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Someone Asked, “What Is The Most Basic Thing You Are Terrible At?,” And 32 People Delivered
Most people have a certain skill that, even though very basic and mastered by most people around them, still doesn’t come easy for them.
Among the examples are activities and processes as basic as proper breathing or folding fitted sheets, while the reasons behind it may vary from a person’s innate qualities, lacking patience, good teachers, or practice to simply not caring enough about it.
And these people are listing these kinds of basic skills they aren’t very good at, answering one Redditor’s question: ”What is the most basic thing you are terrible at?”
Do you have something to add? Please, share your thoughts in the comments below!
More info: Reddit
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Doing anything while someone is watching.
You have no idea how judgemental Kid Charlemagne is. Fuzzy bastard.
Remembering somebody's name.
If a person comes up and says, "Hi, I'm Jim Peterson," I will have forgotten it by the time I've said "Hey. I'm NoxWild."
Comforting sad people. I'll literally just stand there and be like, "you .. .you want some water?"
If it is a person I am comfortable with my main go to is "Do you want a hug?" And hold them as long as they need it. Sometimes adding "It will pass, it might pass like a kidney stone, but it will pass." For those I am not comfortable with, I just listen. No interjecting, just letting them talk.
Small talk. I turn every casual conversation into an awkward dance of random facts and nervous laughter lol
Ok. First 5 and with all I'm like: same. Don't think this list is about basic things at all. More things that some people perceive as basic.
Handwriting. It doesn’t seem to matter how hard I try it always looks like a drunk spider has stood in ink and wandered across the page.
Edit: Not a Dr so please ignore any medical advice I give out
I grew up before computers. I thought cursive was dumb then. I print so it's legible and mostly use the computer for correspondence, notes, etc. so everything is legible, neat, and consistent.
Parallel parking. It's like my car has a force field that repels itself from the curb I swear
Omg a few years ago I needed to parallel park in a narrow street. A police car (!) waited behind me as it was to narrow to pass. In a feat of glory I have never since repeated I aced it and the two young cops (male, I'm female) cheered and gave me thumbs up when they passed. I took it as a compliment but hell, I was never as nervous or relieved in my whole life
Sense of direction. I navigate around well due to memorization. I have no feeling of which way to go. I can get lost after using the restaurant bathroom easy.
Sleeping. It takes so long to fall asleep. And I wake up wide awake multiple times a night. Nightmares constantly. I’ve tried all the things. Dark, light, silence, noise (tv, fan, white noise). I’m exhausted. I have a sleep study on April 29th. Cross your fingers they can help me cause your girl is sleepy.
Eating just one chip.
My attempts at folding fitted sheets are a chaotic masterpiece. It's like wrestling an octopus into submission every time. Does anyone feel me?
My husband and I work together to fold them. Still, or cannot be done.
A signature that doesn’t look like a child forged it.
My signature, except the first two letters, just looks like me writing my name normally. It takes so long to write it!
Any DIY. I grew up with a father that could do anything and really well, electrics, plumbing, plastering, carpentry, mechanics, you name it. I can drill a hole in a wall, and that's about it.
I wanted to learn from my father and grandfather (both handy), but they either "never have time" or "you're a girl you don't need to know it" and now I'm a renter so it's not like I can experiment a lot with video tutorials since the risk is too high I'd f**k up and lose my deposit.
mental arithmetic
My brain just shuts down if it's anything more than simple addition. Yet my highest score in year 12 was for maths, because it is mostly knowing which equations to put into the calculator. We had two exams, one open book and one not. Still did well enough.
I'm Filipino, I'm supposed to sing like an angel.
I'm part of the 10% of the population who cannot sing to save their life.
Well, as my mom will tell you, in kindergarten I failed at skipping. They even put a note on my report card. So don't ask me to skip for you, I can't do it.
Driving. 29, never learned.
So many with a license are bad at it. If it was up to me, the standards would be way higher. It shouldn't be something that everyone should be able to do. It's a skill. And that's coming from someone where the standards are already pretty high compared to some other countries.
Where oh where do I start. Let's see:
Comforting People
Doing things when watched
Explaining things to someone without speeding up cuz if I slow down I start losing all thoughts
Handwriting
Acting normal
Holding a conversation with a stranger
Staying still
Whistling
There was a woman who worked as a cleaner at my college. The part of Guatemala she was from had a tradition of amazing whistling that could be heard from quite far away. I learned to imitate her well enough that I could impress many people (unless they had heard that woman herself - then my imitation made them sad). Somehow, I lost the ability and can't whistle beyond making a hissing sound.
Breathing.
My lungs have collapsed twice to fatal levels. Spontaneous Pneumothorax.
I had to have surgery to permanently glue my left lung to the skin of my back.
I still occasionally feel them have "mini collapses" once or twice a year. But Anything less than 25% or so (I am not a doctor) can fix itself.
This makes strenuous activity, like going for a jog, a bit difficult. If I feel that familiar pain, everything stops for that day.
Holding a conversation.
Same. Replying to stuff works ok for me, but I couldn't start a conversation if my life depended on it.
Throwing.
I can throw a ball, but not far or fast. Never been able to. I'm in good shape, I got a good build, but don't count on me to be QB in your football game or pitcher on a baseball team. Something about my arm I just can't get it very fast.
Sewing
In HS I took Home Ec. The part was cooking, I did OK in that. In Sewing, we had a list of what we had to do, a set-in sleeve, a zipper, a collar, darts, and others I don't remember. I made a dress. We had a fashion show and hated it. Two other students were good enough to make several outfits, one of them made a lace-covered tunic with hot pants, I'm old, and lace pants. They looked fabulous.
Cooking, like I'll literally mess up the most basic stuff. I even managed to burn instant noodles once lol
Swimming
Breading. For whatever reason, no matter how many times I see it done or practice, I can never bread meat correctly. It's almost a running gag in our household at this point.
Spailing. Splelling. Spehling. Ah, hell.
same here actualy. I try my hardest 2 spell corectly on this site, but the truth is, since I grew up with techers always telling me 2 saound out the word I want 2 spell, this led 2 me spelling evrything, and I mean EVRYTHING, foneticly. Wich is why right now, I'm typeing this coment wile spelling evrything how I normaly spell stuff. I don't no how many other people have this same problum, since no one ever talks about it. heck, for all I no, I'm the only one in the world that has this isue with saounding out evry word 2 figer out how its spelled. I don't no why my freands aren't like this, but my mother is curently blameing the American educkation sistum for this lol
Making pancakes. I can cook otherwise, I can bake, but for whatever reason, I can’t make pancakes.
Grabbing just one beer.
If I have 1 I will probably have 2. But if I have 3 it will always become 8.
Reading an analog clock.
I am 30.
I am a teacher.
Edit to clarify: I know how it works. I can tell the time but I can't look at it and tell instantly. I have to go through a whole process, the same as when you're learning this. So it goes like this in my mind: okay, the big clock hand is at 6 so it's half, then look at the small one..
I taught myself how to read and write when I was 4 and have an iq of 124 but my brain won't let me tell how to read a clock instantly.
Hanging anything on the wall level. I know how, even use the right tools. Always crooked, every time.
I'm physically unable to fold shirts so that they look good. Especially long-sleeved ones. Also, as an introvert, I loathe phonecalls. If there is any alternative, I'll always take it.
I'm physically unable to fold shirts so that they look good. Especially long-sleeved ones. Also, as an introvert, I loathe phonecalls. If there is any alternative, I'll always take it.
