We can't ace every quiz. Every once in awhile we're going to hit a wall.
The key is to try to not be so harsh to our psyche.
We all learn differently.
But give yourself a break if you can't master everything you try, even if other people find it easy.
RedditorMxchi27wanted to hear about what simple skills others have down pat, that some of us just can't quite get, so they asked:
"What’s a seemingly basic thing you can’t do?"
Math past Algebra.
So many seem brilliant at it.
I gave up.
And the guitar, so frustrating.
be regular...
"Eat a healthy amount at regular intervals." ~ 300show
"I've had that issue as well due to being homeless multiple times. There are periods where I'm doing well, and other periods where I'll eat everything offered to me because what if I'm homeless soon? Gotta pack on the weight in case I'm homeless again and can't eat. The last time I was homeless, I lost 60 pounds in a little over a month, and gained it right back in a little under a month." ~ Indysteeler
Waterworks
"Open my eyes underwater." ~ HolyAuraJr
"Every time I try, no matter if it is fresh water, sea water, or pool water, it burns. And it burns for days afterwards." ~ Galaxy_Ranger_Bob
"I used to have the same problem. Went to a different eye doctor (for a regular check up) and he took one look at my eyes and asked: do you have trouble watching TV in a dark room? Do your eyes burn when you touch them with your hands? When you're wearing eye make up? Turns out it's an allergic reaction and eye drops made it go away! Do you experience any other discomfort with your eyes?" ~ heythere30
Make a List
"Start things, complete things, finish a todo list." ~ RandomiseUsr0
"I learned this just the other day and I am trying it out. Don't think about doing the whole thing. Just do two minutes of it. Need to get dishes done? Don't look at the stack. Just unload the dishwasher/fill the sink with soapy water. Want to get into the routine of a morning run? Don't think about treading down the street. Just put on shorts/sweats and lace up your shoes."
"Need to go shovel snow? Don't think about the work involved. Just take two minutes to put on your coat, gloves and boots. If after you follow the two minute rule you still don't want to do it then don't. However, most of the time your brain kicks in and says to itself, Well, I made it this far, I guess I'll finish up. So far I'm actually getting things done, now if I can keep my ADHD brain from creating subversive techniques I might actually be able to create the habit." ~ Yup_Shes_Still_Mad
Lips Together
"Whistle." ~ LollipopDreamscape
"I can whistle, but I want to be able to do that really loud whistling." ~ Indysteeler
GiphyBreathing.
Relaxing.
Whistling.
So basically I'm bad at life.
Silence
"Make conversation, make friends." ~ Jedibri81
"I can respond to, but never initiate a conversation. If my boss and I are in the truck, and we're driving an hour to the job site, and he doesn't speak first, we're sitting in complete silence the entire time." ~ alpacamaster8675309
GiphyRise and Shine!
"Wake up easily in the mornings. It doesn't matter how much sleep I have, I always struggle to wake up."
"Edit: Wow, thank you all so much for the upvotes and kind words and advice. I'm going to try the Alarmy app, make sure I wake up in 90 minute intervals (I did this yearsss ago but stopped for some reason), may try one of those light alarms, and will have a drink of water as soon as I wake! I will try these for a few weeks and then consider a sleep test if they don't help. Gosh how much I LOVE Reddit. Thank you all so so much ❤️." ~ emzyyx
Rambled
"I don’t explain myself well so I sound like I’m rambling." ~ atleastistoletheshow
"Same. I think faster than I speak, so I get confused and lose my train of thought, often accompanied by slurred speech. I know concepts without thinking about them, but I can't explain them; I know exactly what I mean, but the words that come out are either irrelevant and/or often misconstrued. Organising thoughts is impossible."
"Doesn't help when I ought to explain something in my native language, but think in English – and vice versa. I know a word in one language and have a hard time finding an equivalent in the other. Does it surprise you if I tell you I talk with my hands a lot? Despite this, I've been a translator since 2012, huehuehue. But I have Google and dictionaries, so it's fine."
"Everyone gets bored and changes the subject or ignores me before I can finish, so I don't like speaking. It gets a lot better when I'm tipsy, though. Those who actually listen may catch the thread and finish my sentence for me, or say ‘oh, yeah, I understand what you mean’." ~ DolfK
A Dull R...
"I can’t roll my R’s." ~ BLOME69
"Same here. I feel like a bad Mexican. I can’t even pronounce my last name correctly because of it." ~ spangee85
"OK but that makes me feel a little better, I'm white but I'm trying to learn Spanish, my tutor (who is Latin American) says her own daughter can't roll their R's so it's not a big deal. I still wish I could learn how to do it tho 😭." ~ GeneralEl4
Bad GPS
"Read maps, I have no sense of direction so if you ask me where is -location-? I sometimes don't know how to tell you." ~ IWishToRewriteMine
GiphyDo they even make maps anymore?
I still struggle with GPS.
Look at me... a master at not much.
Want to "know" more?
Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.
Never miss another big, odd, funny or heartbreaking moment again.
- People Share Which Small Things They Never Quite Mastered ›
- People Explain Which Basic Tasks They Never Quite Mastered ... ›
"What is the craziest conspiracy theory that you secretly believe in?"
Or The Singers Just Wanted To Travel?
"Ireland began deliberately entering bad songs into the Eurovision Song Contest in the 90s."
"After winning it consecutively for a few years it began getting too expensive to host so they sabotaged their chances of winning it."- Houlilala
They Weren't That Cute...
"Build-A-Bear came out with a bunch of new toys that were all the same shade of yellow right after their Minion launch severely underperformed."
"They had stockpiled yellow fabric in anticipation of the Minion toys selling well and getting a big production run and had to find a way to use it all."- everlasting1der
Be Careful What You Ask...
"I believe r/AskReddit is actually a data farming operation that is being used to feed AI algorithms in order to produce more effective propaganda, social control mechanisms, etc… but what do I know…" - Sackerson-502
Search Engine Instagram GIF by GiflyticsGiphyBut Where Do The Beans Go?
"This is dumb, but my mother believes that the coffee grinder machines at the gas station are fake..as in they make a lot of noise just to make you think what your getting is fresh coffee."
"When it's 'grinding' the beans, you never see the beans move."
"We called the gas station and the employee said he doesn't know how the coffee makers work since a 3rd party refills them up or changes the flavors."
"I've called her crazy but slowly i'm getting sucked into it, simply because it's fun."- james_castrello2
Which Would Be More Embarassing?
"Paul Pierce sh*t his pants during the 2008 NBA Finals."
"He sat on the floor apparently injured until he was taken off the court in a wheelchair and returned minutes later completely fine."
"Sitting on the floor and leaving in a wheelchair stopped anybody from seeing his dookie stains."- pierremanslappy
paul pierce GIFGiphyNot Exactly Helping Anyone...
"Micro plastics are making people dumber."- blackbeautybyseven
When They Could Broaden Their Client Lists...
"That the weight loss industry sets people up to fail, because if their products worked they wouldn't have return customers."- Funky_chicken89
What's Important, He's Out There...
"It’s not the cameras: Bigfoot is blurry."- QuillDidNothingWrong
Bigfoot Sasquatch GIF by MOODMANGiphyThe World May Never Know...
"North Korea had an underground nuclear testing site collapse."
"Kim Jong Un then went to China."
"North Korea declared in their state news paper that they have perfected the nuke, and will no longer do any more tests."
"My theory is that Kim Jong Un went to China to ask for help fixing their nuclear disaster."
"Xi told him to deal with it himself and to stop playing with nukes."
"Kim came back to N.Korea like a beaten dog."- Initial-Finger-1235
What Lurks Beneath Midtown
"Occultist architect Ivo Shandor outfitted most of the buildings in downtown Manhattan with a specific alloy which, when activated under the right conditions, would summon Gozer the Gozerian."- Rogue_Wallet
A Connection To Brag About?
"This is dumb lmao, there is a man who lived and worked as a teacher where I'm from in NC."
"His name was Peter Stuart Ney."
"It was during the early 1800s, there's a local legend that lives on that this man was in fact one of Napoleon's right hand men, and fought alongside him even."
"It's been disproven apparently by the French government over the years, it's just funny how this guy was supposedly executed in 1815, just to show up over in NC as a teacher with the same surname and military expertise just 1 year later."
"They say he was a skilled fencer, and he had precise military knowledge even though he was just a teacher for the local school system."
"On his deathbed he supposedly confessed to being one Marshal Michel Ney, the 'Bravest of the Brave', according to Napoleon."
"Wild story but part of me just fully f*cking believes it's crazy enough to be true."
"Records indicated he had shown up in Charleston SC in 1816, just a year after this Michel Ney was executed in France."
"Idk, it's just a crazy story."- actuallyjayft
pizza emoji GIFGiphy...Aside From The Fact That Fairy Tales Are Public Domain...
"Disney only do remakes to retain copyright on the stories."- AndPlagueFlowers
Likely True For Some Of Them...
"All those crazy Boomers have lead poisoning."- octavialovesart
Bodes Well For Online Dating Too...
"The Empty Internet Conspiracy."
"A large part of the population of the internet and, thus, a large part of interactions on the internet are completely fake."
"Just faceless chat bots tooling around; generating social media posts, YouTube comments, and opinion articles on news sites."
"With the rise of AI generated essays and research papers, it's becoming easier to draw lines between those papers and how random news articles can read in a way in which a human would never write."- Karmit_Da_Fruge
Internet Netneutrality GIF by Ryan SeslowGiphyAs long as people keep these beliefs to themselves, and don't try to promote them, then they have every right to believe these rather dubious stories are true.
And who knows, some of these stories are so far-fetched, perhaps the only way they came to prominence was because they actually happened.
Redditor pambannedfromchilis wanted the wealthy to spill the deets on being wealthy, so they asked:
"What is something only a wealthy person would know?"
Tell me the secrets. Just first let me get a pen and paper.
Private Listings
I Am Rich Nene Leakes GIFGiphy"You can opt not to be on those 'wealthiest people' lists - for a price."
draggar
"The number of people that actively avoid those lists is far higher than the number of people on those lists. Also, some people actively manage the amount the list shows."
Ragnel
Call Me
"The phone numbers from people who could help you out of any (even bad) situation."
purevenuscookieslog
"All you need is one person with the right phone number and worth that level of protection."
There is a neighborhood in Colorado Springs with a large number of former generals, nuclear scientists, corporation directors, etc. Within 5 minutes of a burglary alarm going off, the criminal was dead. I can assure you that the Colorado Springs police can't respond that quickly."
jeffh4
HELP!
"The less help you need, the more you get."
manIDKbruh
"You have access to favorable credit lines with better rates than ordinary folk. They just throw money at you when you have money."
dbx999
"Bob Hope used to say 'a bank is a place that'll lend you money, but only if you can prove you don't need it.'"
tommytraddles
Premium Help
"How to fully use a hotel concierge service."
Firebolt164
"Was in Australia at a nice hotel. Wanted to go to Royal Observatory but there were no tickets that evening - only the evening we could make it. Ended up in casual conversation with the hotel concierge. At some, told him how much we were enjoying our visit and he asked if there was anything disappointing."
"I said only that we could not get into the Royal Observatory. He said he’d see what he could do, catching me by surprise having been unfamiliar with what a concierge does before then. That night my wife and I were looking at the Jewel Box through the telescope at the Royal Observatory."
arriesgado
Celeb Encounters
Rihanna Boat GIFGiphy"You can rent celebrities for your private events. Not just musicians, but bonafide actors and actresses."
MediumRareTaint
"I remember a few years ago the founder of Lululemon, Chip Wilson, had the Red Hot Chili Peppers play in his backyard here in Vancouver. We could hear them from the beach below."
madam1madam
If had the money to rent people for private events, Adele would have plans forever!
What is Rent?
Alicia Silverstone My Bad GIFGiphy"Have a friend who is moving to the Bay area. To work for a non-profit. Part-time. She didn't know what her salary would be."
minervazahara
Fly High
"Private jets come with different size luggage compartments."
thinkx5
"I mean, do all cars have the exact same size trunk? No, some are roomy as sh*t and some are teeny. It makes sense that different models from different manufacturers would have different sized/shaped compartments, especially given there are some that seat 4 passengers and some that seat 14."
fireandlifeincarnate
Member-Owned
"The difference between an equity country club and a membership country club."
smurfsundermybed
"Some country clubs have vested ownership (ie 100% member-owned) while others are owned by corporations. It really isn't always a prestige thing, many older clubs in the sticks only came about because they were member-owned and built by a group of families."
"Of course, nearly all of today's old-school elite courses started out as member-owned but that doesn't mean all member-owned courses are elite."
Salamok
"Yeah, this is a good one. Also, the understanding that you can't just walk into most private clubs, write a check for whatever the fee is and become a member. Most of the equity clubs have a white ball/black ball system too, similar to fraternities, where two or three blacks DQ you."
xkulp8
When in Need
"The VIP hotline number at the children's hospital when your kid needs urgent care but there's a big wait in the ER (but your kid isn't sicker than anybody else's kid in the ER), and you won't get to the front of the line. Blew my mind when a very wealthy friend told me he did this for his child (the friend's father was a huge donor to the hospital). More power to him, but there is the wealthy and then there is the wealthy."
off_mode_auto
The Most Valuable
Seth Meyers Time GIF by Late Night with Seth MeyersGiphy"That wealth is not what people see. It's what people don't get to see. That the most valuable asset is not things, but time."
shidored
Whoever said money can't buy happiness is lying.
There is the biggest secret.
