If you could have one small thing as a superpower. What would it be and why?

Weirdbeardgame@lemmy.ml to Asklemmy@lemmy.ml – 248 points –

I mean small like I sneeze and a 20 dollar bill appears in my hand or something like that. Not classic answers like flying or super strength.

324

To actually fall asleep within a few minutes of laying in bed, and stay asleep until I actually need/want to be awake.

I have this power, and it is in fact... super

A friend of mine does too.

I'm ready to form a supervillain league with the sole motivation of performing unethical research experiments on your kind. This power must be brought to the masses!

I have it too. It took me a few years to figure it out but now I average 12 minutes to fall asleep and can sometimes do it in less than 3.

I used to have insomnia that came from anxiety about my future (I’m guessing.) When I started doing carpentry and started truly exhausting my body I gained the ability to sleep ANYWHERE ANY TIME FOR HOWEVER LONG I WANTED.

It’s seriously amazing. I’m 33 now and don’t have to work quite as hard, plus am used to the long shifts that are hard on your body. I can still sleep pretty much whenever, wherever.

I flew to England once (it was like a 14 hour flight) and seriously slept the entire time. I didn’t even have a window seat.

I did residential construction for a couple years, then 4 in the military, so no stranger to physical exhaustion... Insomnia hit even in those times.

The only way to predictably get a decent chunk of sleep is to kind of bank hours in the days leading up to it. Like if get 0 to maybe 3 hours per night through the work week, I'll sleep like a baby come Saturday.

Never been on meds for it. Was afraid to report it when I was active duty (fucking stupid) and now my rating isn't high enough to cover prescriptions and I don't have regular health insurance so... can't afford them. :-/

I've used ambien and that L one. Benefit/negatives = not worth it. My husband and friends switched to trazodone (safer and cheaper) and really like it. I've learned to put myself to sleep quickly by focusing hard on relaxing each body part for 3 breaths, starting with feet, ankles, lower legs, .... When i wake up in the middle of the night it's harder, but i can usually do it if i concentrate. Oh, when I'm really struggling, adding cannabis helps.

Trazadone works really well. The only drawback I find his if I need to use the bathroom during the night (getting older sucks) - makes me feel really unsteady kind of like I'm drunk.

Ugh brutal man. I hope one day you can sleep well :(

Here's hoping. Cracking away at nursing prerequisites, so assuming that path goes as planned, I'm a couple years away from a job as a nurse, which will hopefully translate to a large enough pay check to afford health insurance.

Light at the end of the tunnel.

You can do it. I believe in you.

Thanks! It's going well so far! Actually rocking a 4.0, but the class I'm in now (microbiology) will likely be putting an end to that. Confident in a passing grade at least, and that's all I really need for admission into the nursing program. Things are moving along!

Fuck yeah! I’m a stupid tradesman so I don’t exactly know what 4.0 means, but it sounds high. I know from TV that it means good. But I don’t know why haha

Not actually sure if it's a universal scale, so could be you just grew up with a different system, but it's a grade point average: 4.0 means all A's so far. There are some instances of students cranking out a 4.1 or some higher value, but I'm not sure how that happens... like you can score 100% on every assignment, and then take advantage of extra credit to get your class grade higher than 100%, but as far as GPA calculation goes, an A is an A... I think.

...also pretty much everyone I went to highschool with who went on to a trade are now financially WAY ahead of the rest of us dumbasses who bought into some other path. You may be less educated, but definitely not stupid - and on the same page, being educated doesn't mean someone isn't stupid... listen to a doctor start talking about something other than their immediate field of study, and you start to realize pretty quick that some of them are just absolute hopeless morons.

I digress :P

Oh wow, good for you man.

I thought it was all A’s, but that also seemed insane to me that someone can get all A’s, and as often as I’ve heard the phrase. But I was bad at school and grew up in a small town so that’s probably why haha

Thanks! I'm lucky to have gotten both good teachers and good classmates so far (both of which can make a huge impact on grade) so I think I owe my current score at least as much to good luck as to my own study habits. I'm also pretty early into the process - I've never been a straight-A student before, so I doubt I'll be able to keep this rolling all the way through completion.

I have the monkey paw version of this where I can fall asleep instantly but can’t stay asleep, I wake up several times throughout the night

Yeah, I get this too kinda. I find I get really vivid dreams when wake up but fall back asleep

The ability to know exactly where anything I think of is located.

You could make some serious money with this power. You could find anyone's lost pet or keepsake.

You could also find missing people. This one has serious potential for good. Realistically, though, the CIA (or your country's equivalent) would take you into custody and force you to do their bidding.

Not to mention the regular occurances of people asking you to locate something they've stuck inside themselves.

Oh shit. Didn’t think of that angle. But it’s okay, they’ll never recognize me because I’ll wear glasses while not using my power and take them off when I go all super and shit. That’ll work!

Can't you just think of the winning lottery ticket?

I guess but I would still use it to find missing pets and stuff. Other people are talking about finding missing people but imo that's more tricky. Finding 1 missing person is just luck but if you are some how finding 10 or 20 people you are going to be lopked into.

Ability to force anyone to objectively confront their own cognitive dissonance by maintaining eye contact.

Possibly too powerful. Some heads may spontaneously combust from a lifetime of preferring their own reality.

Ok but to balance it: it forces you to confront your own on the topic as well.

That would force you to selectively use it since often times reality is somewhere between our personal view of it and other opposing views.

Chose the wrong situation and you'll both be crying in the corner with shatter worlds. Chose the ones where the people are truly disconnected from reality and perhaps you'll change their lives - hopefully for the better.

Ok but to balance it: it forces you to confront your own on the topic as well.

I was actually tempted to include that in the original, but I didn't want to belabor it. :)

I'm fine with this, and would prefer it that way.

Nah, I say that's part of the superpower. After using it a bunch, the weilder will have little or no more cognitive dissonance of their own. Every time they use it will further purify their own thought process. That's like a superpower where every time you use it it replaces a little bit of your body fat with muscle. After you use it a bunch, you end up ripped.

That's not a negative, I think. It might hurt a little at first, but you'll soon have removed most of your own errors and be a better person for it. What more could we wish for?

Any insect that touches my skin realizes the error of its ways and peacefully leaves me alone.

How about any insect that smells you? I don't want curious insects all over me even if only for a second.

Undo button.

Sleep for 1 hour but with all of the benefits of 8 hours.

Just the ability to fall asleep instantly would be a godsend

For me I'd also like to add that I wouldn't wake up just because a loud car drove by. I can sleep fast, but staying asleep is difficult

the ability to know the right thing to say in every conversation

That's way too op

ok debuff maybe, it's the right thing according to the current time period moral standards and not based on what I want to say

I was thinking the inability to speak falsehoods would be useful for troubleshooting. "The problem is with the router." Nope. Not the router. "The problem is with the modem."...

Social engineering. I use it to get people to listen to be so they don't die.

You know when you have a discussion or confrontation, and six hours later you realize what you should have said? My superpower would be the wits to always think of the right thing immediately.

There's a French idiom for this: "Avoir l'Esprit d'Escalier" which means "The Wisdom of the Staircase". Basically, you often think of the best thing to say after you left and are walking down the staircase.

Remote restroom usage

Cleaning up / scrubbing / etc. is as effortless as it appears on commercials.

The ability to fall asleep instantly, anywhere, and choose exactly how long to sleep... And get a full rest regardless of how long that is.

If you get a full rest regardless of the sleep length, why sleep for more than a minute or two?

Because I want to fall asleep and wake up with my wife. It'd be lonely staying up all night by myself.

I'd be too tempted to take a 10 year nap.

Gotta hope they check your pulse right or they might just bury you after a few years. Imagine trying to figure out where you could lay down for 10 years. Immediately got overwhelmed thinking about paying rent and all the work I'd miss. House over run by plant life and roof started leaking until the black mold set in and half of the house collapsed on you laying there.... yikes

There ability to fall asleep instantly, anywhere...

I used to have that back when I started work at 4am... Oh wait, you meant voluntarily.

Perfect control over memory.

So able to remember anything with high detail, but also able to forget the cringey stuff from middle school

Honestly, this is not a minor super power.

Maybe if there was a limit to how much you can remember. Like your brain runs out of storage kinda lol

But you have all the permissions in your brain. If you'd like you can delete English and learn Chinese when you're going on a trip. Maybe you can even forget how to breathe or forget what other food tastes like so I can go on a diet that has nasty food.

My biggest fear would be by the time I'm like 60 i would be attached to too many memories and wouldn't be able to learn new things

Ig it's not too different than regular older people lol. There are some people at work that I've taught them how to attach a file to an email like 5 times already and they just don't learn

I have a disease which limits what I can eat, therefor the ability to digest any food or drink comfortably.

God I feel this. I'm probably not nearly as bad, but I'd like to not have to carefully analyze what I eat anymore

Yeah... It's crap

no garlic, no onions

Guess I'll just fucking suffer then

~~What in the pseudoscience is this crap? Avoid garlic entirely, but no limit on the foi gras? ~~

Edit: FODMAP is not a ‘diet’ in the traditional sense, it’s a diet tailored to avoid triggering flare ups of medical conditions such as IBS. Wish the article had been more clear for those without knowledge of what FODMAP is.

FODMAPs are pretty well understood. There aren't any in meat.

I know this is ancient history at this point, but I wanted to circle back.

I was not familiar with FODMAPs at all before reading the article. And since the article starts by calling it a ‘diet’ I made what I thought was the reasonable assumption that it was a traditional diet.

After you responded I looked it up more generally and now understand that it’s less of a traditional ‘diet’ and instead used to help prevent some medical conditions from flaring up.

That’s on me for not doing full research, and on the article for assuming everyone knows what FODMAPs are and why they are so important to some people.

Sorry for my ignorance.

Props to you for coming back to this. Totally understand your incredulity to this if you thought it was some fad or weightloss diet though haha!

I questioned my sanity for a bit after your first response until I realized what the diet actually was. I was properly confused!

Makes you think that the things you take for granted on a daily basis can be a super power for someone else

Yup. Health is the most important thing you can have.

To be able to hear the soundtrack. Like, if I walk into a building and hear the Psycho “reep reep!” I’ll get the hell out. But if I walk into that same building and hear “bow chicka bow wow”, I’m staying.

For people who are interested in the same things I am to glow faintly, the more similar interest, the more they glow.

When in an argument I want the ability to know what my opponent has to say in advance so I can always interrupt and finish their sentences. Every single one of them.

There are a couple scenes in edge of tomorrow where this is essentially happening. I love the Tom Cruise/Brendan Gleeson conversation

I usually don't like Tom Cruse but the movie is awesome. Saw it many times.

I don't like him at all but his movies are just fucking fun to watch.

But he is an idiot.

Not quite mind control, but I'd like the ability to blast common sense into morons minds by looking at them. Like a psychic mind dart that says, "maybe this line has a purpose and I should get in queue instead of trying to force my way in from the outside" or "maybe I should listen to the sign that says 'don't put your kid on a railing above tiger enclosure.'"

The abilty to change the color of anything.

Anything that would be improved by paint is on the table at a thought.

Likely way to powerful in a combat sense. You could tag enemy combatiants on a battlefield in dayglo orange or turn the whole landscape into that zebra ship paint they used in ww2. Hell, you could just turn everything bright white during the day and black at night except the enemy. Would be a nightmare.

Still, really neat.

Even if you limit it by range, like only recolouring things within 1 meter of where you touch… It’d still be a great power! Imagine the money you’d make, flawlessly painting whole rooms in seconds.

I'd like to be able to give people arch cramps by making eye contact and saying "bipity bopity boo" quietly.

We’re all here think of good things; you’re plotting nefarious powers.

Damnit...I'm in. The ability to make someone believe they have to go to the bathroom really bad but when they get there, nothing was really there. Someone starts to annoy you while you're out somewhere, poof. They go a scuttling.

The ability to make someone believe they have to go to the bathroom really bad but when they get there, nothing was really there.

So, business as usual for men over 60? (Or so I'm told)

I'm a simple man with simple desires. I'm also probably chaotic natural.

Only needing an hour or two of sleep per night, but getting all the rejuvenating effects of a perfect night’s sleep. I hope I would be productive with that time.

Why not just get rid of the need for sleep all together but still have the ability to sleep when you want if you want to?

Google for polyphasic sleep. By fucking with your own sleep schedule you can reduce the number of hours you sleep while still getting the same restful effect. There's a few different schedules, some work better than others. The concept does work though, I've done it.

I’ve looked into those, I’ve even done biphasic sleep a small amount. It sounds like one has less leeway the more one breaks down their sleep into smaller blocks. Which ones did you try?

I was fantasizing about all the things I'd finally do. On second thought I'll probably just use the night to scroll too lol.

If I can get a combo deal of; less sleep, super motivation, super disciple. That would be amazing. An extra 6-8 hours a day would be miraculous! Maybe I’d become like Batman

I'd like to relax people around me, make them happy and communicative. Imagine entering public transport during rush hour, and all of a sudden, everyone around you puts away the phone and people start to talk to eachother, with a smile on their face.

That's my nightmare scenario. I just want to get where I'm going with as little interaction as possible 90% of the time.

That's the whole point of this superpower. No nightmares.

But the having to interact with the other people regardless of how nice or relaxed they are is the nightmare for me. I very rarely want to interact with strangers beyond a hello.

I'd like to be able to double jump, platform video game-style. Mostly pointless in daily life, but imagine how good it would feel?

Are you as floaty as in some video games too? I think a double jump with crappy real physics wouldn't be very satisfying.

At a minimum, I'd want to be able to unrealistically change direction in mid-air.

You would also need it to run off of magic to skip the problem of physics turning the second jump into a bomb.

So I've been trying to work out the part where I keep getting partially phased into brick walls. The double jump appears to be not meshing well with the engine. Never happens with stone walls, wood, nor any others... just brick.

Does lemmy have an equivalent of /r/outside? Because it's leaking a little.

No tendency to procrastinate

Absolutely. Having three exams in the next ten days and realy have to study. Guess whos on lemmy writing about procastinating instead od studying.

My advice, close Lemmy now and start studying.

Promise yourself to study just for 20 minutes (20 real minutes not distracted minutes) and then see how you feel.

Set a timer for 30 minutes and study. Give yourself a 5 minute break / treat. But try not to overload yourself with more info from the Internet.

Came here to say this. If I could get past crippling procrastination, I wouldn't need any other superpowers.

Instead of sleeping at night, let me just plug in to a charger. It would be much more convenient and reliable.

Is breathing underwater too exceptional? I’d settle for charging batteries by holding them, or the ability to revive/kill plants that I touch (my choice, not some random thing or King Midas curse)

Your purpose in life is now to supply power to the grid. At first it'll be great, you're celebrated as a neat way to keep the baseline juice coming as fossil fuels phase out. Then you're asked to stay back a few hours as there's a shortfall predicted, you oblige out of duty. Then one day you wake up in a drugged daze, strapped to a giant battery, your nutritional needs piped directly to your bloodstream as scientists ever so carefully cut you open to try and figure out how this works, because despite their best efforts to keep your wrecked body alive, one day you will die, and the utter reliance of the grid on your free energy will die with it, and with that kick off the downfall of humanity.

Get me out after a couple of decades of the torture and this is the tragic backstory I need to turn evil and plot the end of humanity. Make my savior a nerdy but hot chick (Gal Gadot will work - just put some horn rimmed glasses on her) and have her die while escaping. I think we can get two sequels out of it.

I’d pick charging batteries while holding them as well except only if it doesn’t affect the battery health of the battery. I’d never have to charge my phone again.

Phone, flashlight, gaming system, headphones, laptop, jump start cars, watch (though the Apple Watch wouldn’t be compatible with my super power…same as in real life with all normal chargers).

The real question is if it would transfer energy magically, or would I experience a calorie deficit. That could go both ways in my book.

As someone trying to diet, 100% the calorie deficit 😖

I would like to know every song's lyrics upon hearing the first 10 seconds, think of the karaoke nights 🎤

Be able to see 5 seconds in the future

Like, all the time or on demand? Coz if its a constant thing that would be torture. My ADHD ass can barely handle the present.

1 pound telekinesis in my line of sight. You won't be opening any safes or stealing anyone's gun, but you can do plenty of incredible stuff with even the weakest supernatural power.

I think I would be robbing casinos and thumbing the scale all over the place. It doesn't take much to make marginal opportunities into steady gains if you can cheat physics and break probability.

This power would be super useful. Imagine if using mirrors you could just lift all the dirt & grime off your skin, pick up all the dust on the floor, lift up a small camera and fly it through the air, or eat without utensils

I would love to have the ability to know for any journey, no matter how complex, what time I need to leave to arrive on time.

Knowing everything about my body.

What is my current blood sugar? O2 level electrolyte status? How much shit do I have in my colon?

Kinda like a performance monitor for your body. I would like that too

I'd wave my hand and people arguing or hating in front of me or online, would suddenly be peaceful and conjointly coming up with solutions to their problems.

This would change my life more than any conventional super power.

Take a mental note that I could review later without worry of forgetting it, for times when jotting something down normally isn’t practical such as while driving.

Yeah this would be mine as well, but I would need a small upgrade. To actually remember checking the notes.

Don't worry. The next time you will want to remember something and make a note you will see the old notes too. However, then you also don't have time to check them, lol

The ability to turn most traffic lights green (not all of them just, like 90%), would basically be the reverse of my current super power of turning most traffic lights red

The ability to accelerate my speed of thoughts so I could come up with witty comebacks in real time and not hours later.

Being able to find the exact book page or moment in a Netflix series where I was when I fell asleep last night.

Or when my cat starts to make her first vomit sounds being able to beam her from the carpet to a floor with tiles in a split second.

Taking photos with my eyes. Would help a ton with getting pictures of cool bugs without having to fiddle with my phone and get defeated by autofocus

Exactly once a month, I find a 20 on the ground. It can be anytime of the month and it can only be once a month. How great a feeling to find a 20 on the ground and no one is around?

The 20s are coming from scumbag people like jerks who don’t pick up their dogs poop or are mean to customer service people.

Why not once a day? You'd still not be making much out of it and I think there's enough assholes that you're not making much of a dent to the asshole flux.

The ability to control the temperature (and perhaps humidity and/or composition too) of air within 1mm of my body. Like a personal air conditioner. Would make going outside right now so much more bearable, pretty sure it would help with sleep too... Sigh, one can dream...

oof.. i'm gonna go with slightly above average luck

If it's just enough to beat out the house advantage, it might be all you need.

Not require sleep, ever, with no ill effects (fatigue, mental issues, shortened lifespan, etc).

So much time is wasted sleeping. I have too much shit to do! It's 2am because I was up getting some code working for another team at work, and we just moved, so I have tons of unpacking to do!

it seems kinda op not "a small thing"

Compared to ops super power where he can literally create money out of mucus, it seems very mundane

This is totally unnecessary but here it goes. An average human sneeze less than 4 times a day, lets take it as 4. Recommended amount of sleep for an adult is 7-9 hours. Lets assume OP sleeps 6 hours a day. Considering the only post shared by OP related with the news is a post about Arizona, I assume OP is from Arizona. So I will be calculating with the data driven by Arizona authorities.

OP: 29200$ per year

@smstnitc@lemmy2.addictmud.org: 2190 hours per year => 2190 * 13.85$(Arizona minimum wage) = 30.331,5$

So clearly @smstnitc@lemmy2.addictmud.org's superpower is more powerful.

Source:

fwiw I'm in Michigan, where minimum wage is $10.10.

2190 * $10.10 = $22,119

I make more than that, but I'm salary, so more work actually lowers my hourly wage. I couldn't tell you how many years it's been since I've worked only 40 hours.

I'd like more time to do fun things like read, play video games, run or go for walks, or house maintenance, etc

I was getting ready for bed, having been up several hours past the time I normally go to bed because of work, so my comment may have been situationally motivated

Being able to manually adjust my focus on and interest in what I'm doing.

Someone once mentioned slowing time for like 2 seconds as a terrible super power, but as a skateboarder, I think this would be amazing.

With the example given, I feel like my go-to super power would still be applicable here:

Whatever I draw, I can make real. The first thing I'd draw is a pill that allows me to draw better.

"Small thing" and you immediately go to infinite wishes haha

just a little omnipotence, I'm not asking for much

  • Draw a dog with my maximum drawing skills
  • Drawing become a real dog

::: spoiler The dog :::

The ability to know exactly the right thing to say at any given time. Because I often do the opposite right now.

Sounds like ADHD familiar. Maybe just think a second before saying something, then say the opposite (or anything appropriate) . Problem solved.

Zoom with my eyes! I love birding, having prismatic eyes would be neat.

To be able to stockpile time up to 24 hours. For example, if I'm running late on a project, I can dip into a time stockpile for 8 hours to get it done. At a later time I can then lose 8 hours from my time

On the one hand it does sound kinda minor because you have to give back the borrowed time.

On the other you have the ability to stop the flow of time...

I'm sure it could be OP if used correctly

Every morning when I wake up my clothes and dishes from yesterday are cleaned and put away

  • never be bored.
  • fall asleep instantly.
  • pee and poop teleported straight into the toilet.
  • grow fingernails back quickly.
  • know how to do anything, but lose all memory of the thing when trying to do it, tell anyone, or record it.
  • ability to shapeshift, but your bones and muscles are going to hurt like hell. You think breaking a bone is bad? Try having all the bones in your face rearrange themselves.

Breaking bones actually doesn't hurt much. If it does, it's probably the other parts of the injury that hurt. When I broke my foot I thought nothing of it until I tried to walk. It was not successful. It didn't hurt at all from my memory though.

I would chalk that up to adrenaline. Also the pain depends on where the break is. If the muscles around the broken bone are spasming, then the two halves of the bone are going to be grinding against each other. That's why we use a splint in first aid.

Not adrenaline in my case. I was just messing around with friends and one fell and landed on my foot. It didn't hurt at all from my recollection, but I couldn't walk. But yeah, it totally depends on where it is and what kind of a break it is. The bone breaking part itself though doesn't really hurt. What it causes can hurt and the stuff that causes it can hurt.

That I could tell someone to stop doing something and they'd actually listen and stop.

"stop breathing"

Boom dead. Best assasinatoin superpower.

I dunno, you'd have to get near someone to do that. Before long you'd be hunted down by people wearing earplugs.

I was really just trying for the more pedantic approach. "stop being annoying!"

"stop being annoying. Also, stop breathing next saturday. Tell no one i said that."

Maybe its best i dont get this superpower XD

Get on the loudspeaker at the supermarket. "Stop breathing" instant mass murder...

Reminds me of Code Geass, that's basically the premise but taken to an extreme level.

I really hated how only by the end he realized he can go all "do everything i say forever" instead of actually just giving them 1 command.

Maxed out luck stat

I don't want to know something would go well, I want to be surprised when something goes well

Any species of insect of my choosing within 12 inches of my body instantly die and I can activate or deactivate this power at will.

Or the ability to be fresh out of the shower and perfectly dried off clean instantly whenever I choose.

Overwrite my personality. It would help me so much to become normal dude.

To get my kids to fall asleep at their bed time.

You’re thinking too small. You’ve got to ask to have your kids do everything you ask them to do.

So you say bedtime, they go to sleep. You say sit still and quiet for this particular moment, they listen. You say look here and smile, bam, instant beautiful family picture.

I’d settle for them listening after the third time I asked them to do something. I’m not greedy.

For the sleep thing, melatonin is magical. 1/4 of a 1mg melatonin chewable is barely anything but it’ll knock them out because they think it’s supposed to. I could switch to gummy bears now and I bet it would still work on them.

The ability to not mind driving a car. Like whenever I need to drive somewhere, I just completely black out and my body drives perfectly while my mind is full out. Then my mind awakens as soon as I arrive hand have finished parking.

This superpower is called living in a country with a sane public transportation

My country is sane, but I'm the insane one who decided to live in the countryside where nearly no public transportation exists.

Add +1 to the Credit Score of anyone I positively interact with.

The ability to know if a fruit is going to taste good just by holding it. Perhaps being able to experience the taste of it (when it ripens) by holding it. Perhaps also being able to tell peak ripeness. But that may be op. I’d settle for the first part.

Is it weird that I can already do this with peaches, nectarines, and clementine oranges?

Really‽ I’m so impressed. You must be some kind of superhero.

Happens when you eat about ten oranges every winter day and five peaches every summer day as a child.

(Also, nice use of the interrobang! Been a while since I've seen it.)

That makes sense. And thanks! I have it set as a shortcut on my phone any time I have an exclamation point next to a question mark. It’s not hard to set up on an iPhone, I’m guessing it’s not hard on android either. (Although I think I did have to get a keyboard that had the actual interrobang symbol in it. But also not so hard to find 🤷🏻‍♀️). I am trying to make it a thing. I don’t think it’s working. But I think I got one person at least to do it. So that’s awesome. You should totally do it! 😬

I should write a guide for how to do it and post it somewhere.

The ability to mute any sound I hear. Baby crying, annoying hum, someone snoring, obnoxious drunk? Muted.

Kill every insect within 10 yards of me with a thought.

i could see lies

Even better would be to make people's lies visible to everyone.

"Something's going on with this politician! It looks like he's sweating literal bullshit all over his face! Oh my God the smell! The smell is awful! Oh the humanity!"

I want to be able to build an endless tower of blocks that will never fall over

I could hold my poop indefinitely until I got home.

I'd want a pen or pencil to come out of my fingertip. Retractable, of course. I'm always looking for something to write with and never can find anything that works decently.

I know this is not a thread where one says a superpower and the other a side effect. But how about: "the pencil which comes out of your finger break very often, and to sharpen it you have to spin your whole body 360 degrees a couple of time" , just like a normal pencil sharpener.

Apparently nobody here knows what a "small thing" is.

The ability to know all of someone's usernames and passwords by only looking at a photo of their face.

The perfect ability in the modern age for a secret life as either vigilante or villain.

I could save so much time if I could tell how much voltage is in a circuit just by touching it

Isn't it unsafe to touch a circuit?

(Or is that the joke?)

Low wattage circuits (like I'm usually dealing with) aren't particularly dangerous, even if you had soapy or sweaty skin the most they could do is give you a tingle. It'd just be so nice to be able to trace down wiring issues without having to grab a multimeter and probe around to get info. Also it'd be bad ass to grab a battery and be able to tell the voltage.

True! Thanks for the response.

What are these low wattage circuits you deal with? IoT devices draw more than is safe to touch, I imagine.

For sure! I'm usually dealing with things similar to 12vdc car wiring, up to a couple amps at most. As long as your body isn't an easier path to ground than through the conductor itself then you have nothing to worry about. Path of least resistance and all that, and skin is pretty resistive. I have been bitten by an ignition coil before (like 10k+ volts, maybe a few milliamps), that's an experience you never forget. That kind of electricity can jump through the air and give you a proper zap.

edit: the ignition coil was disconnected from the spark plug, leaving the high tension coil ready to find a path to ground any way it can, like through my hand. A bad mistake I hope I can teach people to be aware of.

I'd take perfect aim when throwing something. You always hit the garbage can, you're unstoppable playing darts. You never miss flinging a playing card at your friends.

You’re suddenly a superstar athlete making tens of millions of dollars. I think we have to disqualify you from the game on those grounds.

The ability to sneeze and get the relief even if the feeling fades.

Weak earth-bending. Like just enough to like dig garden furrows or build sand castles. Even at the same speed that it would take with hand tools it would be pretty fun to mess around with.

I want a power that if someone looks at my back I die but in return if someone looks at their back, they die and pass it on to the next user.

To be able to dream, or at least be able to remember my dreams if I actually am having them. I used to be able to remember my dreams pretty vividly right after I woke up and I could tell when I was having them. Now, nothing.

I am having pretty big dreams. I know it because sometimes I don't get out of the effect after I wake up. But I forgot after 5 minutes or so. Today I woke up, and I remembered initially. It was some huge legendary tale or something, or it felt like it. But I woke up, and knew I would forgot. Maybe I should write it down so I won't forget it.

I do voice memos whenever I really enjoy the dream

And I used to dream like that too. I'd wake up remembering the dream initially and then gradually it would fade away if I didn't write it down. There would be times I would wake up right from my dreams, it was incredibly jarring. Now... it's just a blank slate, like I don't even have the inkling that I dreamt something or a vague impression, just nothingness.

Being able to choose the best fruits/vegetables when shopping for groceries. No more moldy Avocados.

I know that there are indicators that I can already use to determine this, but I want to be able to just pick the best ones every time on first try without even thinking or touching them all.

mustard seed size faith 😄

You don’t have enough faith,” Jesus told them. “I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it would move. Nothing would be impossible.”(Matthew 17:20)

Drawing sth in a way that explains a picture I have in my brain in a very short timeframe.

An infinite money credit card would be pretty small, I think.

But I get it. I would honestly just pick an ability like being able to match other people's problems with the ideal solution if one already exists closeby. So, say, someone comes to me looking for a job, and I just magically happen to know exactly of a phone number for a company that needs them. Someone looking for love, and I just happen to know that if we walk down a certain street and make a certain joke, someone else will overhear and love it. I would eventually have a reputation.

The Levant.

Wait, are we not roleplaying powerful countries?

I already have a minor superpower. Sort of a weak form of telepathy. I can alter people’s thoughts and emotional state with my mind.

As for how my best guess is I got abducted by aliens and they altered me somehow. I do have a bunch of small identical scars scattered around my body.

As for why, I’m not sure. I suspect it might be a scientific study of human morality. Hopefully I’m giving them a good view of humanity with how I use it.

I only use it to help people. I can help people calm down when they’re panicking. I even did it with a dog once: it was a little dog in a shopping cart and it seemed terrified of everything so I just transmitted what it’s like to realize everything’s okay, and immediately the dog stopped shivering and looked around with wide eyes of wonder, then looked at me. There you go little guy.

I’m in sales, and I never use my powers to swing a sale. That’s unethical.

My favorite use of the powers is to enhance parties and concerts. Thought recently I’ve been toning that down too because it’s also kind of unethical. I do feel like operating on a crowd bothers me less than operating on a person.

I went to Ninja Sex Party in Boulder last fall and I helped drive the crowd wild. They said we were their best crowd ever and they’d never had a better concert.

If the DJ sucks I can just activate more of his brain and suddenly he’s on fire. If someone’s looking threatening toward me I can just instill a little irrational fear of me. Their mind fills in the details: “why am I suddenly afraid of that little guy? He must have powerful friends, or I’m being watched or something”

Overall, having a superpower is really weird because people don’t think it exists, and I can’t talk about it without being labeled crazy.

Invisibility, with ability to hide IR and sound and can make recording video cameras invisible too. I'd expose all the corrupt politicians, judges, and CEOs!

That's a fairly major power. The question was about a small thing as a power.

Like the ability to know what judges and politicians are corrupt... From reading the newspaper and their court filings, because they already tell everyone that they're corrupt, like all the time. It's not hidden, it's just next to impossible to get people to care about it. Or to get the right people to care about it.

Like, look at Clarence Thomas, the fucker is corrupt as all hell, and since the Republicans don't care, nothing can really be done. Because it's technically not illegal, and Republicans are blocking any form of Ethics reform.

ability to spawn $100,000,000,000 into my bank account at any time :)

If I put on someone's shoes and walked one mile in them, I could magically perfectly understand everything they're going through.

If I put on someone's shoes and walk one mile in them, I can instantly perfectly understand what they're going through.

If I put on someone's shoes and walk one mile in them, I can instantly perfectly understand what they're going through.