‘What’s something you do that you thought everyone did until you saw someone do it completely terribly?’ 17 hidden talents

Certain skills always look impressive. If you can play an instrument really well or water ski, jaws are going to be on the floor.

Other skills fly under the radar though, and you might have incredible abilities you’re completely unaware of. Depredador93 wanted to hear more about these talents, so they put the following question to r/AskReddit:

‘What is something completely normal that you only realised was a skill after seeing someone do it terribly?’

Took us a little while to work out what they were getting at, NGL, but we soon caught on. Hopefully you will too.

1.

‘Rephrasing the sentence if the other person doesn’t understand it. Explaining potentially confusing words.

‘I always thought it was obvious: at the first “What?” you just repeat what you originally said, but after that you switch up the order of the words, use synonyms, or explain your sentence a bit further.

;’Especially with children or youth, if they don’t understand you, then your best bet to get the message across is by clearly enunciating words and changing the sentence structure.

‘But then I watched a lot of people just repeat themselves endlessly, with the same exact words each time, while getting angry at the other person for being confused… and I realised some people don’t know that effective communication requires TWO willing participants.’
-Shawnaverse_no1_fan

2.

‘Explaining simple directions. Some people can turn go left at the gas station into a full treasure map with side quests. Made me realize being clear is actually a skill.’
-CleanSignalLab

3.

‘Using a shovel to pick up something on a flat surface. I grew up on a farm and I didn’t realize other people couldn’t do it until I worked in landscaping and my supervisor expressed surprise that I could do it.’
-Fenchurch7079

4.

‘Being calm. People accuse you of being cold if you are not as agitated as they are.’
-camikanelova

5.

‘Parking a car smoothly It looks effortless until you ride with someone who needs six attempts’
-Sad_Pie_6463

6.

‘Tying knots.

‘I say this as someone very bad at it, after watching my own self trying to do it. And basically just resigning myself to the adage, “if you can’t tie knots, tie lots”.

‘Something I’ve been meaning to get better at, but never really get around to it.’
-CodyHodgsonAnon19

7.

‘Taking a dump.

‘Our kid took ~6mos to learn how to poop properly. Bro would feel the urge, clench, and scream the place down from the discomfort of needing to go but not knowing how to release their sphincter muscles in response.

‘That shit was a nightmare to deal with.’
-FarCar55

8.

‘Knowing how to do house chores. It baffles me that there are people out there that did not even grow up wealthy, just middle class, clearly did not employ maids but do not know how to do basic house chores.

‘Either they lived in squalor or their parents did everything for them.’
-eelaii19850214

9.

‘Nuance. So many people operate on black and white thinking and will get ridiculously mad at you for refusing to choose a side.’
-Lyn1987