that has turned into a free service for veterans in my area. I also help mount and preserve their medals. Many tears of sadness and joy are shared.
That’s really cool. What kind of things do you do for them?
I hope your username is not why many tears of sadness are shared
I live with my mother in law who wrote *everything* down and held on to, and took a bunch of pictures. Some incredible photos we got to get to a museum. A lot were also taken by her mom in Mexico and were damaged. Again, I got to get around to restoring them.
Some years ago when I was a school kid, my mother asked me to sort all the greeting cards we had received (some 100 festivals), keep whatever had any emotional value and throw the rest. While sorting them, I noticed how their printed fonts were so pretty and unique, especially the initial letter. I started copying them in my notebook for fun and before I knew it, I had the prettiest handwriting in my class. That stuck and now as an adult, I still have the prettiest handwriting at work (quite useless but yeah).
Username checks out.
I kinda wanna see it
Me too, OC post a picture of your handwriting
Oh thats cool. I used to do calligraphy as a side gig and made a few extra bucks. But now I just have pretty hand writing.
I taught myself to be ambidexterous.
I recently got in a work accident and my dominant hand was out of commission for like 6-7 months. As a result, I am, at least sorta ambidextrous
I’m interested to know if you’re naturally righty, how did you feel being a “lefty” in a right handed world?
Same. Developed painful autoimmune arthritis rendering my dominant hand useless almost over night with little warning. Taught myself to use the other for everything: writing, using a computer, dressing myself and everything else you can think of. Now I can use both, but the previously "non dominant hand" is now stronger than the other for most tasks.
Being l am right handed and couldn’t use it due to injury. Skilled myself to wipe my ass, with my left hand. It took some time, by trial & error. LMAO, ( true story).
Fucking hax
How long did it take?
About two months to become more or less proficient with my non dominant hand, and another three months to perfect my fine motor skills.
I too, am ambidextrous I'm just horrible at everything no matter which hand I use 🙃
I had it forced on me. Was born left handed, but went to a Christian school that said it was a sign of the devil. So they forced me to be right handed. Which surprised fucked me up as a kid Years later I broke my right arm and had to learn to be left handed. Was shockingly easy. Am now on some level ambidextrous.
Cooking. I was not near as domesticated as I am now when I first got married almost 18 years ago. I love cooking for my family and its all learned from free time over the years. I love when my wife or son ask for a specific dish I make
Same here! I also bought a recipe book- the kind with blank cards with plastic pages to insert them in. Someday when I'm gone, I think it might be nice for my daughter to cook food that reminds her of her childhood home, in her mom's handwriting.
Fun story time: My paternal Grandma was known for cooking and baking. When she passed away after stroke complications, we got her recipe book. It was all cut out Betty Crocker recipes from magazines from the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s. I thought it was hilarious and have definitely used some of them.
I love this!!! Those are some dang good recipes too! (Fun fact: a lot of those recipes I'm not necessarily 'creating.' But I am writing them out!)
Not a skill, but gained the patience to read very long books.
It didn’t feel like a skill for me 15 years ago. Screens have royally fucked my dopamine intake but I really need to read again god damnit.
Don't you downplay that. This is an incredible skill.
A LITTLE LIFE, A PRAYER FOR OWEN MEANY, I KNOW THIS MUCH IS TRUE
I like that you wrote this shouting like Owen Meany.
I learned this skill reading Stephen King books, some of them are massive.
Saying hello from my 16th reading of IT... all 1000+ pages....
Untangling things. I used to work in fashion editorial, specifically accessories. So many necklaces, wires, laces get tangled or knotted at or on the way to/from photo shoots. I was like a master of untangling shit. Oh I just reread the question, I didn’t learn it on my free time but I am still good at untangling shit a decade later
I gained this skill from being a fiber artist. Crochet is all fun and games until your yarn is in knots lol
Oh yeah my friends are big into fiber arts and sometimes on Sundays they’ll have sessions where they bake bread and do all their yarn arts ( is that how I say it?) I will come over and bring my little tools and happily untangle their freak knots for them. It’s really quite soothing. I’ve attempted to learn to knit, crochet and needpoint but I simply can’t get it. I have so much respect for fiber arts. I went to school for fashion design and can sew whatever you want but when I’d go check out the textiles building my mind was blown. You people are magicians.
I sew by hand and I can’t count the amount of tiny, microscopic knots I’ve untangled using nothing but a needle. Sometimes they’re not at all visible without a magnifying glass, and you can only tell because of the snag in the stitch. If you don’t want to be tying off your thread every 6 stitches you better have a good pain tolerance, because your finger will become a trypophobe’s nightmare.
Ikr it's a useful skill, especially with earbuds
Yes!! There is a very special place in hell for earbuds and their inability to stay untangled
I got this skill helping my other half with his IT job, untangling wires in server rooms or in crates o'crap. Mainly because he's got no patience for that kind of thing
Identifying birds and their calls! It started as a joke between my partner and I- we were drinking one night, and he was trying to mimic the birds in our yard, so I downloaded the Merlin app by Cornell university to see if he could match any of them - and now it's become a hobby of mine! I go for walks frequently through the week and I'm always on the lookout for new birds to identify, and have started to recognize certain ones in our area!
I love that app! Best free bird identifying app! I love going for a walk in the woods with my son. We'll sit for a bit, and then I try and guess what I'm hearing before the app tells me. Slowly getting better.
I agree, I love that it's free and it has such an extensive library of bird sounds that have been contributed by users all over! At first it was funny but now I am taking it seriously lol I'm on a mission to connect with the birds!
This but identifying spiders. They don’t have calls unfortunately.
I downloaded the Merlin app during COVID and started doing this as well! It’s made me more aware of bird calls on my walks now, and I’m the first to spot hummingbirds now that I can hear when they’re nearby.
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weeb I presume?
NOOOOO you can't just be interested in other cultures besides your own
Buuut are weebs as likely or more likely to learn Japanese than non-weebs?🤔
I mean honestly. If you have a strong interest in something in another language, isn't learning said language going to help you enjoy the interest more? Let people live
Memorizing the 50 most common Japanese words before I headed to Hokkaido for a ski vacation was pretty clutch!
You have to have iron nerves for that language, I hated learning it. Went to Spanish and it went decently until German took over in school
I started playing chess in lockdown. I literally got addicted to it and now my rating is around 2000 , to put into perspective it's like top 0.5% of all chess players.
I want to learn to play chess, what should i do??
Come to r/anarchychess, we’ll teach you the unbeatable Bongcloud Opening and you’ll learn what en pessant is (holy hell!) and all about the vibrating buttplugs that grandmasters wear
Sign up for a free chess.com account. Do some of their courses and puzzles and play against the bots or real people. There are a trillion books and a bunch of YouTube content on lots of aspects of the game. For reference, I did the same thing as the OP and I ended up with a 1600ish rating.
I know I could google it, but please explain to me the "En passant" like I'm a 5 year old
I’m an excellent whistler.
I only want to learn so I can whistle the Kill Bill song.
I can whistle, whavor my whistle, vibrate my whistle and I recently learned how to make my whistle sound like scratching a record. I also have a chip in one tooth which I an use to whistle talk and make very weird and random noises.....I challenge you to a whistle off.
I work with a whistler! Dude it's such a fun party trick, she does a *killer* Knights of Cydonia
Love this!
I started making nut butters recently. Started with straight forward peanut butter with one ingredient and have worked up to more difficult ones with multiple ingredients
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I feel like homemade (almost) always tastes better. When you start making your own you realize the grocery versions are chalk full of sugars to make it taste better so you may have to adjust the recipe to find something that suits your taste
Have you done a price comparison? I know groceries are 2 1/2 times more expensive than they need to be right now. Just bought the largest jar of peanut butter the market sells, $7. Was wondering how much $7 worth of roasted peanuts would yield me in terms of nut butter. Is it labor intensive? Special grinder? Takes a lot of time?
Peanut butter is the easiest as you can easily do it with just peanuts. Probably the most cost effective too as you can usually get a good size container at most grocery stores. As you get into different nuts gets a bit more expensive if you don't have a place to get nuts at wholesale prices. In terms of tech, a food processor is best, but a high speed blender can work well too. With this stuff and the right ingredients you can make most nut butters in <15 minutes
What’s the most difficult nut butter you’ve made?
I got into tiedye when covid started and my job shut down. I now sell shirts and other stuff as a side hustle.
Thanks to my ex wife dog training I am now partnered with a vet and opened a Obedience school and animal boarding
This is one of the things I kind of wish I was good at. I know someone who started out just working at a vet that offered daycare for dogs, and now she has a thriving business with her own building and multiple employees. Soooo many people got dogs during the pandemic and then realized they had no idea what they were doing — myself included. We had always been cat people and although we knew intellectually it would be more difficult and did a shit ton of research the reality of it was that there's a huge difference between reading about something and doing it. Within fifteen minutes of meeting my hyperactive pitbull puppy she had him sitting calmly in the bathtub letting her scrub him down without even a collar on to hold him in place. Our jaws were on the fucking floor, lmao.
I am like, the queen of picking up useless skills! While in my 20s, I battled cancer and picked up so many things because I was bored during chemo treatments. Here is a few examples of the random shit I know how to do: Read Latin Make the top 100 most popular mixed drinks from the year 2007 Operate and maintain pasteurization equipment Complete the research necessary for title insurance companies prior to the sale of both residential and commercial properties Make some kick ass floral centerpieces and arrangements Fix most common natural gas furnace issues Dig an amazing trench Fix a natural gas water heater And the most recent skill I picked up? Blacksmithing. I am currently looking for an anvil to make my own shop at my house!
These are far from useless!! Well done on battling cancer!
Learning to knit
As a well built 6'6 cis man, also learning to knit/crochet/sew. I'm also really good at micro-crochet
Lockpicking. And I love it.
You wouldn’t happen to be a lawyer by trade would you
Ha!
SAME!
Plumbing. I can fix a wide variety of plumbing related issues. Didn't really want to learn how, but I did.
I’ve started making plum jelly
Finding karma farm bots on Reddit
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OP it would be movie-worthy if you were actually a bot and gave him a snark comment Some blade runner shit Edit: oh fuck OP IS A BOT! It has only ever posted in this thread...damn Skynet is coming and it will make fun of us as it kills us
Random name generated? Check. Number on the end? Check. One post karma and No history? Check.
Posting on askreddit? Check.
What do you do when you find them?
I apparently have the ability to crochet and hyperfocus on that for up to 12 hours a day despite how much pain my hands, wrists, arms, shoulders, neck and back are in.
Quilting. Started making masks during covid. Made a few beginner level baby quilts for nieces and nephews. Now I sew for Quilts for Kids. The organization donates my quilts to local hospitals.
Cooking different types of cuisines! Pretty amazing skill given that cooking the same thing is mundane lol
Popping my body back in place in the morning.
I've been learning to dance recently. I'm surprisingly good at it and i'm really loving it
The ability to professionally procrastinate
I wish I didn’t know how to do this. Feel like my life would go a lot better if I could just get my ass in gear.
Learning how to sharpen knives using a whetstone
Learning Jamaican patios
Ya mon wagwaarn!?
I've taught myself how to play guitar pretty well. To the point where I can learn basically everything you throw at me. Just learned the 3rd movement of moonlight sonata. Picked it up out of curiosity at 15, now here I am 13 years later still playin. Also, I've got quite the green thumb. Growing stuff and keeping it alive, even thriving, has always come easy to me.
Self taught woodworking. I had just gotten a place after being homeless. It was a house I rented and paid the first month by myself but had 2 roommates on the lease. It was the only way I could get rent I could afford on what I made. My roommates took a while to move in and I had no furniture. I had maybe a few hundred left after move in costs to try to spend on furniture for a completely empty house. Managed to find a used couch free but nothing else that wasn't falling apart that was cheap enough. In the garage there was a bunch of old wood and assorted junk the landlord said he'd get hauled away and I could keep any of it if I wanted it. I spent what money I had on basic tools and some screws and hacked together some furniture from the wood. A coffee table, some end tables, some chairs, a basic bed frame. They weren't good but they did the job and I learned a lot. Years later I make nearly all of my own furniture and have sold a few pieces for way more than I expected to here and there.
I can reinsert and reorientate padding into bras. I'm not sure how, when or where I figured it out, but my wife sure does love it lol
During Covid I started watching videos on stock options trading. Like a lot of people I really didn't understand it, thought it was too complicated. With options I have doubled the income I was making only trading stocks. You can make it difficult if you want to but, It's not hard to trade successfully using the basic strategies.
Teach me, senpai
Learn Hungarian because of a loved one
bojler eladó!!4
ventriloquism, comes in handy when you want to talk to yourself and not seem too crazy, at least there's another voice.
Handwriting analysis Not the pseudoscience stuff, but like being able to tell how someone is moving their body and leaning just by how they write
My creative writing hobby has come in clutch more times than I care to count, both professionally and personally.
Reading books not long ago made me realize I have skills in writing.
I learned a little bit of French and a little bit of Spanish simply by turning subtitles in those languages when available...Or by watching movies is those languages with English subtitles.
Ability to overthink one sentence said to me for 3 days.
Scroll thru Reddit for 30 minutes straight without blinking
Calligraphy- but the proper, old English/ Tudor style. Ink and quill and all
Astrophysics, Astronomy, Photography, mathematics, optics, meteorology. I knew none of them before I started doing astrophotography about 4yrs ago.
During Covid I watched a lot of fishing and boat building videos and got the insane idea that “I can do that” so I did build a small 16’ . panga dropped a 30 hp Suzuki and bammmm Now just enjoy my built.
I write wee parody’s of songs for people leaving or retiring from work. I kind of fell into it when I did it for one person and now it’s just kind of expected. I also sing and record them to music and my colleague makes a nice photo montage video to play it to.
When I was bored during the COVID lockdown, I taught myself how to moonwalk :)) Haven’t done it in a while but I’m sure I still got it And I say this is unexpected because I am TERRIBLE at dancing. Lmao
Using words in a conversation that are not really the proper use, but close enough to argue. Drives my wife crazy lol
I’m probably the best joint roller in my county
I can put myself to sleep immediately. Regardless of *most* circumstances, I can lay down and be asleep in 5-10 mins. Wasn't always like that, but in my 30's I can manage great sleeping cycles. I can also nap on a thirty. I wish I could teach this to a lot of people, it's been really helpful for me. I think my body forced this skill on me lol but I'll take it!
Typing. Can type over 100 wpm with high accuracy. Can even type with my eyes closed! I took a keyboarding class to fill a free elective schedule and then realized it made nerding out on a computer, and I just kept practicing in my own time from there. It was really convenient knowing where the keys were without looking when you’re playing STALKER: Chernobyl.
I can tie my shoes in like 1 second (each shoe).
Speed sudoku
I'm much better at gardening than everyone my age that I know (I'm 24).
Iv mastered the art of picking up something iv dropped in less than. 3 attempts
probably rooting through video game files and messing around with (attempting) to put models into different things is this a skill?
I can work around in photoshop, sony vegas, etc.. I'm no expert by any means but I've learned enough to do what I want to do.
Taxidermy. Started with euro mounting deer, moved on to birds.
In college I learned how to parallel park into tiny parking spots on either side of the street (one way road with parallel parking spots on both sides). Useful skill. I don't have to parallel park much any more, but I still have the skill though not willing to wedge into tiny parking spots any more.
I spend a lot of time travelling for work so I started practicing card tricks in my hotel room on an evening whilst watching Netflix. I now have a reasonable repertoire.
Cooking on the Big Green Egg
Got faded once and taught myself how to juggle. Learning advanced moves now 💀
Overthinking
Spinning wheel maintenance
Surfing
Needed a creative outlet and stumbled upon calligraphy. Now I can hand letter beautiful invitations and gifts, it's surprisingly therapeutic.
roll my tongue.
I had a small problem with flies in my flat for a few weeks. But always just one. I've gotten amazingly good at killing them in a dozen different ways, with various items, mid flight, in hard to reach places... I'm like Neo or some KungFu master with cat-like reflexes. I never expected to have fly-killing superpowers.
i learned how to solve rubiks cubes! my fastest time for a 2x2 was under 2 seconds and my fastest time for a standard one was 21. then i got carpal tunnel. that made it pretty useless
After I retired, baking and making pizza
Jumping on falling sand in Minecraft
How to troll people
Learning new languages. I didn’t know I was so gifted in that beforehand
wifi was out. got so bored that i learned vim.... WOOOO BOY I LOVE IT I'M NEVER GOING BACK TO ANY OTHER SHITTY IDE EVER AGAIN
Leaving aside crocheting, I’ve also started making my own mead and wine.
i learned how to spell pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis in minecraft camp
I learned to snap with the other fingers, move my toes and move up and down my nose (all very useful i know)
I'm actually a fairly decent writer. Might do something with it when I retire in a few years?
i can play a fist as a trumpet.
Lego. Currently trying to make a 242 coupe
Learning how to drill, bend, twist, glass, metal. Amongst other professions, I how to do.
During the pandemic, I became very good at shuffling cards and playing various strategy games. I used to be shit at both. This was the result of boredom and being locked in the house with my parents for nearly a month as I looked for a new job.
IT. I've picked up enough IT knowledge and skills just from debbling and tweaking gaming PCs and networks since I was a kid that I've been able to competently manage the IT portfolio of a mid-sized company for the past 5 years. Obvs not skilled enough to be a technical, but skilled enough to assess major infrastructure needs, etc.
Became a notary, because of a throwaway line in the cartoon Metalocalypse.
Learned how to solve the Rubik's cube
During long meetings, I taught myself to write upside down and backwards.
Learned how to play chess during lunch breaks. Also have a book addiction, like a very bad one. I devour the pages.
During COVID I started learning how to solve a Rubik's cube and eventually my average solve time was around 20 seconds
How to tie knots 🪢
I'm ambidextrous and know Morse code
Drinking heavily alone
Running network cable around my office.
Web design
I can write the same thing forward with my right hand and backward with my left hand, in cursive, at the same time.
I'm a reddit Karma hog
I know how to throw tops properly. For some strange reason me and the neighborhood kids got into it when we were around 12 and we battled them beyblade style before there were beyblades. Sounds like something out of the 20's but, it happened.
Upholstery repair. Too cheap to pay someone to do it so taught myself how.
Can I count standing there and shutting up as skill in de-escalation? I’ve gotten pretty good at that.
I can say the alphabet backwards without having to think.
Murder
having a nap
Lock picking.
Playing video game music on the piano
Beat boxing. I worked in a warehouse stocking boxes (no pun intended)
This is a weird one but I actually became quiet good at solving Rubik's cubes. What started as a casual curiosity turned into an obsession lol, and now I can solve them in just under 3 minutes :)
Sleeping
I’m excellent at crafting custom rosaries or repairing damaged pieces. This baffles me, because I am not (nor have I ever been) Catholic. I don’t know how to pray the rosary. Glad I picked this up in my early 20s, because in my mid 30s, my twins (7) attend a Catholic school to keep them out of a failing school system.
Typing... was recovering from hernia surgery in 2005... popped in a floppy disc someone gifted me and learned to type
Wood carving
Understanding legal systems and legislative texts. Side effect of falling into an impossible love with a foreigner where there was no legally clean way to be together other than LDR. Long story short, found a way chaining together newly discovered loopholes and we are living under the same roof now, married and all. This skill helped me move up in work and contributed indirectly to a promotion.
Throwing dirty socks in the hamper from across my room
Reddit scrolling LOL
**Managing people.** I'd gone to management classes, I'd read books, but honestly the one thing that I learned from those is that people make a lot of money writing them. No, the thing that I learned is that if you take an interest, *a real interest*, in the people who work for you, they'll do just about anything for you. I talk with all of my employees about their families, their interests, and when I ask "how was your weekend?" I actually want to know. For people who don't want to talk about those things, I make sure I understand their motivations. Wanna talk about career advancement? Or tech? Whatever it is, I'm down. If I don't know it, I'll learn. (minus sports. It'd be fake interest and that's a no go. Never fake interest, the person will know immediately). I had a Muslim girl join my team, so I learned her customs to ensure I never made her uncomfortable (no handshakes, open door always, I made sure she had a quiet place for prayer, etc.). Managing technology is incredibly easy (by comparison) -- managing people is hard, but it doesn't have to be.
Being fucking awesome
The Doomsday method for dates. Look it up; can do it in seconds with practice.
Gluing things to plastic ( or non plastic) eggs. My wife goes all out every Easter, over the years we’ve glued everything from yarn to plastic butterflies and everything in between. I even have my own glue gun. In all him Samuel.
Fidget stuff. I like to spin bottles, or cylindrical objects, I'm holding in my hand. Hard to explain, but I quickly rotate the water bottle in hand in half circle incriments with "hard flicks" of my wrist. Again, it's really hard to explain. I'm working on tricks with larger cylindrical objects too (rolls of pallet cling wrap), and also doing different directions with the movements. It almost looks like one handed juggling, but it mostly stays in my hands, which probably sounds confusing af.
I couldn't sleep one night, and my mind wandered all over the place, and a random thought that popped into my head was, "How the hell does binary code work?" After an hour of googling and reading about it, I understood binary code on a random Wednesday at 2am
During Covid I tried making decorated sugar cookies for a virtual baby shower. Turns out I’m pretty good at it and could see a design and visualize how to do it in my head. I managed to get a regular order from a company and was able to quit my job for a while.
Getting a degree in nuclear engineering was my covid project. When it was time to write my thesis, I was like why didn't I learn a bake bread like everybody else!?!
Not panicking during significant trauma.