Redditor Shlegnog wanted to see who would fess up about some qualities we possess. So they asked:
"What’s something that you do that you’re pretty sure is normal, but you don’t know for sure?"
I talk to myself to go to sleep. It's soothing. Anyone else?
Pockets
Animated GIFGiphy"Putting my hands on my pockets where I keep my phone/wallet when I closely pass by someone, just in case they may be a pickpocket."
TheYeti4815162342
Wiped
"That one dude yesterday and elsewhere on reddit posted that he only wiped once after pooping and was certain that he didn't need more than one wipe to get the job done. I definitely use multiple wipes until the tissue is clean... but now I'm questioning if there are secretly a bunch of (literal) nasty-a** people out there."
SmokeGSU
Keep Dreaming
"I daydream constantly. I'll sit there and be imagining I'm the hero of some story, or I just won a billion dollars and how I'm spending it. I just have an imagination I get lost in when nothing is happening. It's so easy to get lost when you have an extremely vivid imagination. Sometimes I think it's childish, but then I realize it's honestly just a relaxing habit that maybe some adults are too stressed to be able to practice."
__________lIllIl
Mind Reader
"If I'm out in public (grocery store, school pick up line, doc office, etc), I'll have a quick thought of 'I wonder if anyone is reading my mind right now. Quick! Don't think of anything weird!' and then I proceed to automatically start thinking of weird s**t or trying to tell this imaginary mind reader that I'm totally not a weird person or side-eyeing people that I see."
ArtsySAHM
Conversations
Talking Blah Blah Blah GIF by Wiz KhalifaGiphy"Having imaginary conversations with people, that I know will never actually happen in real life."
Bulgasauri
Conversations with others who aren't there. That is a popular one.
LOUDER
Sea Lion Reaction GIF by CameoGiphy"Whenever I haven't talked to a person for a couple of hours, I just say something out loud to test if my voice still exists."
Flux-bite
Popping In...
"Horrible intrusive thoughts. They pop in without warning, and without trigger. It's usually the standard 'what if I drove off the side of this bridge' or 'I bet it would hurt to stab myself with this thing' but they can even be worse: I was washing dishes yesterday."
"My wife was heading to our bedroom to pick something up. For some reason, I imagined her grabbing my gun and blowing her brains out. It really upset me. I had to pull her aside and give her a big hug, and I explained to her what happened, to where she reminded me 'I can't even load the f**king thing.' Do ya'll do s**t like this?"
GeauxAllDay
Guzzle
"The amount of water I can consume. I know they say you should drink when you are thirsty, but I can be thirsty a lot, especially during warm weather / summer days. I can easily drink 100oz (or about 3L) of water a day."
Jim105
"I drink so much water. I swear it's easily a gallon per day if I have water by me the whole day. It's funny too because everyone in my social circle hates water and almost never drink it and I just don't understand how that's even possible. Water is amazing!"
SimplyComplexd
Creeping in
"Against my will, my mind will imagine horrific scenarios wherein some tragic death scene of a loved one plays out. It used to be my doggies, but now that I'm a mom, I imagine *my* death, because that would be tragic to my kid (and maybe I just can't imagine my own kid's death, thankfully!). It's f**ked up and its gotten better generally, but when I'm stressed out, it'll creep back in."
epigenie_986
Name that Tune
Happy Dance GIF by benjamin lemoineGiphy"If I have a song stuck in my head I often click my teeth to the drum beat. When my wife notices me doing it she asks me what the song is."
CornerMoon
We're all gifted. Feel no shame people. That is all.
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Reddit user Iron-Wall asked:
"If you could wake up tomorrow and be automatically granted 10,000 hours of experience in any skill of your choice, which would it be?"
Reddit had a lot to say on this one. Turns out, there's a lot people who want to learn but finding an hour here and there, much less ten thousand of them, is almost impossible.
Surprise!
Kristen Wiig Snl GIF by Saturday Night LiveGiphy"Piano. I want to be the kind of person to sit at a public piano and surprise people."
- FreedTMG
"I remember back to my days of in-school detention, there was another kid who was in there quite frequently who would sneak out and go play the piano in the other room. He was extremely talented."
"I think I overheard that he didn't know exactly how to read sheet music, but he'd memorized the songs he played. It was all classical music from the greats."
"Looking at him you would have never guessed, he looked like he should have been in detention."
"The teachers eventually knew where he would be if he was missing from his table and they would let it slide. They finally made him a deal to get all his assignments done and he could go play the piano."
"It was easier than trying to keep him in his seat."
- thedriftlessdrifter
The Split
"Speaking foreign languages."
- vyletteriot
"I would split it evenly between Mandarin and Spanish."
"Being semi-proficient in both of those languages as well as being proficient in English would mean that I would be capable of talking to almost everybody on the planet."
- AmNotSatan
"Split it 60:40 or even 70:30 in favor of Mandarin if you want to his similar proficiency in each - assuming you don't already speak Cantonese or something."
- ViolaNguyen
"According to Google, it takes about 2200 hours to learn Mandarin vs 600 to learn Spanish, so definitely favor the Mandarin here."
- Kaylagoodie
Walk In The Woods
Camping Season 4 GIF by The OfficeGiphy"Foraging."
"I want to walk into any woods and immediately know exactly what plant I'm looking at, it's uses, medicinal purposes, everything."
- CrazedMuffinz
"I was just talking about this the other day! Great answer!!"
- urmama22
"Currently staying at a hotel and got a lil sunburn by the pool."
"I found an aloe plant by the vending machines, broke off a leaf, split it in half, and rubbed on my burns for some sweet relief."
"Felt like a part of nature."
- Thinkwronger12
Handy
"Handyman skills."
"I need to rebuild my rotting deck and replace some plumbing that is guaranteed to fail structurally. Plus I could do some light work on the weekends for some extra cash."
- BronzeAgeTea
"This is also one of the best ways to save money!"
"Being able to do everything from fix a dryer drum to replacing brake fluid will instantly save thousands of dollars per year."
"And these are skills which are not overly taxing on your time or energy once you know how to do it. They are just frustratingly hard when you first start learning, and often, due to mistakes, more expensive when you are learning."
- Qubeye
Sharpening This Skill
New Amsterdam Surgery GIF by NBCGiphy"My actual job. Surgery. Because you can never have enough experience."
"The second I feel like I’ve gotten enough experience will be the second I lose my humility. I can always get better at this and I won’t ever stop trying to sharpen this skill."
- hiyer2
Heard
"Origami: and every time someone came to me with their problems I would start by saying something seemingly profound like: 'ya know, life is a lot like origami...' "
"and they I would fold the ever-loving sh*t out of a piece of paper while basically repeating the person's problem back to them."
"They would then walk away feeling heard and one finely hand folded frog richer."
- somewhatclevr
Ulterior Motive Mechanic
Dog I Have No Idea What Im Doing GIFGiphy"Automotive Mechanics."
"For my area they're a dying breed, plus that's what I've always wanted to do."
"And there may be a cute guy that needs a few things done on his car. 😅 Free repairs AND he gets a free dinner if he lets me take him out? How could he resist?"
- purplesheepy
Cut Off From The Culture
"Speaking Korean."
"I was an infant during a time when it was pretty common for the relevant professionals in some regions to tell ESL parents not to speak their mother tongue to their kids at home ("it'll lead to an accent" "they'll have problems integrating" "other kids will make fun of them"), etc."
"So I grew up monolingual and then had no one around me to practice with or help me once I was old enough to be interested in learning."
"As a result, I was effectively cut off from my family and my mother's culture."
- enbymaybeWIGA
"I feel the same regarding the Korean."
"I had no interest when I was younger to learn, but now that I’m older and have in laws who are Korean and aging parents, I made it my goal to start learning at home through YouTube and free pdf workbooks."
"Not too late to start!"
- applefuzz
It's Hard To Suck
Guitar Rockstar GIF by WallowsGiphy"Guitar."
"Just started playing and committing at least 30 min a day. It’s so hard to suck at something, but I want my kids to see me stick to something and develop a skill, that things just don’t happen overnight for people."
"And it’s super therapeutic."
- Blueskyz8
Ideas Die Swiftly
"Carpentry for sure. Not even close."
"Owning a home fills me with all sorts of cool ideas. Decks, additions, shelves, tables, the list goes on and on."
"Then I say 'I’ll just do it myself!' and become completely overwhelmed. Then I get quotes from contractors and the ideas swiftly die."
"Doing it yourself is literally half the price. You just need the know-how and some tools."
- Rotanikleb
"I feel this in my soul."
"I could do it myself, but with what time, what tools, what money?"
"Oh, it costs how much for someone else to do it? I guess it's not getting done."
- dcux
"I've been a carpenter for 4 years and I would also choose carpentry lol. You can never stop learning new stuff."
- ImAPlebe
1 calendar year is 8,760 hours. So ten thousand hours is more than a year of time spent focused and concentrated on doing just one thing - not eating, sleeping, bathroom breaks, nada.
... Yeah, we'll take the montage or sleep learning.
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While creating music is a specific skill set, however, not everyone is capable of doing it.
Curious to hear examples of this, Redditor RefrigeratorDry495 asked:
"What is an extremely common thing that others can do but you can’t?"
It's cruel how the mind can seemingly play tricks. These are some mental capabilities envied by others.
Decisions, Decisions
"make up my fking mind."
– ITTrillionaire
Short Term Memory
"Remember what was said within the past 5 mins."
"ADHD isn't easy to deal with."
"I need to upgrade to AD4K."
– Draiko
Let's Focus
"I have a very hard time doing mentally taxing work with other people around. Lots of nights and weekends."
– patricksaurus
Now, Look Here
"Keep eye contact while speaking to someone."
– AidilAfham42
"Same here. I wish I knew how to fix this, maintaining eye contact with someone for more than a second or two is like holding my hand under hot running water, I can only do it for so long until I have to pull my hand away."
– LayClespool
The Mind Wanders
"Keep a hobby. Everyone I know has at least one hobby if not multiple. Sometimes a lifelong passion."
"Meanwhile I can't stick to one for more than two weeks."
– schwertfisch
The name of the game is: Let's Remember People's Names.
And You Are...
"Remember names."
– Ronotrow2
"I was told that when you get introduced, you use the name in the first 5 sentences talking with them."
"I tried that. Now they look at me as I am a weirdo and I still can't remember names."
– comicsnerd
Who Did What To Whom?
"I can watch 6 damn seasons of some show, and still won’t be able to tell you any of the characters names."
– COMRADEBOOTSTRAP
The Anxiety
"Yep, same here."
"I dread people saying 'Aren't you going to introduce us'. No actually, I may have known these people for years, and could tell you all sorts of things about them, but to remember their names I'll need to go check my phone."
– carlovski99
Let's get physical. If you can.
Get Down
"Kneel comfortably, goddamn knees."
– craigmaddiehopsital
"I see people just sitting on their kneecaps and I'm like how."
– PRIC3L3SS1
Taking The Plunge
"Dive into water. It's not that I'm bad at it. It's that I just can't make myself do it."
– Molly_Michon
Fitting In
"Wear ear buds."
– extod2
"And here I thought my ears were just deformed or something. I see people walking around, doing activities, heck my teens do chores with them in. All the bending, jostling, turning of the head, and they stay in their ears. I can't move or they'll fall out."
"Hell, they'll fall out in a few minutes even without moving. I've tried several different kinds over the years, have concluded my ears are just not normal, and gave up on the earbud lifestyle."
– Fang_Jolima
Some People Just Have This Power
"Snap my fingers."
– sdsxnx
It seems most people are good at recognizing faces.
Even in a pandemic era where we are surrounded by masked faces out in public–where they are required or recommended–people seem to easily acknowledge others with their eyes and know exactly who they're seeing.
I'm not that person.
Friends I haven't seen in a while may recognize me when they bump into me, but I apparently have a puzzled look on my face as my brain tries to analyze their face.
After they identify themselves, I squint a little and then pull off an unimpressive performance, explaining to them how my mind was elsewhere at the moment they spotted me but I knew who they were all along. I never do. It's embarrassing.
It takes a while, but eventually, I come around.
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