“Which ‘Wow’ Skill Is Secretly Super Easy To Learn?” (50 Answers)

When I was about nine my mum bought me a new pair of jeans and I said thankyou in front of the cashier. I was shocked by how AMAZED the girl was. She even brought it up like wow, it's just a new pair of jeans! I gave her a funny look and said "so what?". She actually called her coworker over to tell her wow look at this little girl she's so polite! It had just never occurred to me that you *wouldn't* automatically say thankyou when someone got you something, regardless of what it was.

Millenial here. Answering is no problem. Knocking and calling on the other hand...

So you don't suffer from anxiety, well done you 🙄

I put my phone on silent a while back. Text me, dang it!

I'm sure OP's boss is super happy about them spending 20 hours of their workweek not working.

Same. I remember being in a work session where we were working on designing a new system, meeting every day to talk through various parts of the system. We rotated who would be at the computer taking notes (which were projected on the screen). When my turn came, the guy leading the sessions didn't know me, so he was first a little concerned that I stared directly at him the entire time he was speaking; he asked if he needed to slow down for me. Then he angrily stopped and told me that the reason why I was sitting at the computer was so I could take notes of what was discussed. Half the room busted out laughing (the half that knew me) and told him to look at the screen; I had not only typed everything he had said (fixing any typos as I went), I had it formatted nicely. It hadn't occurred to him that I could be typing and keeping up with his monolog without looking at the keyboard.

I can do 60 wpm and I used to be able to do 120 and people in work used to watch me type without looking at the letters and think I was magic or something

One of my favorite trick : talking to someone while watching them, and writing something different on my keyboard.

Learned to type on a manual typewriter back in the dark ages. Was pretty fast - 90+ WPM. Became a computer programmer and had to type all those pesky symbols and things all the time - slowed me down to probably 60 WPM. Now I'm getting old and the joints on one hand don't work as well as those on the other, so I'm still fast, but one hand is faster than the other, so I generate some very interesting typos!

when I studied, in the 80s, I wished 10-finger typing was mandatory. For everybody. so much time wasted typing memos and mails

I remember a comedian one said: I can speed read. Last weekend I read "War and Peace" It was about Russia.

Works best on non-fiction, especially as the first read. Funny thing is, I do read pretty fast normally, but I retain the info better if I just read my normal speed. Also, there's no shame to slow readers. I watched a slow reader go through the Harry Potter book series, and they could recall important details that I had missed.

First I have to learn how to stop saying every word in my head. I'm even doing it now. While I'm typing this comment.

That's why new generations can't retain any new information in their wordless brains.

I've tried a few times, never been successful at learning this.

And no weasel apologies! "I'm sorry if I've offended you" is not an apology.

The only time I have trouble with this is if someone corrects me in a mean and humiliating way, but that's because it's a trauma trigger for me. I'll still accept being wrong and apologise, but not until after I've gotten really upset and had a cry about it somewhere quiet. :(

“You’re” for “you are”. “Your” is possessive like “your shoe”.

spelling

Could someone explain to me what John Wayne Gacy has to do with cute balloon animals?

I learned how to do this when I *was* a kid, and it really isn't all that hard. Pinch and twist, pinch and twist. Bam. You're done. Inflating the balloon first is far more annoying than the actual balloon animal part. ...actually, that's got me thinking: I should offer to do this at the next niece or nephew birthday party. They'll love it!

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Careful. You're only a few steps away from following John Wayne Gacy.

This is also due to many people not having access to pools either close by or that don't require a financial membership

I know it's mostly due to access to a pool/creek/river, and I wish there were more access. I live in southeast Tennessee and there are creeks everywhere. I think they ought to make that a mandatory PE class in school, even if they did have to field trip it. I doubt insurance would allow that though. I did have to go get someone who couldn't swim after they fell off a neighbor's boat...without a life vest on.

In Australia, all children are now required to do swimming lessons in Primary School. The number of drownings of children has gone down. Sadly the highest proportion of drownings are tourists and men aged 30-40 (usually a 'hold my beer' situation).

I have taken swimming lessons at least four times (full courses, not just four individual lessons) and I still can't swim properly. I can do a sort of underwater breast stroke/frog kick that gets me across the pool, and I can do a deadman's float (or "soggy cornflake" as one swim instructor called it), and that's about it.

If you don't grow up near water it doesn't seem that important to learn it. Until your plane is going down over the Pacific.

There's alot of room for miscommunication, so by listening then rephrase what they just said, that shows an acknowledgement of you listening

I dated a chef, and he loved my cooking. It made me feel great, and he just really appreciated someone making the effort.

For me it's understanding flavors. If you know what works with what and can imagine it in your head before actually making it, you are more than half way there. You don't need fancy knife skills if you are not cooking for the top speed or presentation.

I hadn't gotten groceries and my son asked what's for supper? I pulled together steak fajitas and he thinks his Mom is a genius cook!

Just as a balance, go to Greece, or Turkey. There are really, really simple dishes that are classics from both. Eat them there. Now, go home and try to replicate those flavors. In that effort, you will learn the difference between understanding how to cook in theory, and cooking.