People Share Skills You Can Master In Ten Minutes That'll Change Your Life

Every now and then, we inevitably regret not having learned how to do something until it is too late.
I went dressed in my casual speakeasy attire topped with a boater hat and a bow tie around my neck that I proudly tied myself.
No other fellas I spotted at the party sported a clip-on, not that anyone would razz me for wearing one if I did.
Most party guests were either too busy doing the Charleston in front of the orchestra or on a toot and getting zozzled from their glasses of giggle water by noon.
Anyway, the event was the bee's knees, and knowing that I had taken the time to learn how to tie on a bow tie made me feel like the cat's whiskers and well-suited for the convivial affair.
In order for us to prevent lamenting, "coulda, shoulda, woulda," Redditor askgamblers-official suggested that there is no time like the present to educate ourselves about anything useful that could come in handy someday.
The Original Poster (OP) asked:
"What can we learn/know right now in 10 minutes that will be useful for the rest of our life?"Remember, you can learn how to do anything, thanks to the magic of YouTube.
For Survival
"If you ever fall through the ice and are trapped underwater, aim for a dark spot. A hole in the ice will look dark."
"And if someone tries to abduct you fight like hell even if they have weapon. Your situation will not improve if they get you to a more private location."
For Saving A Life
"How to spot someone choking and how to help them."
"Takes 10 minutes to learn and could save a life."
"If you yourself are choking, a lot of people have heard the use a chair to heimlich yourself trick. To me the better and easier method is to get into a position on the ground face down arms up like your going to do a push-up. Then drop yourself to the ground to force pressure through the diaphragm."
"And if YOU are choking at a restaurant, don't run into the restroom out of embarrassment where you might die alone and unseen."
For Rescuing
"Also, how to spot someone legit drowning. It looks nothing like the movies. Head will be barely above water, with mouth bobbing slightly in and out of the water, opening and closing like a fish would. Probably won't see their hands (because they'll be moving wildly underwater), they won't be making much sound, if at all, they'll have glassy eyes with a faraway stare."
"All this adds up to a very non-Hollywood look that we're all used to. This person looks 'calm' in the water because their amygdala has taken over and they are on auto-pilot to simply stay alive. This is one of the reasons why they don't speak...speech isn't important at this point, so their brain shuts it down."
"This is also why it's extremely dangerous to personally engage a drowning person. They will drown you to save themselves and probably have no recollection of doing it. Always use a long pole, rope, flotation device, or something else onto which they can grab."
– pgymjp
For Calculating
"Percentage is interchangable. 8% of 25 is hard to do in your head but 25% of 8 is easy, and they both equal the same. works every time."
"If you think of 8% as a fraction (8/100) the reason for this is more clear. (8/100)x25 = (8x25)/100 = 8x(25/100)"
For Further Explanation
"Think of percentages in a different way. 8% is just 8/100. So 8% of 25 is 8/100 × 25. Multiplication and division are commutative, which is a fancy way of saying you can swap the order freely. So you can do 8×25/100 or 8/100×25 and it'll come out to the same thing."
– Lost-Tea
For Flexibility
"How to properly stretch your hands and forearms. Stretch arms straight out forward, point fingers up, then without moving arms ball a fist downward. Repeat as fast as possible.. taught indirectly from Bruce Lee"
For Silencing
"If you're somewhere quiet and your stomach is growling loudly DON'T tense up your tummy muscles, push your stomach out instead and it will make the growl quieter."
For Organizing
"How to use the sort and filter functions on Excel. These functions can help prevent a lot of future pain."
For Expectations
"Grasp the idea that everyone you meet knows something you do not."
"A wise man and a fool have a long conversation. The fool has the most to learn, but the wise man learns the most. (Sorry for not being gender neutral.)"
For Cleaning Bodily Fluids
"It's easier to clean up cum with cold water than with hot water."
"Same goes for blood on clothes or other material!"
"Meant to help out the ladies with this one... not someone plotting their next murder..."
For Picking Locks
"How to bypass a lock. It's actually very easy to get through most locked doors. Any kind of card (license, credit card, whatever) can open a regular latch. If the door opens away from you just slide it in between the door jam and door handle. The card will slide in between the mechanism and open it. If the door opens towards you it doesn't always work but you can slide the card in and down at an angle to get behind the latch and open it that way."
"Most pad locks take less than 10 seconds to get into as well but I don't know how to describe the technique with words."
– Ghriszly
For Life
"I mean, they're skills and not really wisdom but..."
"Warning signs of a stroke."
"How to use a fire extinguisher."
"Rolling your clothes after folding gives you more room in a drawer/suitcase. It's life changing."
"Righty tighty, lefty loosey."
"How to change a tire, check your oil and jump a car."
"Also changing headlights without using your fingers because the oils will damage the bulbs."
"How to start a campfire and put it out."
"The Heimlich maneuver."
"How to tie a knot more than one way."
"How to sew a basic stitch."
"The basics of emergency first aid."
"How to spot a rip tide and how to escape."
"How to shut off and turn on a circuit breaker and where they're located."
"What to do in an earthquake, tornado, tsunami and hurricane."
For CPR
"Push hard, push fast."
"Ribs WILL break if you're doing it properly on an adult (it is the most bizarre creepy thing). Kids are very bendy and you may not get that sensation if you need to do CPR on them)"
"If you need to do CPR, the person you are doing it to is dead. You can't make them more dead. You might be able to bring them back to life if you try. Do not feel bad if you can't. If you fail, you didn't kill them. They were already dead."
"If you don't have a one way valve to administer rescue breaths, STILL GIVE CHEST COMPRESSIONS. Chest compressions alone are better than nothing- you're still pumping oxygen to the areas that need it and it will suffice until EMS/help arrives."
"Giving CPR is stressful as hell. If you need to do CPR, it's likely going to be on someone you know. Sometimes gallows humour is necessary for your brain not to freak out. Chest compressions to 'Another One Bites The Dust' is the right rhythm and might get you smirking long enough to make you smirk/laugh (to yourself!) to take your mind off of what's actually happening."
"Even if a cardiac arrest happens IN hospital, their odds of survival are only about 10%- so much less so if it's outside a hospital. I say this not to make you think 'why bother' but so you know that if you are unable to resuscitate the person, it's OK and was nothing you did wrong- by even trying CPR, you gave them their best chance at life."
Dating and the search for love and companionship... What a nightmare.
This journey plays out nothing like in the movies.
Every Prince or Princess (or everything in BTW) seems to have a touch of the psycho.
The things people say during what should be simple dinner conversation can leave a dining partner aghast.
Like... do you hear you?
Redditor detroit_michigldan wanted to discuss all the best ways to crash and burn when trying to make a romantic connection. They asked:
"You're on a date and it's going really great. What can another person say to ruin it completely?"
I once had a guy ask me if I was willing to follow him into the woods, depending on the price of the meal.
Yeah. No steak is worth that.
Plans After...
"Thanks for the ride but I have a date with someone else, I figured you wouldn't drive me if you knew I was going on a date with someone else and I really needed a ride."
"Online dating, talked to her for a while, finally got the courage to ask her out and then she said that as we got there."
iareyours
Mirror Image
“'You look just like my wife!'”
catalinachild
"I did have a guy tell me I reminded him of his son. I don’t believe English has a word to adequately describe my feelings at that time."
UnicornMagicRainbow
"That would definitely do it."
chaotica78
Third Wheel
"'Hope you don't mind if my mother joins us.'"
ofsquire
"Actually had a girl do this on a first date because she had anxiety issues. Honestly wasn’t bad except that 90% of the time she was silent and her mom talked over her."
"I didn’t mind that much and wouldn’t have minded trying again when she was more comfortable except that she was let go at the company we worked at and she deleted her social media profiles and she never responded on her number. Ah well."
Seightx
Liar
"'Hey bro aren't you gay? I made out with you last night.'"
"Random dude I've never seen before in front of my (f) date."
JHXC16
Was he lying though?
Filter Issues
"'You looked better on Tinder.'"
waqasnaseem07
"Isn’t it basic knowledge that everybody looks slightly worse than the worst picture you can find?"
no_user_ID_found
The Past
"'My ex used to do that too.'"
xxIvyOF
"Yep. I’ve definitely had two otherwise-decent-guy date-situations sour because the ex-comparisons just would not stop flowing. No woman wants to be seen as interchangeable—I’m not here to perfectly fill that ex-sized hole in your life. Focusing on the present moment and a future we could build together is a courtesy we need to grant each other in earliest dates of dating."
LarkScarlett
Powerless
"'I'm an alpha, you cant handle my top energy.'"
Midnightgay28
"I actually left a dude in the middle of dinner, in part, for saying this. I ordered an Uber under the table while pretending to listen to him. Went to the bathroom, and never came back. That was when I was young. Now I’d just say, 'How about we enjoy this meal in silence, before we head our separate ways.'”
UnicornMagicRainbow
Mommy...
"'Mother says I should be back by 9.'"
"Saying 'mother says' just feels weird."
bunnyrut
"That gives me Norman Bates vibes."
Werewolf_lover20
"'Mother says alligators are aggressive because they have an overabundance of teeth, but lack a toothbrush.'"
sodaextraiceplease
Obvs...
"'If you were going to be murdered, what method would you prefer. Purely hypothetical. Obvs.'"
Specific_Tap7296
If it looks anything like a Dateline NBC episode... RUN!
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Despite the advancement of technology rendering people left to their own devices–literally–to entertain them, there are some leisurely activities that will never go out of style.
Or so you would think.
Do people still knit to pass the time? Are people actively collecting stamps?
It depends on who's asking.
Curious to hear about hobby trends, Redditor gizehgizeh asked:
"What are once popular hobbies that are slowly dying these days?"

Before we've become conditioned to living on our phones, these activities used to keep people occupied.
Before Texting, There Was This
"Letter writing."
– littlekingMT
Literal And Tangible Joy
"Well the internet killed pen pals for sure. I do remember I had a Japanese girl for a penpal maybe back in 2007 or so. I honestly don't remember how it started, pretty sure some website, but that was a fun experience. But now I can just straight up talk to foreign people real time, lol. But yea getting a physical letter that someone took the time to write and mail still is hard to beat feelings wise."
– skyburnsred
Model Trains
"When I was growing up, every town had a model train store in it. Now I have one in region and everything else has to be bought online."
– Hairy_Effective1172
Pretty Rocks
"Don’t see anyone playing marbles anymore, I had an awesome collection in school."
– sheeple85
"I had some marbles as a kid in the 90s. My grandma got them for me and I had no idea what I was supposed to do with them. I always imagined them as a thing kids in the 40s played with."
– Ryoukugan
People Were Moving Canvases
"Paintball has been dying a slow death since 2006. Sad, really."
– hobo_recycler
Before the general population began hating clutter, collecting was once a "thing."
Precious Coins
"Coin collecting... I'm a silver/gold nut and I'm always hunting for precious metal coins. whenever I go into a shop they get all excited because 'no one under 70 collects coins anymore.'"
– ThatFishySmell99
Post It
"Stamp collecting."
– spooky_scully_mulder
"Collecting in general, really. Of course there are still prominent collectors but it's slipped more into enthusiast and niche territory than being a popular hobby that you might expect anyone to have."
– iuytrefdgh436yujhe2
What A Gem
"Rockhounding was immensely popular back in the 1950's and 1960's. Personally, I think it's a fascinating and fulfilling hobby, but when I go to a meeting at a rock and gem club, I'm usually the youngest one in the room by several decades."
– filthy_lucre
People once enjoyed making things.
Admiring The View
"Stained glass. I learned how to make it from my old man, and my junior high art class teacher also taught it. Very few artisans are still around."
– brobeanzhitler
Metal Vocation
"Black smithing."
– kenworth117
"I bought a forge to try. It’s insanely hard work, and crazy expensive. I still haven’t finished a piece."
– DSentvalue
Scrapbooking
"Yeah. I'm watching the arts and crafts stores around me completely uninstalling their racks for specialty paper. Now the only thing they have is mega packs of repeating colors/images. To boot all the inclusions like papercraft/die-cut things, washi tape, scissors, stickers, etc have gotten so expensive I would rather go buy $5 bags at value village to get an assortment of things versus buying anything new. I really, really miss yard sales for the same reasons."
– Phantasmai
I envy people who have jobs that are basically their hobbies.
Not everyone gets paid doing what they actually enjoy and have a profound level of passion for.
If they do, kudos to them.
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When we first meet someone–whether through mutual friends, at school, or in a new work setting–we generally feel people out to determine if they're worth getting to know.
While the process could take time, some people make our jobs much easier after spotting instant red flags.
Curious to hear about our general radar of people, Redditor xxFluffie asked:
"What is something that makes you immediately dislike someone?"

Some people just think they are absolutely hilarious and never realize they're the only ones laughing.
Next In Line
"They laugh about having screwed someone else over. If you think you're not next, well, you'll learn."
– whiznat
Unfunny
"when you mention you don't like a thing and they immediately do that thing 'as a joke.'"
– wayfinder
Playing Devil's Advocate
"Kneejerk contrarians. People who, no matter what you say you like or believe, just have to dismiss it and say they like or think the opposite."
– BubbhaJebus
People who put others down get slammed here.
Bad Parents
"When they treat their kids sh**ty in public. I don't mean handling tantrums, setting a rule, having to hurry to the train etc. I mean perfectly normal-behaved kids getting in trouble for trailing along peacefully, looking at things, asking questions etc."
"If you don't like tiny humans who learn the world, why have them??"
– raxeira-etterath
Public Humiliation
"Treating people sh**ty in public for laughs. Like being rude to service workers because they think it’s funny. Big red flag."
– Ok_Personality_1080
Simply Uncalled For
"Someone who is a d*ck to other people or animals for no reason."
– xebt1000
Those with ulterior motives rubs people the wrong way.
The Scheme
"If they try to get me to join their MLM scheme."
– spazmcgee1
Hard Sell
"A guy I used to be friends with in high school reached out a couple of years after graduating about a business opportunity he wanted my opinion on because 'you've always been smart', then he set up a Skype call and brought some other dude into the call and they started trying to sell me on what was clearly an MLM scheme. The guy went from friend to 'I'm never talking to you again' in a matter of 10 minutes."
– Mental-Afternoon-164
A Timeline
"Good gawd, this! I've had more than one exposure to this abject bullsh**tery..."
- Back in the late 80's/early 90's I was invited to a meeting of literally the OG "Pyramid" where you're recruited to pay in, and then you go out and recruit others to pay in, and the last in line got f'kall.
- In 1995 I had a coworker try to reel me into Amway, which was a hard no.
- In 2000 it was Pampered Chef, though to be fair they did have useful products.
- In 2009 a coworker tried to get me into some stupid video calling service that was obviously stupid from the description. He even got offended when I called bullsh*t.
– Mystical_Cat
Too much ego is a no-go.
I Can Do Better
"Being a b*tch just to stroke their own ego."
"We get it, you can lift 5lbs more than the 12 year old, you don't have to rub it in their face just because you're slightly better"
– Livia_Pivia
Can't Top This
"Oh, you did <story that's been told>? That's nothing! I did <implausible story>.
"I get the whole empathy through relating common experience, and I'm someone who does that (which drives some people crazy on its own), but there's a big different by empathising through common experience, and one-upmanship."
– Tisarwat
Lacking Conversational Etiquette
"Starting to talk over me when I was already talking."
"Stop it you rude, arrogant jerk."
– R33Gtst
If one or more of these traits sound familiar to you, you're not alone.
We don't have time for braggadocios, pyramid-schemers, and conversation interrupters.
And that's just for starters.
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Children tend to believe just about anything they hear.
That there are monsters under your bed, watching too much TV will make your head explode, and silly faces will be permanent if you make them too often.
The sky is truly the limit when it comes to silly things that children will believe.
Some call it naivitée, other's youthful innocence.
But it's hard not to look back with embarrassment on certain things we believed as a child, that today might simply seem dumb.
Redditor Disastrous_Toe_6548 was curious to learn the multitude of silly things people believed when they were children, leading them to ask:
"What's the dumbest thing you believed as a kid?"
Pleading to deaf ears...
"My dad told me he had hearing loss and couldn't hear me if I whined because my pitch would get too high."
"Would completely ignore me until I asked him questions in a normal voice."
"Trusted him implicitly until I was 12 and he yelled at my younger brother for whining."- Tyrion_Stark.
Get it while you can.
"That they took everything off the shelves when the supermarket closed."- fgyfddg.
Silly superstitions.
"My grandfather used to tell me that if I played with the fire, I'd pee the bed."
"I believed him for a while, until I got older."
"I think he was just trying to protect me from the fire."- teddypa1981.
"Rain, rain go away..."
"That if it was raining where I was, it was raining everywhere in the world."- morningshartz.
Age is just a number.
"My parents used to seem really old to me, so much so I believed they grew up like cave people as children, wearing giant leaves for clothes and what not."- Laleena_.
So that's how they're made!
"That smokestacks from the power plant created clouds."- Scaniarix.
An instant cure.
"The sun gives you sunburns, therefore, moonlight should heal them."- velocipeter.
Better safe than sorry.
"Don't drink and drive meant all drinks."
"My dad was super confused when I told him he wasn't allowed to have any soda until we got home."- hulagirlslovetoparty.
Don't believe everything you see on TV.
"There was an episode of Mickey Mouse where Mickey couldn’t reach something at first, so he tried again and somehow his arm was long enough to reach it."
"As a small kid I believed that if I couldn’t reach something, I should just try reaching for it again and my arm would then somehow be long enough to reach it."- That-Dutch-Person.
The miracle of childbirth.
"That babies are pooped out."
"When I was like 7 I was listening to my aunt as she explained that childbirth was pretty intense and painful for her, and I was all solemnly like, 'yeah, sometimes just my poops are painful, I don’t think I could get a baby out' and she went 'um, WHAT?' and her reaction made me realize real quick that I had f*cked up somewhere and I tried to change the subject while my mind was just reeling lol."- thesoundingfurrows.
Oh to be a child again.
And to believe literally everything you're told.
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