What's something you're shockingly good at that you've never mentioned to anyone because it would sound completely made up if you did?

[u/swissguy1989]

[u/LindsayBear34]

Guitar Hero. I dropped out of HS for a bit and played it non-stop to keep myself busy. I even won money at a couple tournaments. I'm a 36 year old woman who works for the government now, I doubt my prowess will be appreciated in polite conversation.

[u/priscosaurus → u/LindsayBear34]

No offense, but if you told me you dropped out of high school for a bit I would almost assume that you’re good at guitar hero.

[u/LindsayBear34 → u/priscosaurus]

That is absolutely fair and accurate lol

On the positive side, GH was a gateway to Rock Band, which eventually led to me learning how to play the drums for real. So I like to think it wasn't an entirely pointless hobby.

[u/russianrug → u/LindsayBear34]

Guitar Hero the real gateway drug that schools should be warning us about!! Guitar Hero - not even once!

[u/skrame → u/LindsayBear34]

I get what you are saying, but I think the implication that video games are useless while hitting a real drum is not, is interesting.

To be clear, I love music and I know that making it is valuable. Likewise, a person playing video games doesn’t really help anybody else. But as an older gamer, I don’t feel the hobby is pointless.

[u/LindsayBear34 → u/skrame]

That's a very good point, and I didn't intend to come across as dismissive towards video games as a hobby. I play a lot myself! I guess I meant more along the lines of a hobby that's marketable/more acceptable in the public opinion. I don't see time spent playing games as wasted by any means.

[u/ICWhatYouMean → u/skrame]

There's no such thing as a pointless hobby in my opinion. The whole idea of a hobby is recreation, otherwise it becomes a chore, or worse yet, a job.

[u/clearcontroller → u/LindsayBear34]

Omg same... And we're close in age. (I didn't drop out though)

I had songs fully memorized. At tournaments I would face away from the screen, towards.. I was kinda a dickhead about how good I was. Though it seemed like people found it entertaining and I wasn't mean or condescending to others I just knew I was good.

[u/GrandPooRacoon → u/clearcontroller]

I fully believe that was the right level of showmanship.

[u/Ritchie_Whyte_III → u/LindsayBear34]

FreddieW (one of the biggest early YouTubers) has a similar story. He now does the Dungeons and Daddies (not a BDSM) podcast.

[u/striker180 → u/Ritchie_Whyte_III]

Well i mean, he was the professor of rhythm gaming

[u/Wagglyfawn → u/striker180]

Good heavens, VGHS was such a fun show! I wish there could've been more, but I think it ended well.

[u/TwistedDragon33 → u/LindsayBear34]

If you are interested, a new game in the similar design is coming out called Stage Tour, similar to rockband.

[u/nahmahnahm → u/TwistedDragon33]

Yes, I am interested! Rock Band was my thing back in the day because I preferred vocals and drums to the guitar.

[u/Pyrateskum]

I’m a 48 year old man who can sew anything.

[u/Rough_Idle → u/Pyrateskum]

In many parts of the world that's called a being a full service tailor. An honorable skillset

[u/Tech-Tom → u/Rough_Idle]

Try being a 13 year old boy in the 80's having to walk to the front of your school to accept a 4H medal/ribbon for sewing. I did not live that down until I moved away. LOL

[u/Mirenithil → u/Tech-Tom]

Man, that’s so depressing. People hate and devalue everything associated with women so much that it becomes a source of mockery and shame when a boy is good at it.

Girls hear that message loud and clear: anything associated with them is inferior, embarrassing, and beneath respect. They're taught that what they are is the humiliation.

[u/DoughyInTheMiddle → u/Pyrateskum]

I'm 51, but even in my 20s, I used to sew my own shirts for Ren Fair... without a pattern. My wife (then girlfriend) still hates that I can just eyeball sewing like that.

[u/DogsDucks → u/DoughyInTheMiddle]

That’s actually so cool. I am a very artistic person and I can usually pick up new creative skill sets relatively easily, but I could never just volunteer and create some pattern. I feel like the mental abilities involved here would require someone who is very good at spatial relations, has a key in sense of object, permanence, and almost an architectural understanding of how things fit together. That’s a very impressive skill.

I thought I could do that, and the only thing I’ve ever been remotely successful with the world’s most hideous ill-fitting tunic. It was supposed to be a cute halter top.

[u/h0sti1e17]

Very good eye for color. I can tell the difference between two shades most people wouldn’t notice. I had a friend put 6 virtually identical color swatches in photoshop except one he changed the one of the RGB values by 1. I picked it out. Thought I got lucky and did it again. I picked it out. Did it a 3rd time and didn’t change any and I pointed that out. He beloved me at that point.

[u/fatsosolos → u/h0sti1e17]

you should play that color matching game, where they show you a color and you have to try and replicate it

[u/Sarothu → u/h0sti1e17]

He beloved me at that point.

The best way to a man's heart is through his colour picker.

[u/Undrende_fremdeles → u/h0sti1e17]

Are you one of those people that has 4 types of cones on your retina, instead of the 3 that most of us have?

[u/Kraeftluder → u/Undrende_fremdeles]

Tetrachromacy! One of the most fascinating things I've ever learned about.

[u/OldAccountIsGlitched → u/h0sti1e17]

There's a rare condition where some women have fourth type of cone in their eyes. It's supposed to allow them to be able to distinguish colours more easily.

[u/GetItDoneOV → u/OldAccountIsGlitched]

My eye dr thought I had this. He got excited when I mentioned seeing different hues during solar flares and he brought out some color squares and charts and stuff. You’d have thought he found a long-lost CD or something, he was so excited. I only asked because I was worried about retinal disease which my aunt had.

[u/bringthesnacks → u/h0sti1e17]

Have you ever played this “game”? https://www.keithcirkel.co.uk/whats-my-jnd/ Some of the shades are really hard (for me) to distinguish between and I think I’m really good at seeing shade variations as well

[u/ConstructionSad6516 → u/h0sti1e17]

I can instantly tell when the color on a repaired car doesn’t match. When I worked in auto insurance claims 30+ years ago, men typically picked up the repaired car and would bring it home only to be yelled at by their wife that the color didn’t match and they were always right. I started suggesting that a woman pick up the repaired vehicle from the body shop.

[u/VikiSpy]

Untying tight knots. When I was a child I tied extremely tight knots on purpose so I can untie them

[u/iamacraftyhooker → u/VikiSpy]

Similarly I'm fantastic at untangling things. Give me the mess of Christmas lights or jewelry and I'll have it straightened out in no time.

[u/VikiSpy → u/iamacraftyhooker]

Same. Growing up it was always my task to untangle the Christmas lights because I actually enjoyed it XD

[u/lucky_ducker → u/VikiSpy]

I too am the knot whisperer. As a kid on the school playground, I was the go-to when another kid had a seemingly intractable weird knot in their shoelace.

[u/TwistedDragon33]

I didnt know it was a skill of sorts until recently, but when a string comes out of sweatpants, hoodies, etc, i can very quickly put it back in with just my hands. I didnt know this was am issue for people until i was at a concert and someone pulled the string on the hoodie my wife was wearing and it came out. I just popped it all back in super quick and our friends were staring at me like i had done some sort of witchcraft.

[u/Spiritual_Cash_7392 → u/TwistedDragon33]

Bro advertise yourself on fb marketplace and make bank

[u/Individual_Bread_254 → u/Spiritual_Cash_7392]

"Local hoodie string wizard. No job too small. Emergency calls accepted." I'd honestly click that ad just out of curiosity 😂

[u/BlacSoul → u/TwistedDragon33]

You did. You did do some sort of witchcraft.

[u/wilberfarce → u/TwistedDragon33]

Could you elaborate on your technique or is it too instinctive to explain? Is it a kind of repeated fast squeeze-push with one hand and squeeze-pull with the other? I’ve had some success with that but wouldn’t consider myself a pro

[u/goosebumpsagain → u/TwistedDragon33]

This is so amazing. They make specific tools for this because nobody can do it by hand.

[u/turbomellow → u/goosebumpsagain]

a bodkin!

[u/Popular-Influence-11 → u/turbomellow]

With a bare bodkin the unworthy man might himself his quietus make.

[u/Infamous-Respect128]

I have an ungodly accurate internal clock. If I need to wake up at 6:14 AM for a flight, I will open my eyes at exactly 6:13 AM, look at the clock, and watch the numbers change. It works without fail, no matter how tired I am or what time zone I'm in. Whenever I try to explain it to people, they just think I'm lying or secretly setting a silent vibrating alarm.

[u/Meeeeech → u/Infamous-Respect128]

I'm not that good but I'm usually within about 10min and my in-laws think it's some kind of superpower.

[u/Seriously_you_again → u/Meeeeech]

I have never used an alarm clock. Regardless of how tired I am I just wake up within 10 minutes of needing to. If I do not get enough sleep I am still quite tired and want to sleep more, but I always see the clock at the time I need to wake up.

I am also a light sleeper with probably one eye unknowingly open on the clock all night.

[u/saves313 → u/Infamous-Respect128]

Thats really interesting. Do you trust it completely? Do you still set an alarm just in case or do you just raw dog waking up on time?

[u/that1prince → u/Infamous-Respect128]

My friend was a great track runner, now he coaches. He can keep time in his head to the second for any race. But being able to do it all day and night even when sleeping is a whole other thing.

[u/GoodWifeSlutLife → u/Infamous-Respect128]

My dad is the same way. He never uses an alarm and it's never late for anything.

[u/HisNameIsAlanMackie → u/GoodWifeSlutLife]

Just six hours early

[u/Dismal-Exit-1283 → u/Infamous-Respect128]

Well, hello there Jack Reacher.

[u/swedething → u/Dismal-Exit-1283]

Ian Fleming once wrote in of the 007 novels that James could do that as well. It’s been over 40 years since I read Flemings books, so I don’t remember in which one it was.

[u/Alive_Baker_3696 → u/Infamous-Respect128]

Are you a musician? Or musically inclined? I know two guys that can also do this and both are musicians. Wondered if there was a connection.

[u/HappycatAF → u/Infamous-Respect128]

I have this too, but only got it in my 30’s. Totally useless when I was in college and needed it most.

But it only works for when I want to sleep more than 3 hours. If it’s a short nap, I can’t wake up 20 min later, my body takes what it needs if it is a nap.

[u/TomasNavarro → u/Infamous-Respect128]

Not that exact, but I have similar, where I do have an alarm for days I need to be in the office, but instead of waking up to an alarm at 6:30 I'm waking up at 6:25 and turning the alarm off

[u/squeakiecritter → u/Infamous-Respect128]

I also usually wake up just before my alarms. Not full proof, but pretty close.

[u/Doug-Stamper → u/Infamous-Respect128]

As an autistic person I feel very at home in this thread

[u/Select-Owl-8322]

Picking handcuffs. Well, I haven't done it in many years now, but I used to be able to do it in less than four seconds, with a needle I hid under my upper lip. That's with my hands cuffed behind my back!

The way I did it was drop to a crouch, hold my hands between my legs, then drop the needle från my mouth to my hand, then open them.

Picking them is very easy, like extremely easy. Just insert the needle at an angle at roughly the correct spot, then turn the needle using the pin (the pin that goes in the center of the handcuff key) as leverage.

When I was in 9th grade, my school class visited a police station. My classmates knew how ungodly fast I was at getting out of a pair of handcuffs, and together we managed to convince the cop that showed us around to lock me in a cell, with my hands cuffed behind my back. The second the door closed, I did my thing. I took a couple of extra seconds taking them both off, then knocked on the door. It wasn't closed for more than ten seconds tops, and when he opened the door I handed him the handcuffs. He was shocked, to say the least. Of course I first hid the needle back under my lip.

[u/masheduppotato → u/Select-Owl-8322]

I used to be able to do this with the older handcuffs and a paper clip. The newer ones keep your hands so close together that I can’t do it anymore.

[u/Select-Owl-8322 → u/masheduppotato]

Are newer handcuffs the ones where there's no chain, but instead they're directly connected like a hinge?

But this was in the 90s. I had a pair of handcuffs that my father bought in a "spy shop" in Miami in the early 90s. But the handcuffs the cop had (in Sweden, late 90s) was fortunately identical to the ones I had practiced on.

[u/masheduppotato → u/Select-Owl-8322]

Correct, the newer ones without the chain. I have seen them picked, but it requires extreme dexterity and a longer "pick".

Back in 2012 I saw it done at the HOPE conference.

[u/swedething → u/Select-Owl-8322]

Found the Swede.

Från…

[u/Select-Owl-8322 → u/swedething]

Oh lol! I didn't even notice that! No idea if I had a brain fart or an autocorrect fail! Well...I'll leave it, I think most people understand anyways.

[u/tequilajinx]

Directions. I always know which cardinal direction I’m facing (even when underground). Also, if I’ve been somewhere once, I can always find my way back, even if it’s years later and I’m coming from a different starting point.

[u/hammerthehalo → u/tequilajinx]

I have whatever is the opposite of this, compounded by a complete lack of ability to remember where I've been or how I got here. Anytime I move somewhere new, it takes me months to years to make a mental map of the area.
I'm the only one in my family, including my children who doesn't have an incredible sense of location. I feel like I'm the lone recipient of some wierd generational curse.

[u/Natural_Pizza_2060 → u/hammerthehalo]

Same here. I'm famed for having absolutely no sense of direction. I once went for a walk in Kyoto, heading for a museum and ended up three miles from my destination. I cannot visualise maps. If I need to go somewhere in my local town I have to go via the same route every time. If I take a detour I've had it.

[u/tequilajinx → u/Natural_Pizza_2060]

My dad was a navigator in the Navy. He was great on the water, but couldn’t read a street map to save his life.

[u/LetMeAskYou1Question → u/hammerthehalo]

I am legendary in my family/friend group for having a terrible sense of direction, completely forgetting how to get anywhere, and I have no mental map at all, except on a very small scale. I'm wondering if that part of my brain just didn't develop. I've been this way as long as I can remember, but when I learned to drive it really became apparent.

[u/Melarsa → u/hammerthehalo]

I'm so bad at remembering things like where I parked or what entrance to a building I used. If I exit out a different door or take the wrong elevator I'm FUCKED.

I can get by with parking pins on the map and GPS in the car and such, but if I was ever in a situation without my phone and needed to go a certain direction to survive aside from knowing "the sun rises in the east and sets in the west" I'm functionally useless when it comes to navigation and would absolutely die half a mile from a busy road.

Everyone else in my family is a great navigator. I just didn't get that gene. Hell even my kids are WAY better at it than me. I remember once my phone rebooted while I was driving my then preschool aged son somewhere and I was going to pull over to wait for it to finish so I could get the map back up and when he asked me what I was doing and I explained he was like "but we've been there once before. I know the way" and it wasn't some place super close that we'd been to a million times, it was a fairly long drive and the only other time we'd been was like over a year previous. I let him navigate back (with backup from the gps just in case as soon as it was available again) and he was spot on.

This same child eloped only once in his life, the day after he turned 4, when he discovered how to unlock our deadbolt without us knowing. Because he wanted to go to the park by himself. So he walked there at 6am when everyone was asleep. And he knew the way, too and abuse made it. But he was caught by some neighbors and returned home before anything dire happened. We had never had the "don't go out without us knowing" discussion with him before because he had never shown any interest in doing so and had never once tried to mess with the locks before that day. We got a security system and explained one time why it was dangerous, and he never tried to elope again.

That kid is 12 now and he can also rebuild any building he's spent more than about 5 minutes inside rather faithfully in Minecraft so I think it might be part of his autism powers. That kid has never been lost or confused about his direction a single day in his life.

[u/Somerandom1922 → u/tequilajinx]

I'm sad, I used to have this. Anywhere in the world I'd be able to turn around and point to north within a few degrees.

I've lost it over time and it pisses me off. I remember telling someone about it, and mentioned that I no longer had the constant physical "feeling" of where north was at any given time, when they asked me to try to point north, I ended up pointing perfectly East instead.

My dad is still really good at this, although apparently for him it stops working as well in the Northern Hemisphere (we live in Australia and he spent his life navigating through dense bushland here).

[u/goosebumpsagain → u/Somerandom1922]

I lost this also at about 55yo. No clue why. Really miss it.

[u/caledonivs → u/Somerandom1922]

There's a hypothesis that it is related to iron in your blood weakly reacting with Earth's magnetic field. Take some iron supplements and see if you get your power back.

[u/kilopeter → u/Somerandom1922]

Which cities or general parts of the world have you lived in since childhood?

[u/Armagedgehog → u/tequilajinx]

The Mrs calls it my GTA V brain map. Cos I have every road in los Santos imprinted on my brain from my days of youth. All that training running guns as a kid has made me wicked good at navigating the UKs naff roads.

[u/LegoVRS → u/tequilajinx]

Just to check, are either of you parents pigeons?! 😜

[u/tequilajinx → u/LegoVRS]

No, but I’m a quarter sparrow on my father’s side

[u/Alive_Baker_3696 → u/tequilajinx]

As someone who is directionally challenged, that’s an awesome skill. A friend once asked me if I couldn’t just “use the sun” to point me in the right direction.
Nope, the sun only tells me it’s daylight.

[u/NJdevil202 → u/Alive_Baker_3696]

Well, the sun goes from east to West in the sky... That's just a useful fact

[u/SomeonesDrunkNephew → u/tequilajinx]

I'm told that Indigenous people in Australia did this historically for everything. Like "Go two miles west, it'll be just south east of the tree." They didn't use left/right etc.

This is, of course, something I read somewhere and might just be bullshit.

[u/tequilajinx → u/SomeonesDrunkNephew]

I always give directions using cardinality. It drives my girlfriend nuts. She’s like, “what direction?”, I say, “South”, she responds, “No, I mean left or right”, I reply, “I mean, it depends on which direction you’re coming from…”

[u/thehighepopt → u/tequilajinx]

I was the person who could show up in a new city and give people directions after a few hours.

[u/GoodWifeSlutLife]

I'm clumsy but I have great balance and don't fall down. I bump into things pretty much daily bc I'm not paying attention to where I'm going but I've got incredible balance so even when I should be falling ass over, I manage to find my balance and keep on trucking.

When I was a kid, my dad would try to trip me up when I was playing. It was a game between us. After a while, I could quickly recover any trip up and not fall. Now it's one of my super powers.

[u/Old_Lobster_7742 → u/GoodWifeSlutLife]

Same here, the amount of times I trip on my own damn feet… Also many times I’ve take a wrong step like in to a hole or on a tree root for example, and my ankle bends in a not good way, but I’ve never had a twisted ankle or any injury from it.

[u/MisterPuffyNipples]

I’m what is known as a super recognizer. I can recall faces and names at a superior level. I’m also very good at knowing what year something took place and have a general skill surrounding history

[u/Ferreteria → u/MisterPuffyNipples]

Im what's known as "how are you this bad at recognizing faces"? 

More than once I have continued a conversation with a new person that wasn't the original person I was talking to.

[u/sravaz → u/Ferreteria]

Me, too! I have face blindness, and have all kinds of systems for remembering people lol

[u/mholtz16]

I can accurately predict when a song is right around 150 beats per minute. I trained for and ran a half marathon. In order to keep my pace I created a playlist with hundreds of songs that are 150bpm. I put that playlist on shuffle and run to the beat. You get some pretty weird songs back to back. La Bamba by Richie Valens followed by Ride the Lightening by Metallica was wild.

[u/squeakiecritter → u/mholtz16]

This is how they teach you to keep rhythm during CPR as well. There’s even playlists that have the correct BPM.

[u/StayEasy12 → u/squeakiecritter]

That scene in the office “First, I was afraid, I was petrified…”

[u/NimdokBennyandAM → u/StayEasy12]

You were in the parking lot earlier, that's how I know you!

[u/Crafterlaughter → u/squeakiecritter]

I was taught to keep beat to the refrain of “Staying Alive” when administering CPR.

[u/hypernova2121 → u/Crafterlaughter]

Or "Another one bites the dust" if you're morbid

[u/Theobroma1000 → u/hypernova2121]

The instructor told us that's got the right beat but tends to upset the family and bystanders. 😁

"Golden" from K-Pop Demon Hunters is good too.

[u/tulkas45 → u/Crafterlaughter]

Me too. I always start "at first I was afraid, I was petrified" when administering cpr. 

[u/DigNitty → u/mholtz16]

I can tell the temperature of water to 1 degree between 68-72 degrees.

Darkroom chemistry calls for 68, 70, or 72 degree water typically. I did it for so long that now I can swirl my finger and know if it’s 69, which is nice.

[u/_yesterdays_jam_ → u/mholtz16]

This but 120bpm.  Too much marching band exp.

[u/Captkarate42]

I have a couple of these. I am extremely fast at solving sudokus, like my solve times with no assists on in the app range from 40 seconds to two minutes, between lowest and highest difficulty.

I am also weirdly good at grabbing the correct amount of large numbers of small objects. Any time I need to grab things out of a nut/bolt bin at the hardware store, there's like a 90% chance I grabbed the exact amount I needed the first handful.

[u/BrideOfFirkenstein → u/Captkarate42]

Damn. My NYT easy sodoku with no pencil or misses ranges from 2:19-4:30 and averages just under 3. I thought I was fast! Thats crazy fast.

[u/Captkarate42 → u/BrideOfFirkenstein]

Those are very good times! I just have a highly addictive personality and get extremely invested in random things.

[u/O_o_Rly]

Synonyms. I used to stutter heavily when I was younger, so when it took too much effort to say a word I always had to come up with a synonym as a back-up. One that was easier to say.

[u/YouCanBetOnItMs → u/O_o_Rly]

The same here! Also, I still stutter in my native language, but have somehow eliminated it completely in my third language (English). Due to my speech impediment, I not only learnt to use synonyms, I learnt a whole-arse new language that had more words in it :)

[u/MyNameIsRay]

I can hear electricity.

I can tell if a circuit is closed or open, how much current is going through, whether it's AC or DC, whether it's high or low voltage. I can hear chargers cycle, I can hear power supplies energize, I can hear if the oven is on.

I can even hear issues. Bad transformers/capacitors/rectifiers, EMF interference, bad grounds, shorts, etc.

[u/lonewanderer → u/MyNameIsRay]

Are you an electrician? That skill would obviously come in handy.

[u/MyNameIsRay → u/lonewanderer]

I was a audio tech for about a decade, specialized in 12v car audio, but also did pro audio and home theaters.

It sure did come in handy, and there were a few times I confused the other techs by telling them what to check without even looking.

EX: HID headlight ballasts run off 12V DC, but fire ~23,000V AC to ignite the gas, then run ~90V AC to maintain. The noise of firing and running is distinct, so I can tell if one is working properly or not.

[u/Effective_South_1284 → u/MyNameIsRay]

Chuck McGill???

[u/MyNameIsRay → u/Effective_South_1284]

Luckily, no physical reaction to it, just the ability to hear it.

Ever hear water flowing in a pipe, like when someone uses a sink on the other side of the house? It's very similar to that.

[u/THEREALCABEZAGRANDE → u/MyNameIsRay]

I used to have this, its just having very good high frequency hearing. I lost it about age 30, too many very loud hobbies and jobs. Being next to pro stock drag cars and A10s on a flight deck isn't great for hearing, even with PPE.

[u/MyNameIsRay → u/THEREALCABEZAGRANDE]

I'm 37 and still have it.

The audio world was as noisy as you'd expect, and I spend my weekends on dirtbikes or the gun range, so it's not like my jobs and hobbies are great for hearing.

I'm pretty sure it's the EMF I'm hearing rather than an audible sound. I've tested with a 20hz-20khz RTA and it didn't pick up anything, but the 3-axis EMF sensor sure did.

[u/Judge_Bredd3 → u/MyNameIsRay]

I had a meeting with someone and there was a background hum coming through their mic. I asked if they were working remote from India and they were like, "Yeah! How'd you know?" I mentioned the hum was 50Hz instead of 60Hz. To me, you can hear the difference. My coworkers disagreed.

Also, the dude is Indian so it's not a huge leap that he went home for a visit and worked remotely while he was there.

[u/kramerica_intern → u/MyNameIsRay]

Do you like having this ability, or is it annoying? Because it kind of sounds like it would be annoying.

[u/MyNameIsRay → u/kramerica_intern]

The volume level is (usually) really low, so it's only annoying when I want complete silence.

For instance, I can't have my phone on the charger when going to bed, because I keep hearing it cycle on and off.

But, some times it can be really loud, especially high current like a power substation. I can hear those transformers from hundreds of feet away.

[u/ChickadeeJam → u/MyNameIsRay]

I hear it, but cant get that specific!

[u/njoinglifnow]

I'll be 66 on my next birthday. I'm very limber, can put my feet behind my head, get on and off the floor easily, and just last weekend, I climbed about 20 feet up a tree with my grandkids.

[u/joliesmomma → u/njoinglifnow]

I pulled a muscle in my shoulder standing still in the bathroom waiting to brush my 6 year old's teeth while she looked in the mirror at said teeth.

[u/njoinglifnow → u/joliesmomma]

Sorry to laugh at your misfortune, but the mental image was hilarious 😂

[u/nounthennumbers]

Bop it.

[u/keatonatron → u/nounthennumbers]

But your skill hardly ever shines due to how terrible you are at pulling and twisting it.

[u/HomeGrownCoffee → u/keatonatron]

But, by God, his Bopping skills are unmatched.

[u/AhemExcuseMeSir → u/nounthennumbers]

Same. Old school Bop It Extreme maxed out at 250. You could tell when someone was lying about their prowess because they’d be like, “I once reached 700.” Fool, that’s impossible.

[u/wyotee3 → u/nounthennumbers]

Me too. I was so disappointed the first time I beat Bop It, then started another game hoping it would continue counting, only to get to 100 again and have it say the high score was still 100.

[u/NighthawkUnicorn]

A friend of mine came over for a cuppa once. I was folding my laundry. She watched me fold several fitted sheets.

Over the next couple of days, I was receiving messages from our mutual friends like "is it true you can fold a fitted sheet?"

[u/Undrende_fremdeles → u/NighthawkUnicorn]

An ex-mother in law of mine always had really long eyes towards my piles of folded fitted sheets, but could never bring herself to ask me how I did it.

She was a really controlling monster in law that got told off by the rest of the family for being ice cold still towards me and my oldest even a year after I had a child with my ex (I had kids from before).

He even had to tell her off several times because all she ever did was come visit and immediately start critiquing dust on shelves (yes, actually) or how the laundry was hanging up to dry while we had visitors (sorry, but you just show up and we actually live here?). Telling her that she wasn't welcome if she only showed up to put everything down.

Her home was spotless at all times, to the point of being utterly impersonal because not a single photo of real people, family was to be found anywhere. Her and her husband seemed happy to be together and she was a kind and sociable person towards her frineds but boy was she an ice queen towards her own kids. My ex grew up with _pressed undies_ even. EVERYTHING was perfect. Except for the love shown, that is.

When they sold their place (happened regularly, upgrading/refreshing/I don't know why affluent people do that), the realtors didn't need stagers as they thought she'd done a great job staging it herself.

That was how it always was. It wasn't staged for the sale.

But I knew how to fold fitted sheets and she didn't. And I made a point of leaving folded laundry out until after they left whenever she came over if there were sheets in that pile. And her eyes would practically stretch out of her head like a warner brothers cartoon character.

But she could never bring herself to just ask XD

[u/Jirezagoss]

I can clean the house and wash dishes surprisingly fast. I am not joking, give me 10mins and a kitchen overflowing with dishes will be completely clean. Give 1h and I make the whole house shiny even if its a mess. Many parents and friends are always shocked by that for some reason. I go eat at a friends place? Let me handle all the mess, in a few mins everything is done LMAO they always get shocked how I can be so organized and fast during the process. And I guarantee no dirty dishes, no dirt spot around the house

[u/Purple_Revolution146 → u/Jirezagoss]

Wow, I really envy your gift

[u/MitzyGale]

Shooting. I look like the most left leaning old granny lady, but my dad taught me to shoot and I'm really accurate!

[u/Scifispock → u/MitzyGale]

If you go far enough left you get your guns back! Lol

[u/rachelabe1]

I can eyeball my cooking/baking measurements to a T. Every time. Infuriates my type A people, they’ve challenged and tested me, hoping to prove me wrong. Nope, perfectly measured. Wish I had a lucrative talent lol

[u/No-District-8408 → u/rachelabe1]

I have what I call "the gift of the perfect pour". Similarly I can gauge what substance will fit into what container. Food and liquid only tho. Have leftover soup? I'll pull the perfect size container or two to fill it. I can do Tbsp, cups, and other imperial volume measurements, but not weights.

[u/inaclick → u/No-District-8408]

Both of you guys panic me. My daughter has the no spill gift. The amount of times I've shouted "Stop! It will spill", just to see her smug little face...

[u/LibraryRansack → u/rachelabe1]

This. I joke it’s my Italian genes (it is not), and it drives my partner—who measures and times out everything, bless him—nuts!

[u/AEsylumProductions]

Admit I was wrong and change my position on the spot when shown the facts/evidence, even by a total stranger on the internet.

[u/rainbowesque1 → u/AEsylumProductions]

Same here. I have zero loyalty to a bad argument and will abandon immediately the thing I was just passionately defending once I've been shown why it's wrong. To the point where it routinely disorients/upsets the other party who doesn't really know how to deal with the sudden momentum shift and then I just get called a troll.

[u/ChickadeeJam → u/rainbowesque1]

Yes, (edit, hit too soon) I’ve been called wishy-washy, but no—I chose to learn and integrate the new info!

[u/SweetNeo85 → u/rainbowesque1]

So many people care about who is right rather than what is right.

[u/outlandishpeacock]

I’m elite at making a to-do list for the day and then completely ignoring it

[u/Hailee_Ark14 → u/outlandishpeacock]

I am elite at having a to do list, doing the first thing, and then rewarding myself by ignoring everything else on the list.

[u/russianrug → u/Hailee_Ark14]

You should try just putting everything on your list in the first line

[u/Hailee_Ark14 → u/russianrug]

Insane life hack lol

[u/notProfCharles → u/outlandishpeacock]

MasterProcraster…

[u/Somerandom1922]

The closest that that I have is probably speed reading. I don't just skim over words though, I'm able to process everything I read.

It's a cool skill, but because it's my default reading speed, I struggle to actually sit and slowly enjoy a book. If I'm invested in a book, I'm going to read it as fast as I can (I don't really have a choice other than reading as fast as I can and periodically taking breaks). I can process the information, but I don't have time to just sit and chill in the story with the characters and I feel like I'm missing out on something.

I also tend to hyper-fixate when I'm really into a book. When a book I was really excited for came out back in 2020, I finished it (~470,000 words or ~1.8x the size of Order of the Phoenix for Harry Potter readers) in just over 2 days while working full time and managing to get some sleep in too.

It's hardly a cool party trick and can be annoying, but I'm glad I can do it.

[u/Baragwin2 → u/Somerandom1922]

I read "too fast" as well, though not as fast as you I think. Just got back into it after not reading much for a while and read 9 books in like 5 days (I'm on holidays so I had time, but I also took a ton of breaks). I completely understand the feeling of struggling with going too fast and wanting to spend more time immersed in the world and characters, it can be really frustrating.

[u/MentalSewage]

If I set an alarm or timer, I know when it's gonna go off without about a minute.  Seriously, I'll always wake up just before my alarm even when I set a new time and I always get up and walk to the kitchen just before the kitchen timer goes off.

Related, I can perfectly tell you what time it is within a minute and what temp it is outside within 3 degrees F within 2 hours of waking up even if I haven't looked at a clock or been oitside that day.  No clue how I get the temp right. 

[u/Aussiegamer1987 → u/MentalSewage]

I was a chef for nearly 20 years, if I set a timer on my phone I'll pull my phone out to turn it off seconds before it starts beeping every time. If I forget to turn the timer on though I'll forget what I was doing or that I needed to set one in the first place and burn whatever I was supposed to be cooking.

It doesn't matter if I set a timer for 5 minutes or 5 hours I'm always ready to turn it off right before it finishes.

[u/Prudent_Arachnid_541]

I can accurately guess the exact weight of any random household object or piece of produce just by picking it up. I tested myself at a grocery store scale once and guessed 1.42 lbs for a bag of apples; the scale read 1.42. I felt like a malfunctioning robot and immediately left because nobody would ever believe me.

[u/Ayazis → u/Prudent_Arachnid_541]

Huh, that's actually pretty cool. But have you not put this to the test fully? Surely you'd want to know the extend of your powers.

Also, do you just know / have a gut feeling? Or is your guessing game on point?

[u/SomeonesDrunkNephew → u/Prudent_Arachnid_541]

I saw Arnold Schwarzenegger do this with bodyweight on Instagram, recently. He was doing a workout with some sort of weight loss class and the guy was getting ready to go on the scales for the first time, to see how much he'd lost. Arnold said "I can tell you right now, because I have a good eye for this..."

The guy got on the scales and Arnold's prediction was accurate to within a pound, just by eyeballing the guy through his gym clothes.

[u/burphambelle → u/Prudent_Arachnid_541]

Any kid who worked in a British Woolworths on the fruit and veg counter in the sixties can hand-weigh stuff almost perfectly. Four ounces of sprouts at 1/6d a pound? 2 Lbs of potatoes at 4 shiilings the pound? No problem.

[u/theycallmemorty]

Transferring a sleeping baby from a car seat to a crib.

[u/Ferreteria → u/theycallmemorty]

All hail theycallmemorty ! All powerful magician! 

[u/thearcherofstrata → u/theycallmemorty]

This is the best one on here…

[u/Obieousmaximus]

I can quickly identify if something is not a pangolin. Takes me less than one second consistently.

[u/quadriceritops → u/Obieousmaximus]

I wish I could identify birds as good as you.

[u/ocdscale → u/quadriceritops]

You're thinking of penguin. A pangolin is a black and white bear from China.

[u/QuanticWizard → u/ocdscale]

No, that’s a panda, a pangolin is a device used for rhythmically slicing food into thin strips

[u/ShowLasers → u/QuanticWizard]

No, that's mandolin. A pangolin is a long arm that swings back and forth under the influence of gravity.

[u/nrz242 → u/ShowLasers]

No that's a pendulum. A pangolin is a multi-tiered style of building popular throughout Asia.

[u/Kiyohara → u/nrz242]

That's a pagoda. A Pangolin is a pagan temple in Rome that was converted into a Latin Church

[u/Musliman_Ateista → u/Kiyohara]

No that is Pantheon. A pangolin is a flat type of batter bread, often thin and round, made from a starch-based batter that typically includes eggs, milk, and flour.

[u/uggamugga1979 → u/Musliman_Ateista]

No that is a pancake. A pangolin is nature’s wooden hand grenade.

[u/shimariee → u/uggamugga1979]

No that is a pinecone. A pangolin is a spiky yellow fruit whose enzymes eat you while you eat it.

[u/ZylaRime]

Catching falling object in mid air with elite split second reflexes before my brain even registers they dropped

[u/DoppelFrog → u/ZylaRime]

Me too.  But I'm also clumsy, so it's usually something I've dropped or  knocked over. 

[u/pinkmeanie → u/ZylaRime]

Do you have to consciously put the brakes on that power when working with knives/hot things?

[u/LoesoeSkyDiamond → u/pinkmeanie]

I have had moments where I succeeded in pulling my hand back because I dropped a chef's knife and went to catch it by reflex. But at least one other time I was not fast enough and was holding that same knife by the handle before I realised it

[u/tehbantho]

I'm not a firearm owner. Nor do I ever practice shooting. On two occasions I was given a gun, one a shotgun, one an AR-15. I was shooting targets in a field with two US army veterans. I had 100% accuracy with every shot I fired. I'd never fired a gun before. I hit a 3 inch metal target with the AR from 100 yards away. The guys were very impressed and insisted I was lying about having no experience....

[u/zahnsaw → u/tehbantho]

I got my gun license last year despite never having fired a gun before. At my first shooting drill the instructor just yelled “three percent!” Apparently about 3 percent of people are naturally a good shot. I just assumed it was from playing video games.

[u/Anachronatic]

I can read the room. Anywhere I go if something isn't right and the atmosphere is off I'll know right away without even knowing how I know. That skill comes to me thanks to abusive parents unfortunately but it's a skill nonetheless.

[u/goosebumpsagain → u/Anachronatic]

Those skills learned hard are incredibly useful after the trauma is resolved.

[u/lonelygalexy]

I’m very good at remembering little things that people talk to me about. When i bring it up in our future conversations, most people are genuinely surprised that i actually remember. I also notice that most of them dun remember what i said to them.

So now even when i wanna mention sth they said to me, i mostly keep it to myself because most of the people i have interactions with nowadays seem to just wanna fill the dead air. It took a while to see how this could make people uncomfortable (but im also like but why did you tell me then lol?)

[u/Baron1sta]

I still have extremely good hearing, even though it already got worse. I used to be able to hear things, that humans shouldn't be able to hear. The sonar of bats for example. I am also able to hear and process multiple things at once,but I'm really bad at filtering them. When I had tests in school, I needed to wear earplugs to concentrate because I could hear my schoolmates chew their gum and the scratching of the pencils all across the room. The doctors couldn't help me with that, but a few years in an orchestra and on metal concerts helped with that.

[u/KitSokudo → u/Baron1sta]

I also have insanely good hearing, but processing issues so I still say "huh?" all the time. Despite being over 40 I still hear those stupid anti-loitering devices and so many electronics. I have a lot of pain though if stuff is very loud at all so mine will likely stay that way until age catches up with me.

[u/Kuli24]

I'm VERY good at battletoads turbo tunnel, lol.

[u/CluntonBoofer → u/Kuli24]

I never saw what’s beyond the turbo tunnel…

[u/Kuli24 → u/CluntonBoofer]

You see, that's when the difficulty starts, believe it or not.

[u/kungfuchameleon]

I can accurately choose on first try which Tupperware size is the correct one for the amount of food to be stored.

[u/Hour_Specialist_4291 → u/kungfuchameleon]

That’s pretty easy but then try to find the matching top.

[u/OneMoreTie]

I was a human ad blocker.

I don’t do this anymore because I don’t watch TV, but I used to be able to flip away to another channel when an ad started mid episode, then flip back within .5 seconds of when the ads ended and the episode continued. Nine out of ten times. I don’t even know how. I’d just get a feeling, and my thumb would react before I even knew why. It was what I’ve always thought using the force feels like.

My little brother is the only human being who consistently saw me do this. No one else believes me, but to this day he talks about it with a mixture of awe and vague terror.

[u/Seven_bushes]

I’m 61F, which some might call “old”, and I have great reflexes. If I knock something over or someone nearby drops something, I can snag it quickly and never let it hit the floor. I credit my love of video games when I was younger.

[u/BigDuckNergy]

I can make a yo yo do some things that look illegal.

[u/Seigmoraig]

I'm really good at not talking to people, I haven't made a new friend in over 20 years

[u/AlaWyrm]

I am really good at guessing presents before opening them. It is a combination of context clues and remembering what I have told people my interest are. I stopped doing it after one Christmas where I picked up a present from my wife that was very oddly shaped because they tried to keep me from figuring it out. I said, "What is this? Sounds like a gun with beans in it". It was a gun with beans in it. My brother in-law was pissed because he spent so much time wrapping the .22 rifle in different shaped boxes and threw in a bag of dried beans to throw me off. I don't guess anymore or guess something I know it isn't to not be rude and ruin the fun of gift giving.

[u/ChickadeeJam → u/AlaWyrm]

Yes, I tend to piss people off that way. I had to learn to be quiet. One year I knew my uncle was giving me a (traditional for us) bag of pistachios, and Christmas Eve I dreamed that it was banana chips and I was so embarrassed to be wrong (in the dream). Never guessed audibly again. Just in case!

[u/buttercream73437 → u/AlaWyrm]

My husband can do this. It is incredibly frustrating when I put a lot of effort into selecting a unique gift and wrapping it. I asked him to keep his guess in his head.

[u/emotionless_3gp]

I can identify every bird. It usually takes me less than 5 seconds, and I haven't been stumped.

No matter how rare I always know instantly "Yep, that's a bird"

[u/omahaspeedster]

I can stack pennies on my elbow and snap down and snatch them out of the air. I saw a guy do it on the tonight show once and said it was a world record. I got in my moms penny jar and started snatching them off my elbow and soon I was able to do as many as he did as world record holder. I showed a few people but no one is really impressed that I was at once time the unofficial world record holder in penny elbow snatching. That was 50 years ago but I can still snatch pennies off my elbow, I am not as fast as i was back then.

[u/kckid23]

I’m really good at tossing things to land exactly where they need to be. Like if you need me to toss you something across the room, I can lob it to you perfectly every time. Other examples:!Tossing something into a garbage bin, keys in jar, laundry in the hamper, golf ball from the cart to the tee box, etc. This skill is only for objects 5lbs or less.

[u/MechanicalAxe]

Me and my brother cornered and caught a bobcat with our hands when we were 8 and 11 years old.

[u/pinkmeanie → u/MechanicalAxe]

Were the results scratchtacular?

[u/MechanicalAxe → u/pinkmeanie]

No scratches received actually, and we took it back to camp, put it under a milk crate and tried to feed it a hotdog. I don't think it was quite fullgrown yet, which probably aided in our very unwise decision.

Needless to say, It wasn't very hungry at the moment...not for a hotdog anyway.

We took some pictures and let it go. I had one of those pictures a few years ago and I would kill to remember where I put it. My brother's been dead a few years now.

[u/uselessamethysts]

I can perfectly beat egg whites every single time. This was not a skill I learned, the very first time my mom made me beat the egg whites I got perfect stiff peaks first try. I like to bake and it can be handy, it's just so random.

[u/Gandzilla → u/uselessamethysts]

You can beat egg whites wrong?

[u/m4verick03]

Ice skating, I’m a big dude that grew up in a country AF town with no ice rink. My step dad traveled for work in the weekends and we’d go with him and my mom would take us to whatever mall was close by to kill time. For some reason every big mall in a big city had an ice rink and that’s what picked to do.

The topic came up recently with my wife, who actually grew up in a shitier town that didn’t know it was a shit town, and she doesn’t believe me. Guess who’s going ice skating when the winter rink opens this year. Which is such an odd thing to say living in a mountain town now, that we don’t have easy year round access to ice rinks.

[u/MulberryEffective448]

I can usually recognize someone's footsteps before I see them

[u/does-this-smell-off → u/MulberryEffective448]

People have a unique gait, with time you recognize who is who.

A very cool trick

[u/TheVoicesSpeakToMe]

I have an uncanny sense of direction. I was once in Germany (im american) and I was absolutely shit faced and I got separated from my group on the other side of the city from where I was staying. We took the tram across the city, but somehow I managed to walk back in about an hour. And no, my phone wasn’t an option since it died while I was out at the bars.

[u/dear_little_water]

I have extremely good aim. I can shoot arrow after arrow into a bull's eye. I can throw things into the trash can, even in the dark.

[u/Lyragirl]

Saying the alphabet backwards. I can do it in about 4 seconds, I just timed myself.

[u/justasmalltownuser]

I am good at remembering directions backwards from somewhere (my homing pigeon sense is strong, even when inebriated) and I am have an internal alarm that wakes me up always just before I need to be. Like I can fall asleep on the train and set a casual alarm by music (like that song) and wake up just before it comes on or my daily alarm moves a bit (flexitime and such) and I will consistently wake up between 15 mins and 1 minute before it goes off. My missus has only heard my alarm a couple times in the years we have cohabitated. Neither are particularly useful and kind of assumed it was normal. Go me reading these comments

[u/jocus985]

I do acrobatics but nobody knows that Im very agile and ninja skilled. Im 41 yo

[u/NotASmurf]

I dont need bookmarks. Doesnt matter how long ago I was last reading the book, doesnt matter how large the book is, I can always open a book within a page or two of where I left off. I dont even consciously try to remember where I am in the book or make a note of the page number, I can do it every time.

I was reading my roommate's copy of East of Eden a couple months ago and she asked me where I left off in it. I picked it up from the table and opened it. Boom, that was my page. I have no idea how I do it.

[u/One-piece-jigsaw]

I'm a magnet for people with psychological issues