What's your real-life superpower?

CaspianXI@lemmy.world to Asklemmy@lemmy.ml – 76 points –

What special ability do you posess that most people don't have?

126

I have an uncanny ability to figure out the optimal size container to use to store leftovers. Kneel before my power!

I am your nemesis, I inevitably dirty several containers trying to find the right size.

We can fight when I am done doing the dishes.

Lol, my wife just ends up using an obscenely large container for the tiniest bit of left overs.

But can you find the correct lid to that Tupperware?

I can tell whether a food has milk in it simply by eating it and waiting a few minutes.

It’s kind of a shitty superpower, to be honest.

This is similar to mine. I can detect the presence of nickel in an alloy at a certain concentration by how much it makes my skin tingle. Prolonged contact will result in a rash.

Took me a while to realize that this is actually a real life superpower, but - I can fix things. Throw it away? Meh... Repairing, upcycling? Bring it on!

Me too! The older I get the more I find fixing things is not as common as I thought. Just the other day I was at a friend's place and they were struggling opening a window. Five minutes later it was fixed. The sash spring fell off, super simple fix. They were cursing at it for months without any effort to figure it out, but that's most people it seems.

This yes! Also being able to do something after watching someone do it is a good skill?

Of course! That just show's that you're very good at extracting information of other's explanations and are able to understand the nature of things. Very valuable!

I just suck at learning things from books or other forms of text though

Being unphased by traumatic situations. At least right away. If a loved one dies or there’s a terrorist attack, I feel nothing until usually months go by. It then hits me randomly and I get as upset as you’d expect one to at the beginning.

I have a similar reaction to things. Unfortunately, it often causes people to look at me to figure shit out in the moment. Just because I'm not freaking out doesn't mean I know a damn thing about the correct course of action right now.

I get a different reaction. People see me as disturbed or heartless, I get “What is wrong with you” and “Don’t you feel anything right now?” One time I responded with honesty. Bad call brother. I try to look upset, but it probably resembles the same level of concern one might show when trying to determine the perpetrator of an especially offensive fart.

That's rough, though imagining your description is quite funny.

This is a totally normal response. Check out the book The Other Side of Sadness by George Bonanno if you want to learn more!

Apparently, lucid dreaming. Been doing it my whole life, requires no effort to initiate.

Man it takes me maintaining a dream journal, some MILD affirmations now and then and about 15 Reality check per day to even get atleast one lucid dream in a week and when i get busy and couldnt keep up with my dream journal and reality check, i would need to start from scratch to get to that previous level and that could mean month gap between lucid dreams.

Being able to lose anything I put my hands on. Not a good power, but it's all I got.

Come over here and put those magic hands on my belly fat, you wizard!

I know when a timer or alarm I set is about to go off. This sometimes works for timers I thought I set, so it's kind of useful.

For alarms, It means I wake up a minute before the alarm

Superpower: catching dropped objects in mid-air, including objects dropped by other people standing near me.

Unfortunately it's a function of hypervigilance, which is quite hard on my nerves.

You are the 3rd person in this post to give this answer - I was going to add this myself, but clearly this is just a regular power.

I don’t feel special anymore!

I forget the plots of movies and books fairly fast, and I'm able to enjoy them "for the first time" many times.

That's amazing! I always wished there was a pill or something that could give me amnesia for a fee hours so I could enjoy something for the first time again.

I have really good reflexes for catching things that are falling. I don't even have to think about it - if something is falling near me that's catchable, my hand will just reach out and catch it 9/10 times. Seems I can override it for dangerous things like kitchen knives. Most of the time, nobody ever sees it happen, so it's also a hidden talent, lol.

Are you me?

One time I was DM-ing for a group of friends, it was late and we were drunk. One of my friends had left a glass behind my dm screen were I couldn't see it (but I knew it was there). I don't remember exactly how, but he bumped the screen and the cup fell from the table

Somehow my hand jumped in an arc going over the screen and under the table to be exactly were the glass was on its way to the floor and I catch it

It's one of my favorite memories

Creepily excellent memory...although only for things that are pointless or people would really rather I didn't remember.

Maybe self-learning. I always learn new stuff using the Internet by myself without asking anyone.

Why is it that every comment has an eerily relevant username?

I wonder if it has anything to do with the person writing the comment being able to choose their username 🤔

Not really a super power, but I’m deaf since birth, hearing aids since 3 months old, and I can read lips from ten feet away, which means that I can follow a conversation perfectly fine bc I can read lips, while everyone else has to have someone shouting in their ear from a foot away in noisy environments.

Okay, story time? Have you ever read lips to a conversation and learned some juicy gossip?!

Haha, if I have, it never made it into my memory. But I did have an FM system for school as a kid. Sort of like a microphone the teacher wore around their neck that streamed the audio directly to my hearing aids. The signals could go far. If the teacher forgot to mute it or turn it off, I’d hear the sounds of them going to the bathroom down the hallway. Which was super irritating when I was trying to focus on my notes.

I find that I'm really calm in emergency situations. When someone (including myself) gets hurt, I have a way of being the guardian in the room that stays calm and gets things done.

I broke my wrist pretty bad at the start of the year, to the point that I had surgery done and now have a metal plate and 7-8 screws. When it happened, I was oddly in fucking zen mode--despite the pain. I called my wife calmly, instructed someone to call an ambulance for me (made sure to specify non-emergency since it was a closed fracture), and made jokes at the hospital and in the ambulance. I was even taking selfies during all of the hospital procedures so that I could document it.

Outside of that, I'm an anxiety and ADHD-riddled mess that can barely make a decision on what snack to eat, and feels like he's productive at nothing.

This sounds like my fiancé. She’s also riddled with anxiety and adhd which actually makes sense. She spends everyday and every moment bouncing around in her head analyzing every little thing and possibility that when something does actually happen she’s ready for it.

It definitely ties in to how our ADHD brains work. You're right, it's like we've prepped for every scenario our whole lives. It reminds me of the Futurama episode where Fry drinks 100 cups of coffee.

Bit embarrassed to admit this, but I used to seriously believe I had the ability to read woman’s minds.

I used to walk into a party/bar and instantly know if I was going to have sex with a particular woman. This was virtually infallible. (Disclaimer: This didn’t happen every time I went to a party, nor did I necessarily choose the woman, but every time I felt that feeling I was right.)

Turns out many years later I realized I just had a good understanding of woman’s body language. And could tell when a woman found me attractive enough, and was horny enough, to let me pick her up.

FTR I do feel foolish for ever thinking I had some supernatural ability with women, but I was somewhat attractive and charming, so that went to my head.

I used to walk into a party/bar and instantly know if I was going to have sex with a particular woman.

I can do that too. It's very easy for me. The answer is always the same: no, no they are not

I can hang things straight without using measurement tools. I just ‘sense’ it is straight. A nice power to have.

I have cat-like night vision, and can see just fine in lighting that most people would call "pitch black".

I don't cry when I chop onions. If I'm chopping dozens of them, everyone needs to get out of the kitchen because the air will get potent (but I won't notice).

I thought I had this superpower, but it turns out I never chopped enough onions. I got a job in a restaurant and I couldn't even keep my eyes open near the onions.

Very accurate sense for when shit is about to hit the fan and it's time to GTFO.

.......comes from having PTSD and a whole lot of trauma, but hey, I'll take what I can get.

Saaaaame. And the ability to read people like a book. Coworker didn't believe me. Warned him, still held back, he was a little terrified.

I can hear the most minute of sounds. Even my kitten walking around downstairs (on a marble floor).

On the other hand, I hear way too much noise and have great trouble understanding speech because of it.

Just last week, it allowed me to hear the spinning of wheels stuck in mud a couple of klicks from my house, while I was eating dinner. Apparently someone got stuck in one of the muddy holes caused by the rains, in the middle of nowhere. Dropped him off at his place, and got the car freed the next day.

I kind of have the same thing! We have hearing tests at my place of work and the tests show I have above-average hearing, and it does translate outside the tests as well. It's really nice to be able to hear the intricacies of music for instance.

Unfortunately, it doesn't translate to speech, and I often struggle to comprehend what people are saying, and it gets even worse when it's in something that's not my native language... It's like I can hear the sounds people are making, inflection and all, but I can't quite form what the entire thought is.

Exactly! Unless I know what language they are speaking in advance, it takes a few seconds of listening for the words to appear out of the noise. Honestly, pretty damn annoying when you're on a call. I have to record all of them to be safe.

Grit. Most people think I have some sort of innate natural ability with everything I do. In reality, I just persevere through difficulty and failure, as many times as it takes to arrive at success. The downside is that I have a decent number of things I have tried that I probably should have given up on sooner.

I have color-grapheme synesthesia. I can use this super power to.. Uhmm.. It won me a bet once? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grapheme%E2%80%93color_synesthesia

What was the bet?

I was talking to a friend about this who never heard of synesthesia, and though I was messing with him. I challenged him to write 50 random words on a piece of paper to which I would add colors. He took the paper, and a month or so later he read each word, to which I was able to flawlessly respond with the corresponding color. He did my chores for that week (we were roommates at that time).

That's basically the only time it somewhat benifitted me. The rest of the time it's people asking what color their names are whenever the topic comes up :)

I'm very good at finding four-leaf clovers. Its a skill i developed in little league baseball when the coach would always put me in right field, which the kids never hit to because it was little league. So i just stared at the ground and looked for 4-leaf clovers. I kept finding them all throughout my childhood, and my parents alwats told me i'd diluted the luck from one of those things so much that they each only gave me enough luck to find the next 4-leaf clover.

Good navigation ability and sense of where I am in relation to landmarks, places and even celestial bodies. Also works for time.

Some of my friends need phone GPS just to get around the city they’ve lived in for 15 years!

Jup, I have the same ability. Even in big, unknown cities I almost always find my way back. It's almost like it's saved in 3D in my brain.

I also always know where north is, even inside a building.

Nice. There are dozens of us.

I made a remark about where north is while in a building for a work conference a few weeks ago (the views were nice), and realised the person I was talking to had no idea what I was talking about!

GPS just to get around the city they’ve lived in for 15 years

I do, but only because it knows about upcoming traffic and construction so I can avoid it altogether instead of having to react once you're stuck in it.

I can quickly, with minimal info, triage the work/inconvenience ratio of any given leisure activity and determine whether it is vaible as entertainment.

Very sensitive smell so i can tell somethings burning or notice dangerous smells much quicker then everyone else tho it feels more like a curse cause a lot of smells are overwhelming and makes me sick.

Hardly a super power, but I can rather accurately when meat is done by judging firmness of it. It's what you get when you cook it frequently

In real life people trust me, even if they don't know me. It's the middle aged white lady superpower. Apparently we are the group of people who are deployed to do surveys about personal habits, health, sex, because people trust us.

When younger (and still to some extent) I also seem to get picked out of crowds way more often than statistically normally for things where performers are choosing someone from a crowd. My mom thought it was remarkable, there could be a thousand kids in an audience but always I was picked out to go on stage. And no, I am not exceptional looking, it was not due to looks.

Do you like wearing bright colours?

I remember a local zoo used to have a dolphin show where they'd pull a child around in a small inflatable boat, and I desperately wanted to be chosen for it. My mother helped me pick out the brightest clothes I had that morning, and guess what? I was picked.

That zoo no longer has dolphins. It was not a good environment for them. Well before my time, they even had an Orca - it must have been an utterly miserable existence for it.

I'll have to go back & look at pictures but no I don't think so. I was tall for my age though, but since it was always mixed age groups, don't think it was a literal 'standing out'. But yes - kissed by the whale, the dolphin, the birds, walked tightrope, swung on trapeze, tried to juggle, every show at every theme park, every time.

I can figure out how most software and mechanical systems work by poking around them.

Lemmy guess, reverse engineering is your career?

No that sounds more fun than what I do. I help big orgs adapt XR (like vr headsets) to their workflows.

I'm a supertaster and hypervigilant, so all my senses are dialed up to 11. My memory is also unusually good. Also my son claims I have "Poon vision", but I'm not crazy about that idea.

I can lift 55lbs over my head while treading water

I have a couple, and I love teaching my niece and nephew about them! Most superpowers can be learned with a bit of hard work! I taught my nephew how to switch between "eye contact" and actual direct eye contact when he needs to make sure his point is heard. He told me last Christmas that he still uses that trick on his parents and teachers and it works. I learned it in a sales job. My other super powers include speed reading (which my niece absues to get her assigned reading done faster), guessing people's coat and pant sizes, and predicting peoples actions, emotions, etc. I'm no Sherlock Holmes, and attribute this last one to being adhd, but I was able to pass some of that onto the kids, and I think it helped them a lot. I think its important to see people clearly, like knowing the diffrence between someone being violent or angry vs having an anxiety attack. My niece and nephew have taken this to heart, and I can tell they have made a ton of effort to adopt this 'Superpower'.

Knowledge itself is a super power, if you use it. The more you learn and attempt to understand without prejudice or bias, the stronger your power to help people becomes.

What's the eye contact one? And how do you teach speed reading?

Avoid actual eye contact for the entire conversation by looking near or around the eyes. This part is also a good tip for anyone who struggles with eye contact. The next part comes when you need to make a strong point or get the listener to really believe you. All you do is switch to actual, direct eye contact. It catches people off guard but is subtle enough that it seems like nothing has changed.

Speed reading is basically just practice. Look up youtube tutorials and keep at it until it feels natural. Just don't use it to actually read or you will miss things. My dad made me learn how to do it when i was a kid. While it's uncomfortable for me, it does help me a lot when I'm in a rush.

I know what time is it pretty much all the time, with tolerance of 5 minutes, usually I'm in tolerance of ~3 minutes or less.

I’m like that with elapsed time, also to within about 5 mins.

Ask me what I did yesterday? No fucking clue.

Analytical skills and working memory (RAM)

The ability to remember the lyrics to basically any pop song from 1990s-2010s

I think there's a gameshow for you to make some money off of this power

For me, remembering numbers; like ID numbers, part numbers, phone numbers, etc. When I worked as a parts guy at a shop, I would frequently be able to bring up the exact part that fits the customer's machine assuming I had looked it up once or twice before. If it was something I hadn't looked at in a while I'd still usually double check fitment, but I probably had a 99% accuracy on part numbers.

Give a proper first aid for minor injuries. People tend to dissmiss minor burn/cut/bruises, but first aid right after it is what minimizes lingering pain,.

I'm able to guess plot points in movies before they happen. This includes guessing how the kid keeps the family from eating the meal in Troll 2 and guessing the kind of sword Excalibur was in Sharknado 6.

I can sense years if not decades before anyone else which celebrities are creeps, rapists, rscist or asshole.

Bill Cosby

R. Kelly

Marilyn Manson

Morgan Freeman

Chris Brown

Woody Allen (no wait that's too easy)

Allan Baldwin

Johnny Depp

Thre guy from Ramstein

The what's his name since guy

Elon Musk

And so on. I hated them all since forever and knew somthing is not quite right with them.

The only cases I was shocked was James Franco and Kevin spacey.

And so on. I hated them all since forever and knew somthing is not quite right with them. The only cases I was shocked was James Franco and Kevin spacey.

Seems you hate many people... may be it is just confirmation bias.

damit! well thanks a lot for ruining my superpower 😒

Morgan Freeman? Am I missing something?

It's somewhat well know that he is very abrasive in public with fans that solicit him. I believe that is what is being referred to in this context. I am unaware of any additional "ass-hole-afications" he possesses though.

Do you have any future bets?

Yea. Chris Pratt is one day going to beat/abuse his wife.

If you consider having "thick skin" a superpower in the social media era, then that.

I’m a good lier, I passed a lie detector test while lying.

Pro: highly adaptable, Con: ADHD, Pro: free medication

Also highly adaptable. I’m never concerned with things changing. I just change with it. Also people. I adapt to whomever in with almost immediately and without even thinking about it. Downside of that is sometimes I’m not sure who I actually am. Am I being myself or just the people I’m around.