Sunday, August 27, 2017

What simple task are you surprisingly bad at?

Reddit top voted comments...

Remembering people's names.

Whistling

Fucking handshakes man. I always do the wrong thing. Oh you wanted a fist bump?

Folding clothes. Can take forever and they never look OK :(
Even worse for sheets

Hearing. Sometimes people will say something and ill completely misinterpret it and usually have them say it again a few more times.

Picking up babies. Every time I touch one they cry and people look at me like I'm going to break the damn thing. They'll then take their kid away from me in horror.

Phone calls. Even with people I like and want to talk to.

Ironing clothes.

Using a key. Every time I unlock my door (I never do it if other people are watching; I'll always find some excuse to make them do it), it takes me at least 2-3 minutes of struggling. Mostly the part after it's unlocked where I have to take the key out. I tried Googling "How to remove key from door," but that only turns up results on how to remove a broken key. Because what person can't remove a regular key?

16 comments:

AllenS said...

Trying to not pee on the floor around the toilet.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

This may not qualify as a simple task. I'm terrible at driving stick shift, mechanical transmission. And yet I bought two cars with manual transmission after learning I bad at it.

AllenS said...

That's how you learn to drive them, Lem. I've been peeing all of my life, and my aim isn't getting any better.

ndspinelli said...

The hating phone calls mentioned is a burden on us introverts that many don't understand or have empathy.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

I think the problem is I don't have the foot clutching and hand shifting timing down. So I clutch too much to compensate.

edutcher said...

Remembering faces.

PS Lem, it's a rhythm thing.

AllenS said...

I remember faces, but it's the names that I can't remember.

ricpic said...

Keeping the house clean. Which I don't think is a simple task. In any case I'm bad at it. Affording a cleaning lady or cleaning service is probably the greatest advantage a decent income brings.

ndspinelli said...

AllenS, Same w/ me. My family and friends call me the human facial recognition machine. It comes naturally, but honed over 4 decades as an investigator. The Brits have done a lotta work on facial recognition and search for and find people who consistently beat the facial recognition software. Humans pick up subtle nuances the software cannot. If I see a face I automatically store it. Names..fugattaboutit. Same w/ clothes. If you ask me what the person was wearing I haven't a clue. I just hone in on the face, and spend a lotta time on the eyes. And the face does not need to be personal, I can see an obscure actor on TV or in a movie and tell you where else they acted. I have to catch myself in movie theaters because it annoys my bride.

Are you an introvert, Allen? I sense you are.

Leland said...

Lem, work on timing your gears. In the old days, cars didn't have clutches. To shift gears, you had to get the timing right. If shifting to the higher gear, then you should have enough RPMs to allow the engine speed to drop before entering the higher gear. If shifting to lower gear, you get out your current gear, rev the engine to the right RPMs and shift into lower gear.

Another thing that helps is finding a nice flat surface. Put the car in first gear with clutch all the way depressed. Then slowly let out the clutch. If your engine is powerful enough, try not using any throttle and letting the clutch out slow enough to allow rolling. Where the car starts to roll is a spot in the clutch you want to find. Depress beyond that point to shift gears. Let off above that point to engage the selected gear.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

The first car with manual transmission happened to be a kind of car a girl I happened to like had. She had a stick shift Ford Escort, so that's what I got.

The subsequent two cars where the car I liked, the Volkswagen GTI which only came with manual transmission.

Last time I was with a friend at a WV dealer, he was servicing his Passat, I was happy to see they are putting out an automatic transmission version of the little cars.

ricpic said...

I've always driven manuals and I still go through periods when I jam the gears going from 2nd to 3rd. It's that danged crossing the H thang. What I do is cross over too far and go from 2nd to 5th....disaster!

ricpic said...

I'll bet Troop and Mrs. Troop can afford a cleaning lady @$%#&@#&*!

Trooper York said...

Not anymore ric.

They make too much money.

AllenS said...

I'm not an introvert, I'm a pervert. You were right about the vert thing.

bagoh20 said...

I'm a guy. I've got pretty good skills at spatial stuff like CAD, CNC, etc. I'm a pilot of both small planes and hang gliders, and learning that stuff involved lots of training in finding your way around. I've been driving for half a century, and all that time I was almost always the driver among my friends and family. I have just recently started reluctantly accepting that I'm lousy at directions. I must certainly hold the record for lifetime u-turns. I've been convincing myself for years that after all my training and exposure that I certainly must be better than average at finding my way around, but I just have to accept that I suck. Part of it is that I love being behind the wheel, and when I'm driving, my mind really wanders. It puts me into a kind of hyperactive dream state that often lets me drive right past my turns, but that's only part of it. Despite my above average knowledge of geography, both local and global, and a deep scientific understanding of coordinates, and distances, etc., I just get lost a lot for some reason, even in places I know well. This realization hurts me deeply, and I hate you for making me admit it.