What basic skills do most people seem to have, but you lack?
I’ll give two: playing a musical instrument and basic home repairs.
People will constantly say anyone can do it and it’s just not true. My fingers don’t work that way (for music) and while I’m not wealthy, I’d rather pay a professional for even simple home stuff that other people seem to think everyone should be able to do.
Home repairs used to be my achilles heal.
I have gotten better over the years.
When we got married my FIL bought me a Readers Digest DIY manual and it saved me 10’s of thousands of dollars early in our marriage. Now I use youtube a lot.
Two things I can’t do is dance and sing!
I doubt most people have the basic skill of playing an instrument.
I used to be a very good saxophone player, and could probably pick it up again fairly quick if I tried.
I kind of want to learn to play the bagpipes.
I can’t dance either and I don’t mind singing badly. My wife was a musician and I would tell her our kids should have her ability and my taste.
I’ve gotten a little better at home repairs, but not much. And I don’t have that much interest. I posted on FB asking people about someone for minor drywall repair (just a little water damage from the shower). Everyone is just…do it yourself, anyone can do it themselves. I might be able to learn and even do a half-assed job, but I’d rather pay someone $150 to do a good job. There are things I’m good at and things I’m not.
My wife is actually better at this than me.
It is really easy to do a basic job, but can get tricky to make it clean looking.
When I used to work at Home Depot I would tell people any idiot can put drywall up, but it takes someone that knows what they are doing to do a good job of it.
On a weird whim several years ago, when visiting another city, we went to see a group called Marley’s Ghost. Four guys, all multi-instrumentalists, vocal harmonies, etc. We ended up liking them a lot and got several albums later. On one of the albums, they have bagpipes on the last song, then they included dogs howling in protest.
They also have a sense of humor.
Then you have to paint it.
I am good with the stuff that takes straight forward thinking (plumbing, electrical), but not with stuff that takes more of a right brain thought process (carpentry, painting, etc.)
I cannot play an instrument. I took a lot of trumpet lessons but never rose to any listenable level. Did only marginally better on a French horn. I taught myself to adequately play one song on the harmonica (the appropriately named Beatles’ song, I’m a Loser), but no more.
I also have no aptitude for foreign languages. I took three years of Latin in high school and could least read some of it, but speaking at any conversational pace was not achievable. One year of college German was passed, but only due to my capacity for memorization.
I am not good at DIY projects. My dad told me that I was the smartest guy he knew, but I just wasn’t mechanically inclined. Back in the early 90’s, we were upgrading our computer system at work and I was behind the disc units, disconnecting the cables… I had told my boss what my dad said so he came behind the computers with polaroid camera and told me to look up. He took a picture and said we could send it to my dad…me with a screwdriver in my hand behind a million dollar computer system.
I play drums, but I can’t read music. But there is an old joke that the best way to get a drummer to stop playing is to put sheet music in front of him. My instructor was a cool cat jazz guy in the 60’s and didn’t push real hard about reading music. Just play. Which is why I like jazz so much.
I think it’s one of those things your born with, as a kid I liked taking things apart to see how they worked and fixing things that were not working. My first wood working project was building a deck with built in benches and planters, the building inspector was impressed. My older brother is book smart and I don’t think he can change a light bulb. YouTube is helpful for troubleshooting a broken dryer but you still need the basic skills to actually do it right.
You tube is very good, if for nothing else exposing how simple some things are. The control board went out on my range and oven. I thought it would be pretty complex back there, but the video showed that the back of the stove was pretty much barren, save for that was held in place with four screws. Disconnect (and mark where they were) any connectors, take the old board out, put the new one in and reconnect the wires. Put the back on again and plug it in. Saved myself a few hundred dollars, and I think I did just as good a job as the professional.
I can’t play music and i can’t sing.
I can do all home repairs including hvac, plumbing, electrical, roofing… nothing to big or small. Welding and auto repair are also in my skill set.
No music ability at all, unlike most of the rest of my family. Decent at car, truck and tractor repair. Pretty good at most home repair stuff, just hate plumbing.
I wouldn’t call playing a musical instrument a basic skill, it takes a lot of practice. Some people get better quicker and may have some natural ability, but the more you do something the better you should get.
Also good for me to see if something is out of my skill range.
I am leary to get started on something and then screw it up and cost more to fix my mistakes
Yup, I was going to replace the motor on my 14 year old washing machine and decided it was better to just buy a new one.
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