I'd trade my car repair skill for house repair, and my musical ability for math ability. Both of those are far more useful in life. Maybe also trade my computer ability for welding or woodworking.
I'd trade my car repair skill for house repair, and my musical ability for math ability. Both of those are far more useful in life. Maybe also trade my computer ability for welding or woodworking.
96 Comments
Kolanaki@pawb.social · 30 pts · 173d
I'd trade my dick sucking skills for skill at playing guitar.
bridgeenjoyer@sh.itjust.works · 11 pts · 173d
Have you tried taking up the (skin) flute?
Kolanaki@pawb.social · 6 pts · 173d
The fact I played flute in 4th-6th grade makes me wonder if those skills just translated... 🤔
agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works · 4 pts · 173d
Based on what I know about flute embouchure, probably only if the receiving dick is quite small.
Kolanaki@pawb.social · 3 pts · 173d
Now I'm gonna try to blow across someone's meatus to see if I can make it whistle next time I go down.
agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works · 4 pts · 173d
Ironically enough, sounding would probably help
Kolanaki@pawb.social · 4 pts · 173d
slide whistle sounds
agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 172d
Just make sure it's rising pitch, not falling pitch
CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org · 7 pts · 173d
I feel like there's got to be people out there that want the opposite trade.
Kolanaki@pawb.social · 7 pts · 173d
"Being good at guitar doesn't help me at all. Everyone hearing me play wants to suck my dick and not the other way around! 😩"
CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org · 4 pts · 173d
Anyway, here's Wonderwall...
Like, is it really that great for boosting romantic success? I mostly just hear the roasting.
(If you want to make money at it or get famous, I can assure you skill isn't a big part of the equation. I've been close enough to the industry to definitively say a lot gets fixed in post)
neidu3@sh.itjust.works · 22 pts · 173d
I'd trade 90's computer skills for 90's social skills. Because 90's social skills are relevant today, while it's been a while since I've had to resolve IRQ conflicts via jumpers. And switches no longer have a
Chasey Laindaisy chain port thanks to multiplexing.bridgeenjoyer@sh.itjust.works · 10 pts · 173d
You've had a Lotta dick
Had a Lotta dick
I've had a Lotta time
kersploosh@sh.itjust.works · 4 pts · 173d
I have a tangent related to 90's social skills: I wish I had attended university before the high-speed internet era. We collectively replaced so much face-to-face interaction with stupid Flash games and scrolling ebaumsworld.
essell@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 172d
I'm with you.
I'll trade my skill with DOS6.2 for the ability to fix my own car brakes. That'd be enough.
kersploosh@sh.itjust.works · 12 pts · 173d
I would trade my accumulated engineering training and skills in order to be a great musician. I'm done with office work, staring at a screen all day, and coming home mentally exhausted. I want to be able to go to a jam session and shred with the best.
einkorn@feddit.org · 20 pts · 173d
kersploosh@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 173d
That hits the nail on the head.
SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 173d
Accurate
CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org · 3 pts · 173d
Have you considered the possible financial implications of this? Playing music is great, but poverty isn't.
bridgeenjoyer@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 173d
If you have a job like that, you have the money to get basically any gear and lessons you want!
kersploosh@sh.itjust.works · 4 pts · 173d
I'm at a point in life where money isn't the issue. The bottlenecks are always time and energy. Someday I'll have time to focus on music (and skiing, and backpacking, and drawing, and ...).
MirrorGiraffe@piefed.social · 1 pts · 171d
I'm a software engineer and picked up the ukulele because on of my kid was gifted one. When I feel tired or burnt I sit down and play a few songs and it actually gives me energy. I did play a bit of guitar in school so that helped me get going I guess.
I now have three ukuleles and a mini bass.
bridgeenjoyer@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 173d
I'd save some money and do that now. You never know when you're going to get a disease or cancer , or just get old.
At least thats how I look at it. Cancer is a 50% chance, so may as well plan on that taming me out!
11111one11111@lemmy.world · 12 pts · 173d
Id trade the skill of knowing how many carbs are in any dish with the skill to naturally release insulin to process the carbs of any dish. Or am i trading a skill for a perk?
safesyrup@feddit.org · 1 pts · 173d
Feel you bro, feel you
disregardable@lemmy.zip · 11 pts · 173d
I need better emotional regulation. I wish I could just go "Yeah this is going to completely suck" and then get it done.
ms_lane@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 172d
I'd trade the ability to pick up my underwear with my foot and toss it into the laundry hamper for invisibility.
bizarroland@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 173d
I have the jack-of-all-trades skill.
I can play guitar, piano, cello, oboe, drums and sing, write computer programs, poetry and short stories, read at a fairly fast pace (I've clocked myself at over 1800 pages a day, 4 full novels, without skipping sleep), I have decent eidetic memory, I've read multiple encyclopedia's from A to Z, I am apparently unable to get lost, I can do carpentry and electrical work, home repairs, automobile repairs, fix electronics, toys, gewgaws and gadgets, I know dozens of stupid human tricks like folding joints out of place and flipping eyelids, crossing eyes and flexing tongue.
I have literally never run into anything that I cannot do to some degree other than a pull-up or play the classical flute.
If I had to trade that skill for something else, I do not know how to properly value it. All I know is that everyone around me considers it basically worthless.
bridgeenjoyer@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 173d
I wonder how one gets your skills of all skills! Did you grow up without fear of failure and ADHD perhaps? Did you have good parents? Curious.
bizarroland@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 173d
Massive fear of failure and incredibly abusive parents.
Also, practically no support from them beyond food and shelter. Even clothing was a once a year if they remember kind of thing.
I'm also vigilantly self-reliant, to the point that when I ask other people for help, they are often shocked.
bridgeenjoyer@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 173d
That's great you're able to do all those things!
bizarroland@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 172d
Also, as far as how to get those skills, part of it is just being born with it. Both me and my dad are hyperlexic.
We taught ourselves to read.
My first words were "M-I-L-K, that spells milk", which shocked the hell out of my mom because apparently we were driving around in a car and I saw the billboard and it clicked in my head.
I was like nine months to a year old.
The rest of it is just boredom. I was offered to skip grades multiple times, but my mom didn't want to embarrass my older half-brother by having me be in the same grade or ahead of his grade, so I got held in place, and I still managed to graduate a year ahead of my class.
With all of the extra free time for my mind to ramble, I read and consumed information and I was like, I'm going to do something great and I need to know everything I possibly can know in order to accomplish this greatness.
Unfortunately...
Being horrendously abused by the people that are supposed to be nurturing and caring for you makes it incredibly difficult to reach out and achieve greatness when the opportunity is in front of you.
kittenzrulz123@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 6 pts · 172d
I would trade all my skill and knowledge in history and geography for just being able to program in rust
solrize@lemmy.ml · 6 pts · 173d
Is doom scrolling a tradeable skill?
rawn@feddit.org · 5 pts · 171d
Trading my "people always want to tell me what went wrong in their life"-superpower for excellent executive function. Pretty please.
muxika@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 173d
I'd trade my writing skills for coding skills. I feel like I'd be happier programming than teaching kids how to write.
cyberpunk007@lemmy.ca · 3 pts · 172d
You had me at "teaching kids".
I'd lose my mind. Happier coding and vibin to music. You know, the OG vibe coding.
Test_Tickles@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 171d
Don't want, both jobs are being decimated by AI, so you should have plenty of time to learn whatever you want real soon.
quediuspayu@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 3 pts · 172d
I would gladly change my math ability, that is small, for some musical ability, that is non existent.
gwl@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 0 pts · 171d
Music isn't magic, it's not an innate talent, but rather a skill.
And like every skill, with time and practice and research, anyone could learn it.
Just not everyone's got the time.
DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 173d
Knowledge of Mandarin-Chinese for Knowledge of Japanese
I like Anime 😁, but haven't really used Mandarin for over a decade so I feel like Japanese would be a better use of brain capacity for me.
gwl@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 3 pts · 171d
So many folks here just mentioning things that with time and effort they could just straight-up learn.
Music isn't magic, Art isn't something you're born with
PlutoniumAcid@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 171d
Respectfully disagree with you.
I've been taking music lessons for years, to find that I don't have the ear nor the rhythm for it.
Ten years of dance classes, I love the feeling of floating over the floor with an English Waltz. But ask me to stop counting in my head, or improvise rather than trained patterns, and I fall apart, just rocking in place.
Painting too. Aquarels, not acrylic. I don't have the imagination nor, again, the fine motor skills.
The Arts are not for me.
I am a man of electronics, mechanics, computing, soldering, Lego, woodworking, sailing, geometry, 3d modeling. And I can teach and plan and organise.
It's all practical, tangible stuff. That is who I am.
gwl@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 2 pts · 171d
Sounds like you've just not found the right way to learn that works for you, tbh
CookieOfFortune@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 171d
Eh you can’t ignore the effect talent has on skill development. Their brain can literally be wired in a way that something like rhythm can be difficult to master whereas someone else can pick it up easily. Some of these things you’re just born with and can never change.
The same applies to high level math and art
gwl@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 0 pts · 171d
It's at most a headstart
CookieOfFortune@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 171d
It’s more of a multiplier. Regardless of practice someone without talent will never catch a talented and dedicated person.
gwl@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 1 pts · 171d
Huh, I guess that explains all those bands of musicians where none of them had any talent and then went on to have zero success, such as AC/DC, Slayer and Metallica
CookieOfFortune@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 171d
Mainstream musical success is not a metric of musical skill. However if you look at any violin soloist, they have to be talented.
Also I’d also argue many of those band members do have talent.
Taldan@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 169d
I'm in the same boat as him. I have zero talent or understanding if music and art
Math comes very easily and naturally to me. Even advanced calculus felt east to learn
I couldn't sing a single song from memory. Not in a, "I'm bad at singing" way. Literally I don't remember a single song. I have memorized songs before, but it's quick to forget them, because it's just that to me - memorization
With practice and effort I can memorize songs and generally replicate patterns to make music, but that's it. It isn't really learning music
gwl@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 1 pts · 169d
It literally is.
That's all learning music is, remembering more and more patterns, and then fucking around to see if you can combine them in interesting ways.
You all sound like you've just started, hit a chest-high wall and then went "this must be all there is! Woe is me!" instead of just climbing over the wall
chris@l.roofo.cc · 2 pts · 171d
I feel you. When trying to paint I want to make an exact copy of reality because I can't imagine what is the essential thing to make something recognizable as it. I can't imagine it well enough in my head.
CookieOfFortune@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 171d
Have you read Drawing with the Right Side of the Brain? Could help you think about art differently.
gwl@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 1 pts · 171d
Try taking some theory lessons, it helps with things immensely by giving a stronger foundation
Quilotoa@lemmy.ca · 3 pts · 173d
I can whistle without moving my lips. I'd trade that for the ability to play football at a world competative level.
TheWeirdestCunt@lemmy.today · 3 pts · 173d
Id probably trade my gaming skills for any sort of artistic skill. At least then I could be good at something that you can make an income from.
bridgeenjoyer@sh.itjust.works · 10 pts · 173d
Not negating you, but if you are under any notion that art can sustain a living, especially in the current slop world, I have bad news for you 😬
TheWeirdestCunt@lemmy.today · 4 pts · 173d
Not sustain but at least provide something extra. The sort of thing where a couple of commissions might get you a pizza or some other treat that you couldn't justify otherwise.
bridgeenjoyer@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 173d
Grab gimp and start just editing pictures. I've made some cool stuff By combining photos tastefully or making album covers etc.
Tippon@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 172d
I did something similar with Inkscape a few years ago. I needed a quick logo for something, but wanted to be able to resize it easily. I knocked up something basic, then played with it when I had some free time. I'm still not particularly good, but I can do the basics :)
polotype@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 173d
Smurf some accounts on fps, i heard it pays (even though it's somewhat shady)
El_guapazo@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 171d
Useful doesn't mean you'll enjoy it. I have the math skills but no musical skills. I wish I could sit on my patio and strum a guitar.
Eq0@literature.cafe · 3 pts · 173d
I would trade my very limited woodworking skills for equally limited artistic skills of any type, ideally music related.
I would trade some other skills (really any pick) for extra house improvement skills. It’s not even that I’m bad at it, I’m just too nervous to fuck it up to even start…
CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org · 2 pts · 173d
So many music answers here, I didn't expect that.
Maybe my ability to "sing" by vibrating just my lips together, in exchange for absolutely anything useful. I don't know if anyone else can do that, so if we're going by a kind of bell curve way of measuring "talent", it could fix a lot for me.
Interesting, why? You'd think they both are things you either have to do yourself or pay someone for.
bridgeenjoyer@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 173d
Eh, car repair is worthless. I can swap engines, build engines, replace head gaskets and alternator's and clutches, but no one cares. That work maybe gets you 50 bucks here and there. House repairs are astronomically more expensive (especially things like dirtwork or drainage or concrete. A medium sized deck is $30,000 today to build. Plus cars now are mostly throwaway and not repairable without an ee degree and a dealership computer. Everything that ever breaks is just a little sensor made in China thats impossible to replicate.
CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org · 1 pts · 172d
Have you actually worked as a mechanic, then? I don't know who else would be pulling out the engine of a modern car.
It's true that you can make a good living as a tradesperson working on houses. A great living, even, if like in my area there's a shortage. I know mechanics and they seem okay, but I think they're all heavy mechanics, so that doesn't necessarily contradict you. One person that does auto bodies, too, which again, isn't different.
yermaw@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 173d
I would trade my video game ability for basically anything else in the world. Im no longer a world-champion contender level of skill, and without charisma its worthless.
I'd like to trade it in for carpentry or any handymannery.
DioramaOfShit@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 172d
Im a carpenter and a gamer
jtzl@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 171d
I'd keep music skills, OP. The world has enough calculators.
bridgeenjoyer@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 171d
The calculators do music now though, and no one cares :(
z3rOR0ne@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 172d
I'd trade in my excellent customer service skill for elite sniper skill. Can't let Luigi have all the fun.
harrison_fnord@reddthat.com · 2 pts · 170d
Na i am good. I might be just a bartender, but I gave so much to become one of the best in my trade. Giving away that would mean giving away part of myself. I paid a high price to get where I am now and I am good damn proud of myself.
But if I had to I would want to git gud. Always wanted to be able to beat Dark Souls with ease.
MerryJaneDoe@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 172d
My skill at driving a car would be transformed into helicopter pilot. I hear they make good money and I can always get a motorcycle or take Uber.
DaddyIssueSolver@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 171d
kn33@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 173d
I played saxophone through college. It was fun, but I haven't played in years. I'd rather know French at this point and try to move to the alps
stoly@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 173d
I would happily trade my very good writing abilities for the ability to engage with higher mathematics. The first can be learned, the second requires the right sort of brain (which I don't have).
polotype@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 173d
Funny, while i would never give up my ability to do math for writing, i feel the other way around in regards to which one can be learned and which one can only be "gifted".
I always was utterly unable to get decent grades in linguistics. No matter how much i tried ;)
stoly@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 172d
Hilariously I'm a linguist. I actually have several degrees in the humanities and social sciences plus a masters in IT management but made the potentially questionable decision to jump into an engineering doctorate with no engineering experience. It's been as fun as you might imagine, but I am learning lots and advancing through the program.
I wish that my undergrad advisor had let me take calculus like I wanted to, but he wouldn't since it wasn't required for the program. My doctoral advisor didn't say anything so I figured that I was in the clear. What do you know? It's all calculus based and I'm learning to do derivatives and integrals in realtime.
What I've learned here is that if we squished our brains together, we'd form a single, complete person.
polotype@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 172d
That or two vacant bodyes XD
On a more practical note. If you have some time to spare, i really would advise you (if you've got spare time ofc) to watch videos by 3b1b, the gray cuber, 2swap, lines that connect etc... While you don't come out with a complete mastery of the subject, you do get a really deep intuition which i can't seem to get from teachers. + you get to learn that math is trully FUN rather than jusy interesting ;)
stoly@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 172d
I will check those out, thanks.
I have long understood that one of the problems with mathematics (and you see this in chemistry, physics, logic, etc) is that it is assumed that by learning to approach a problem algorithmically, an intuition has been formed. Then the test maker will throw a problem at you that does not follow the algorithm and the student who does not notice the relationship between two things is unable to complete it. This is basically where I am at with my statistics work--some basic probability questions still escape me.
polotype@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 172d
I totally get this, it's so frustrating when you know there is a geometric, aproachable and intuitive way to get at the subject and your proffessor just throws formulas at his students •π•
stoly@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 172d
I just finished a course called Statistical Process Control. In brief, create two normal distributions and hope that the means of your customer specification and your manufacturing tolerances match up. If they don't fix it.
I put together a study guide of just equations. No information on how to use them or interpret their results, just the equations and it came to 14 pages. This professor provided an equation sheet for the final exam that listed 2 of them, suggesting that we should be able to derive the remainder. This seemed like a big ask and requiring additional cognitive load when not necessary, but, apparently, I am the exception in this course because I scored below the fourth quartile (66%) with a median of 82%. Guess the others could, indeed, do the derivations...
Fortunately my homework, course project, and course paper are much better and helped raise final grade. I found it frustrating because I believe that he is teaching towards those who need a guide rather than those who need to learn.
polotype@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 172d
Good luck with that. It must be difficult in a field where everybody's got a head start on you. But i believe you can do it [insert never give up japanese man here] as you get more comfortable, pathways should start to form in your mind which will truly help to cut down on the cognitive load of memoryzing all the different variations of formulas ;)
octobob@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 173d
I am extremely focused on industrial electrical work as a career and have done it for about 12 years. To be quite honest, I can't picture myself ever doing anything else.
As a hobby though, I love working with wood. I've been slowly building my new kitchen and enjoying it quite a bit. Woodworking may be in my future. A good friend of mine has a membership to a shop that's close by