What's the most useless skill you've mastered, and how did you end up getting so good at it?

raiun@lemmy.world to Ask Lemmy@lemmy.world – 74 points –

I’ve mastered the ability to take any idea or thought and transform it into anxiety. Jitters McGee

62

I used to make miniature food models for fun.

Not really good at it but it's useless and fun.

Not really good at it

I disagree, I would totally eat those thinking they were some fancy snack

Useless? I feel like you could get some commissions from urban restaurants to put these in their street-facing food displays

Im a top 1% player in Rocket League after playing for 4500 hours. The skill gap between me and the best players in the game is the same gap as between me and a brand new player.

But i will still beat 99% of the game's population.

Same for me, but with Tetris. I'm not the best, but I'm confident I can handedly beat the vast majority of the population. I spent most of my lockdown days just doing Tetris.

Similar on Splatoon. Before the recent rank reset I was S+6, it blows my mind that people go up to like S+20. But when the season ends, all the S+x ratings reset to S rank, and playing with normal S rank people recently reminded me of that.

I was literally just about so say same for splatoon, I just hit my highest elo ever and I'm really proud of myself 🥺

Do you play much x rank? I'm surprised to see someone refrencing their anarchy rank as opposed to x power

Did you mean "handily?" Or "single-handedly," implying some sort of Teamtris?

Yup, thanks! I was trying to figure out which word I was thinking of. I must have malaphored myself

As an 800 hour player that has to put the game down because of competitiveness making me a curmudgeon -- Wow, gotta say. That's so much work.

Did you use the practice modes to get to be that level or did it just come to you during play?

i can roll quarters down my fingers continuously because I saw Val kilmer do it in Real Genius and I wanted to be cool like him.

Ha, I saw Val Kilmer do it in Tombstone and always wanted to do it, but never followed through.

he does it in tombstone?

i must have completely forgotten about that.

haha he definitely must have told them that he could do it from practicing on set at Real Genius and they should let him do it in tombstone too, that's hilarious haha.

I can independently write different text with both hands at the same time just as easily as writing with only one hand. I consider this a useless skill because I rarely ever write with an actual pen or pencil, so being able to write with both hands simultaneously doesn’t add anything.

Lots of time being bored in school and an obsession with broadening the mind.

Could you use both hands to write the same sentence twice as fast?

In principle, yes, but this would require some additional effort because of word spacing. The sentence would need to come together and meet at a point.

Basically same. I don't know if being ambidextrous is something you can be born with. I broke arms, wrists, fingers enough that functionality I had to be able to use both hands in school and sports.

I consider this a useless skill

I dont know, friend. thats a bit of a step up from the usual party trick.

best I've got is zero lead hand/leg preference when sparring muay thai. makes me a real lonely or a real popular dance partner depending on the crowd.

So this sounded crazy to me, like I’d never be able to do that, I just grabbed paper, a pen in my left hand(I’m right handed) and a pen shaped object in the other(it doesn’t write) I moved both hands at the same time as if writing with both, and my left hand writing is better than I’ve ever seen myself do, when trying to independently write with my left hand.

I can clap with one hand

Finally answering the zen question of "what is the sound of one hand clapping?"

I just tried and was successful. I have long fingers which probably helps. But it's not as loud as when I clap with two hands.

I can make double fart sounds by laying on my back and cupping my knee-armpits with both hands.

Not entirely useless though; I showed this to my SO 7 years ago when we started dating and she was clearly impressed as she's still hanging around.

I was worried I was the only one! I can also do elbows, neck, and chest. Also eye sockets but it's not very loud, I'm working on it.

I wish you a great success on your journey towards the eye-socket-fart mastery

I can speedwalk very fast and with good stability. It comes on handy when I need to move fast with a glass of liquid, which doesn't come up a lot.

Alternating between American and British spellings like it's nothing. I just use whatever spelling I vibe with at the time. I'll do the same with units of measurement as well.

I can make baby elephant noises because I played trombone and fucked up my first attempt at lip buzzing

I learned to ride a unicycle.

I’ve wanted to do this but I’m afraid at my age I’ll be seriously injured trying.

I learned to ride when I was 17. It took me like 2 months to learn to ride.

I just turned 42 today. If I didn't already know how to mount and ride a unicycle already, I'd probably be like F that as well.

If you fall on an unicycle you land on your feet

Usually yes, but it partly depends on how big the tire is and how tall the unicycle is..

I learned on a 24 inch tire with 6 inch pedal cranks, not stupid tall. I wasn't going for the circus, I just wanted to learn to ride.

My experience says no to this. Maybe usually, but I fell on my ass a few too many times and gave up trying to learn the rest.

I can fluidly open a trash bag, pull it into a straight line, and toss it like a dart, landing it in an open trash can from up to 30ft.

This only works with those cheap bags that businesses use and this was honed over years of changing trash at various businesses. Not useful, very majestic though.

I can't imagine spending the time to master anything and then thinking the skill is useless.

I can palm a tennis ball, roll it down my arm, bump launch it with my bicep, and catch it. Freaks people out who are standing close as the ball launches right at them, but I've always caught it. Discovered later I could do it with anything that rolls like a microphone.

I can stand on one foot and tie my shoe in the air

I taught myself to balance on one foot by brushing by teeth on one foot for a few months lol

Whistling. Took decades and I can do it two different ways (lips and teeth). I now do it subconsciously when listening to music where I’ll typically add other melodies or harmonies. I can bird call pretty much flawlessly. Loudest I get is over 100dB. Average is low 90s. Not much use but it’s fun.

When you say teeth do you mean like with your tongue on the roof of your mouth/behind front teeth? Or is there something new I can learn?

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I am better at helping others flesh out ideas and expanding on them than I am making up my own ideas. I'm good at troubleshooting problems better than most I've ever met. I owe both to PC troubleshooting over the last few decades (from Apple 2e and Pentium II to present). I find that people these days have tunnel vision and focus on short-term gains over long-term payoffs, often to the detriment of future productivity.

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