I’m decent at doing stop motion animation. Tried it on TikTok while making some jewelry and it blew up.
I was talking with a friend recently and realized we all seem to have one oddly specific skill that rarely gets used but still makes us laugh when it does. Mine is being able to recognize a surprising number of songs after hearing just the first couple of seconds. It does not really help in everyday life but its always fun when it happens.
It made me wonder what everyone else random talents are. Maybe you can fold a fitted sheet perfectly remember movie quotes from years ago solve a Rubiks Cube whistle with your fingers or identify birds by their calls.
What your most random skill and how did you end up learning it? I am curious to see what unique talents people have that do not get much attention.
remember movie quotes from years ago, solve a Rubik's Cube, whistle with your fingers, or identify birds by their calls.
What's your most random skill, and how did you end up learning it? I'm curious to see what unique talents people have that don't get much attention.
I’m decent at doing stop motion animation. Tried it on TikTok while making some jewelry and it blew up.
I can identity narcissists, when others can’t. It isn’t a pleasant talent because the narcissist can see it, too.
From the physiognomy or from the attitude?
This ability is a super power.
Did this talent develop naturally or spontaneously? Or was this likely the result of being raised by one? Asking because I’m pretty sure I was raised by one and have seen the red flags in partners and friends later on and I think I attract these people as the result of how I was raised.
Roasting cacao and making chocolate
I can read people like a book, I later realize not everyone can do it
I can fold t-shirts into perfect, flat squares. I can also chop vegetables very fast according to my husband.
I do this too! Shirts and veggies. I always think of that movie “The Long Kiss Goodnight” when I’m chopping.
I never forget a face, not even someone I've seen years ago. Can't remember names though!
I can do that thing where you flick your cheek as you whistle to make a water drop sound. Kids love it when I do it. I've tried to teach others how, but nobody ever manages.
Now we need a video of this. I’ve never heard of that before and I’m intrigued!
I can do this too, although I learnt it from a problematic source (British children’s TV programme whose presenter was convicted of child sex offences)
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My best friend calls me the portal because of how much I remember. Don’t ask me what I had for supper last night but play me a song I haven’t heard in 30 years and I will remember all the words. I am also an able bodied person but tend to use my feet to pick up things when I am home. It’s just easier. Never food unless it is in a bag like chips or rice.
One of my best friends calls me "robot brain" for similar reasons, mostly due to the ungodly amount of movie trivia I know. I've tried to get him to call me Terminator instead, but no luck so far...
Same with both
I don't time myself or anything, but I usually finish the wordle in about 30 seconds and get it in 4 guesses. It's not crazy, but I've seen people be surprised.
I can remember faces and voices and recognize them immediately, even if I have only seen or heard them once. But, i have a terrible memory for names, I can watch an entire TV series and not remember any of the characters' names
I memorize things VERY easily. Movie lines, poems, songs, even sheet music. I have so much stuff stored in my brain, it’s frightening.
I cat whisper tf outta cats.
My husband says i must smell of catnip because no matter where we go a cat will appear and run up to me.
I'm really good at untangling yarn. I discovered that last year when I took up crocheting.
Oh my gods I'd love to mail you like 47 skeins lol
Huh. It just occurred to me after reading your comment that crocheting is essential the controlled tangling of yarn. 🤔
Remembering oddly specific details of events Memorizing people's names and dates I have to actually tone it down and feign disinterest so as not to appear stalker-ey. 🙃
I can look at a departure board and tell which of the delays are lying. A posted 20 minutes almost never means 20. Comes from staring at them for work, which is a duller origin story than most of these.
I don't know if I can call it a skill, but no one expects me to be able to drink alcohol. I'm a middle aged, overweight, glasses wearer woman, who has never really partied. But if the situation calls for it, I can drink whatever alcohol other people are drinking, beer, wine, tequila, whiskey, prepared drinks... I know my limits and won't get drunk and people are always flabbergasted I like alcohol.
When I have a memory that I remember what exact place I was in and others around me, it is 100% true. I've had my dad tell me "That never happened" and had to explain exactly how I know it wasn't invented. And I also have memories of being in my crib. Lots of children's memories start a few years later. But my memory for recent events. Very iffy. 😁 BTW this is very interesting thread! 👍
I also have a memory of me being in a crib and at a wedding when I was 2, and out on the front lawn with a bowl of peanuts at 4, my 4th birthday party etc. So glad to hear there are actually other people that also remember things so early. So cool! No one believes me.
Similar! I remember some events in very specific detail, the memories are chunked together. Like the first time I meet someone, I’ll later remember what the weather was like, what I was wearing, what they were wearing, some specifics about what was said. Or I’ll remember the date of an interview and then also remember not just what I wore but what the panel of interviewers were wearing too. My mom asked me recently if I remembered when her knee surgery was more than 20 years ago, and because it was within a few days of my 18th birthday I could tell her the exact day of the surgery, when her subsequent blood clot happened, when her second knee surgery happened, etc.
I can twitch my nose up and down like a rabbit. When I was a kid I tried to learn how to do the Bewitched nose wiggle and could never get it to look right but in the process I figured out how to do it this way and just never stopped so I can do it pretty fast now. A few kids I've made laugh with it have found they can do it too when I try to explain it but adults just can't seem to and end up scrunching their whole face. I think it's one of those things that if you find the muscle control early you develop them but if you never do it's almost impossible to do it noticeably. I used to be able to wiggle both ears but now I can only wiggle my right one from the same thing.
I’m very good at reading upside-down. No idea why I can do it, but it sometimes comes in handy.
I can read and write upside down and backwards. Mostly useless, but people find it fascinating lol
I can read upside down too! My dad used to sit in front of me and hold my book right side up for him, so it would be upside down for me. Sometimes he'd also move it while I was reading. Now I can read in pretty much any situation!
Wait I thought everyone could do this! I guess that’s my special skill too lol
Yeah, I can do that and I thought everyone could. I have no issues giving someone else the menu and I just read upside down. Oddly, it freaks some people out.
I have the same skill for movies that OP has for songs, after just a few seconds of even uneventful film footage I can usually guess the film and in rare cases films I haven't actually seen!
Not something I learned, but I have super fast reflexes. I see objects moving near me and catch them 9 out of 10 times; mostly just from periphery vision. Pen about to roll off a desk, an unexpected air bound item heading my way, something tipping over on a shelf I can grab it mid-air. It’s weird because I’m otherwise accident prone and easily trip over my own feet. It’s oftentimes come in handy for stopping something from breaking.
Dance
I can preserve food in Mason jars. If it will fit through the top of the jar I can do it.
I’m really good at finding the word that people forget and start searching for while talking
Taking care of babies. My mother was a preschool teacher(6 months to 6.5 years). Because of this I spent a lot of my high school afternoons at her work, observing and helping out. I'm not a people person, so every time I speak gently to a baby or soothe a crying one people look at me like I just walked on water.
It’s almost certainly a biological thing rather than a skill, but I have never in my life had a hangover or any other unpleasant side-effect (no blackouts, no unhinged behaviour, no throwing up, etc) from alcohol consumption. Ever. No matter how much I drank, what I drank, what I mixed, if it was an all nighter or a slow day binge.. just never. Always feel absolutely fine during and the next day/morning.
i can tell which appliance in the house just turned on from the sound the lights make when the power dips. wife thinks it is a party trick, it is really just years of chasing why the server rebooted at 3am.
I can do a loud, sharp whistle without my fingers. When I started biking a lot in my fifties, I felt like my little ringie bell was not loud enough, so I learned how to whistle loud watching YouTube videos. I think it’s always surprising to people that a little old lady can whistle like a construction worker.
Sudoku
The hardest levels of Dr Mario are super easy for me.
I have a very good gut instinct. My hunches are nearly always right, especially about people. More than a few people have commented on it.
Im extremely calm and analytical under pressure. I developed this from years of constant paranoia due to schizophrenia and there has been a single time ive genuinely saved myself from harm because of it. My abusive brother pinned me against the wall and everything in me said to fight back, but i knew i wouldnt win that fight so i kept a straight face and waited for him to drop me once he cooled off. I couldve suffered a lot of damage but walked away unscatched
I can tie a cherry stem in a knot with my tongue.
Dividing a long length of embroidery floss into individual threads when I need to stitch in detail.
I’m really good at recognizing celebrity voiceovers on commercials.
I don't know if it can be classified as a skill, but I have noticed when I am in the Bazar, no one expects me, a haggard looking woman in a chaddar, to speak in English with her children. It's my first language because I was raised between the States and UK ....but I don't look like the stereotypical idea of a Westerner.
I can get SURPRISINGLY LOUD! That theater class in high school really taught me how to project my voice and it's a skill I've never lost. 😆 I was at a convention several years back and the megaphone died, so I stood up on a chair and read the announcement they were trying to make. Everyone heard me and I got some really surprised looks that I could speak clearly that loudly. For some reason, it delights me no end, lol!
Hypnotizing flies. I can hypnotize a housefly and then scoop it up.
i have 13 thousand hours in the videogame rust
I only need to go somewhere once and I can get there again. Im really good visually remembering where it is (not so much street names lol)
I can stop hiccups, and have taught others. I'm not sure I could hiccup if I wanted to any more.
I can beatbox. Like for real. But I never really got into performing--it's always just been for fun, or to bust out at a cypher when I still did that kind of thing. So I used to go weeks sometimes without doing it--like I'd kind of forget that's a thing I can do. Then for whatever reason it'd come out and people's eyes would get wide and their jaw would sometimes even drop. I remember a coworker staring at me before finally saying "oh you can REALLY beatbox." Like she'd thought I'd been exaggerating. I've actually started practicing a lot more since I became a dad, though, because my son loves it. (Babies in general seem pretty interested every time I beatbox.) He even tries to do it, too, but he's 12 months old, so he just blows raspberries vaguely rhythmically 🤣
I can make dolphin noises
Languages. I am fully native in 4 because I grew up in them, speak several more because we moved around, can pass for native in 6 or 7. And I learn very fast, and can mimic accents very well. My friends, who all speak several languages (very common where I live), like to make people guess where I'm from, and since I can also pass for pretty much anything except Asian or African, people never guess right.
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Years of rock climbing and bouldering means I can open bottles with just my fingers.
I’m a smaller sized person and can project my voice pretty loudly.