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We all have talents. Some people who can’t sing, draw, or perform on stage will tell you that they are not talented, but that’s not correct at all. Talents come in all forms and shapes, and if you can make total strangers feel comfortable around you in your first meeting, that’s your talent. It may take you some time to discover your hidden talents — because we usually don’t know where to look — but once you do, put them to good use and wear them proudly.
But even if you can’t do something naturally, there is always a way to learn it. In fact, everyone around you, from your family to school to potential employers to HR, will always encourage you to find some new things to learn, and every skill you have will be celebrated one way or another, right? Well, it turns out, not really. Some unusual skills you have might look really suspicious to others. Even though these weird talents — like being able to precisely remember a conversation that took place two years ago or knowing how to pick the lock of your own house — might not be harmful or dangerous, people will still find it quite bizarre that you can do it.
Users on AskReddit shared their special talents that always result in a couple of raised eyebrows whenever people find out about them. Do you find them suspicious too, or do you have skills that other people deem questionable? In your opinion, what are some cool skills to learn that you would actually spend time on acquiring?
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#1
"Reading body language and being particularly sensitive to people. I have a friend who's so good at it that he knows what you're going to do before it ever even crosses your mind. First time he pulled the whammy on me was when I was just about to look for the remote and he handed it to me."
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#2
"Knowing the proper way to dispose of/bury a body, without it being discovered. Growing up on a ranch, you have animals die. Disposing of the carcass without attracting scavengers and predators to the ranch is a vital skill to have. I've had a few weird looks from people when watching crime shows where bodies were discovered, and pointing out what they did wrong. Along with that skill, ranching brings the ability to quickly skin, clean, quarter, and butcher a carcass. I've learned to just be quiet during those shows."
#3
"Having mentally prepared for chaos or emergency scenarios in your head so when they happen people are shocked that you actually had a plan. An overthinker."
#6
"Cleaning out stains. I cut my hand pretty badly once and blood got into my white shirt. I tried to clean it myself but the stain never got out. I told my mom who told me to bring it with me when I came back for Christmas break and she cleaned it. By the way, she didn’t even bleach it. Her ability to clean stains so well has since then been suspicious to me."
#7
"Avoiding people. Everyone assumes I'm up to something because I spend so much time alone and out of sight."
#8
"My grandpa, (I swear he was magic) could always find a front-row parking spot for anywhere we went. It didn't matter if people were parking out in the grass. If he drove up to the front there was always a spot. If there wasn't then immediately someone would pull out of their spot to leave. ALWAYS. Sadly, he did not pass down this magic to anyone."
#9
"Moving through unreasonably tight and cluttered spaces normally. My friends and I used to hang out at an extremely cluttered warehouse that belonged to a hoarder friend. It was full to the point where moving at all without getting stuck on something or causing a garbage avalanche was difficult. And there I was just gliding through hills of hoarded garbage like some kind of ghost, they told me it was creepy."
#10
"Imagine a guy at work who tells you not to forget your wife's birthday next week. Yea I'm that guy. ADD has thaught me to remember the things I pay attention to."
#12
Spatial awareness. "I can look at something and tell you whether or not it will fit onto a wall, into a box or car, through a hallway or stairwell, etc. I was at a shipping store a few months ago and a guy was in line behind me trying to figure out which size box to get for the box he was trying to fit into it. I pointed at a specific size and said, 'That one, but only if you put your box in this side up.' It slid in perfectly and he gave me the weirdest look."
#13
"Being able the strike up a rapport with random people. After someone else see's you do it they act weird like you're a Jedi or something."
#14
"Breaking into someone's car. A few years ago I was at a new job and a coworker locked her keys in her car. I got the door open in under a minute. The security guard watched me and had some concerns with the speed at which I opened that car without damaging it."
#15
"There was a restaurant in a 'Hyatt Hotel' that had a casino, the waiter from that restaurant remembered our preference when we showed up with a friend 6 months later."
#16
"I've forgotten my apartment key to the point that I can pick my own lock. People find that suspicious."
#17
"Closing the door handle with no sound. I hate it when people just simply close the door making an annoying sound. Can’t you just turn the handle and gently close the door?!"
#18
"Googling, oddly. People find it unsettling how quickly I can learn stuff that untrained people aren't supposed to know. All I did was google search till I found the info and then gave it a try."
#20
"Remembering things about them they forgot. I told my friend I was getting a job at a store we know. She told me, 'I think I’ve been there before.' Then I told she has and I repeated the conversation we had, word for word. I got some weird looks from her lol."
#21
"Lock picking. My friend got locked out so I grabbed the bobby pins out of my hair and started picking. He thought I was a criminal, it was a master lock."
#22
"Paying attention. I mean when someone is talking, paying them absolute attention - what they are saying, how they are saying it, and why they might be saying it. People don’t like this."
#24
"Microsoft Excel. I found that by taking over reporting from others because it took them so much time. I’d automate it to pull from the database where the previous owner was spending 2 hours a day copying/pasting hundreds of cells. A couple of hours of work once and I hit a button. Done."
#30
"Being able to recognize pills. No, I'm not a drug dealer, I just work in a pharmacy and some of them are very recognizable."
#33
"I am super good at lying when the need arises. Like very good on the spot and it freaked out an old friend of mine. I'm just super creative, and have a worst-case scenario mind so I think of a lot of possibilities."
#34
"Good at finding purposely hidden items. Thanks my parents for hiding my devices as a kid."
#36
"Being unbothered by blood and guts. I’m a veterinarian. I’ve spent days up to my elbows in all manner of bodies and parts and fluids. I can watch surgery or necropsy videos over lunch."
#40
"Anything with a computer. If you're good enough, with literally anything to do with computers, people will think you're able to hack computers."
#41
"I once got into hydroponics. Of course, none of my friends thought I was just growing kale and tomatoes."
#42
"Counting calories and knowing how many calories are in every food that exists. Not always but typically a sign of an eating disorder."
#43
"Not speaking a lot. Ok, guys, I don't like talking and I don't feel like there is something that requires talking now. That doesn't mean I am plotting something."
#44
"A substantial knowledge of chemicals, who thought being a farmer would give me benefits of chemical knowledge."
#45
"Sales. When your friends and family realize you can talk people into things for a living, sometimes the sharper ones wonder what you’ve talked them into."
#47
"Not really every day but I'm ridiculously good at finding 4 leaf clovers... It kinda freaks people out when I find 10 in less than 5 minutes. I'm not even a particularly lucky person."
#48
"Remembering things about people. I've lied about not knowing things to not seem like a creep."
#49
"People that are able to drastically change their personality, or the way they talk and act when around different groups of people or someone else arrives."
#50
"Finding a lot of information about someone online given a small amount of information about said person to go off of."
#51
"Detecting undercover police. You look very criminal. Even if you don't commit crimes. I became very good at it so I could be entertained by the events that would unfold."
#56
"I have a friend who could memorize numbers - esp plates of vehicles. He'd then be able to recall it after months in totally random conversations."
#60
"As a security system salesman, it’s literally second nature for me to notice every aspect of someone’s security system at their house. Even if they don’t have one. It’s part of my job as I should know what a potential customer has before I make my pitch. And to be honest, if you own a ring doorbell camera, please don’t put it above your garage door. It looks bad and honestly doesn’t make any sense."
#64
"Speaking French. There is ALWAYS something suspicious about people who can speak French fluently."
#66
"Tearing boxes. I had a female co-worker who knew how to tear huge boxes like it's nothing. Like in two seconds, there is nothing left out of the box. The first time she did it she got a lot of strange looks."
#68
"Counting bills quickly. Learned when in Uzbekistan, a place where the highest denomination was 1000 but a meal at a restaurant costs 20-30k."
#69
"Telling almost instantly by feel if a bill is real or counterfeit. Though I think more people should definitely be able to do it."
#78
"Swiftly tapping my card and passing through the turnstiles to get to the subway. One time a lady thought I was fare evading because I got through way too soon after she passed through."
#79
"Reading traffic based on sounds, sight, or just the wind. I don't like the noise of the city so I'll drown out the noise and just look straight ahead but move only my eyes. Took a while to learn but I can walk across some of the busiest streets with just a glance at the cars."
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