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what is a skill you wish you had, and why? (feddit.nl)

submitted 11 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Ok, I might as well go first: I wish I could draw. Not at the level where I could make photorealistic portraits, but I've always been envious of those who are able to scetch something together in a few minutes that perfectly captures what they want to convey. Sometimes words aren't enough to express what I want to say, and for those situations I would love to have a simple drawing do the talking for me.

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[–] [email protected] 33 points 11 months ago (2 children)

I literally wish I had the ability to practice.

That's really what all my other answers to this come down to. I would love to write better, be a better woodworker, play music, learn languages, learn programming languages, etc. But my mind just... slides right off it. I can't bring myself to put in the time necessary to cultivate literally any skill.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago

I'm the same way. I've found that I need another person to keep me accountible so taking lessons has help me. I started drums this year and it's something I've always wanted to do and having a teacher give me things to practice and checking in keeps me going.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (1 children)

This may be old advice, and I can't speak for music or languages (where I myself have the same issue) but for woodworking and programming this is my experience: Once I get some idea for something I want to build, that becomes the goal of the project, not learning the skill itself. It could be carving a small model boat, or writing a sudoku solver, but at least for my part, once I get caught up in some project, I have a hard time letting it go. That's as opposed to if I sit down and try to systematically learn a skill.

Some suggestions for projects off the top of my head:

Some kind of simple encryption/decryption method.
A nice wooden box to put something nice in (possibly without visible metal parts)
A sudoku solver
Model car (maybe with wheels and movable doors)
A little "river steamer" with a rubber-band driven "propeller" (don't know what the wheel on the back of a river steamer is called)
A "peg solitaire" solver (because I was really frustrated at not being able to solve it)

The point is just to find something else that interests you, that can motivate you to learn the skill you want :) good luck!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

Wow, this was cool to read! I definitely use the goal of the project to motivate myself to learn how to complete it, but I never realized it until you laid it out. I understand what OP says about the skill "sliding off" but the project is usually complete before that happens and only becomes an issue on revisiting it later. Like my Magic Mirror project that I completed but it's using the Pi and some software that I don't remember now. But the mirror is still great, hooked up to a PC with wallpaper engine running.