What are you good at?
 

What skills are you justifiably proud of? I read recently that it takes five years to get good at most skills - 10 years to get really good. I think that's about right.

I'm a top-flight programmer. My stuff is readable and clean.
I make excellent BBQ - the real thing, not grilling.
I'm getting to be pretty good at the bass. Not there yet, but it's in my sights.

Each of these skills is something that I've spent a number of years improving on.

What's yours?

Being late for work after a 3 day weekend apparently. Great at that. Just awesome.
:(

I'm decent at guitar.

I own at Super Mario 3.

I good at weaseling old people out of their money when I bartend at my part-time catering job. Old people heart me.

I'm pretty good with a grill.

I can beat my meat like it owes me money.

Bass: 'bout satisfied I can do whatever I need to do. People like what I do.

Cooking: same, I have a few techniques down and I know my way well enough to do some really nice things. I have dinner for two down. Ok knife technique, I can do a few sauces and work out a few seasonings. People like what I make.

Linux sysadmin: I got it pretty much figured out.

Battlefield 2: Excellent medic and sniper.

I'm a good historian. I can find the threads and patterns and follow them in order to answer historical questions. I am also a good academic writer. (I often submit first draft essays and have them returned with marks of 'high 1st class'. On the rare occassion I have had time to polish a piece it has come back with a mark of 'borderline excellent' or 'excellent'.) Both of these things require skills honed throughout my adult life.


I'm a good teacher. That involved a certain amount of learning, but in truth I was a natural at it when I started tutoring adult literacy. No idea how I'd be teaching younglings, but teaching adults I found very satisfying. I think that was the first time I discovered I was really quite good at something useful.

[eta] forgot to mention, I was a kickass PvPer in UO ! (Fencer)

Directing people (usually kids) so they'll operate well as a team on a soccer field. Ironically I really suck at that in the business world because I just expect my employees to do their jobs. May be a lesson there somewhere.

spelling: I'm rilly good at that

quick humor: Queen of the Comeback

swimming: former mermaid, not competitive stroke/style swimming

Decided to post something else as well. I got to thinking about it after I posted that last bit. I've always been a pretty good writer. I use words well, always have, but is that a skill or a talent? For a long time I wrote short stories and even made a few attempts at something longer. The writing I am good at....maintaining a project beyond the first stages less so. Nonetheless I always thought of myself as a prose writer. Partly because I was not much good at writing poetry.

Poetry though, I have worked at. Over the last six or seven years I have worked on my ability to express ideas through poetry and I think I have become quite good at it. Consequently, though I am probably a better prose writer than I am a poet, I am more proud of my poetry than I am of my regular writing.

I am good at things like packing the most stuff in the back of a vehicle...or getting more dishes in the dishwasher than my husband. I think this is spatial something or other.

I also have great dexterity.

A bit of both I would think. Even with natural talent, it takes some training and work to get good at something. If it took absolutely nothing on your part then count your blessings. Most people don't have anything like that kind of natural talent.

I understand. There's a good feeling in mastering something you had to wrestle to the ground first.

*smiles* yeah. It's funny, because i was thinking about that only a couple of weeks ago. It's taken years of plugging away to loosen up around poetry and find my 'voice' (though I still experiment with different voices). I've gone from knowing i was pretty poor at it to feeling that I am quite good at it. It's one of those few things that I take a real pride in....as opposed to indulge in vanity about :P

The question is....what am I NOT good at?

Of all of my skills, I'd have to say my expertice at seeming humble and understated shines the most.

I am insanely good at frankensteining audio (i.e., making you say words you never said.) I am also really good at foley work and sound design from scratch, but I take an especially perverse pleasure in frankensteining.

I'm also very good at the technical aspects of writing: grammar, punctuation, vocabulary, spelling, usage rules...

I've gotten really good at staying alive.

I've been known to be very good at....well maybe not! Then again maybe it was....no not that either!! Oh Well!!!

"I'm good at three things; fighting, screwing, and reading the news."

I can break things pretty good.

Burping

I can fuck up a relationship like nobody's bidness...

Pissing people off.

Today I am Really good at NOT punching Smart mouthed Engineers .

I am really good at my job. Really good at it.

Ooh, good one... Today I was good at not inadvertantly cold-cocking the weird lady at our office who has a nasty habit of sneaking up behind me and running her fingers through my hair.

She soooo wants you!!

So what do you think of the thread title?

'At what are you good' sounds weak.
I believe in ending sentences with prepositions. However, I also applaud you for grammar naziing dar512.

I am:
An excellent marksman.
Great at scratching itchy parts.
Extremely talented at being selfish (not proud of that one, though).
Smooth under pressure at work.

Usage note The often heard but misleading “rule” that a sentence should not end with a preposition is transferred from Latin, where it is an accurate description of practice. But English grammar is different from Latin grammar, and the rule does not fit English. In speech, the final preposition is normal and idiomatic, especially in questions...

Those are mine too! The pissin people off is probably my best attribute - I can do without even trying - thats shows what a real talent it is.

Accompanying vocalists at the piano. I've spent a lot of my professional life backing up singers, and I have a pretty well-honed sense of how a vocalist will approach a song, which makes me pretty good at providing a musical foundation for their performance.

Figuring out how new things work. I'm a "throw away the manual" kind of guy, and can usually go from not knowing something exists to being able to master it pretty quickly.

I have a great telephone manner.
Not just my voice (which I doubt I can take any credit for) but I listen well, can work out what people are saying/ asking, give them confidence in me and break down their query/ message into its salient parts. That might sound lame, but it's a big asset in my job and you would be surprised how many intelligent people can't manage it.

Oh and I have a reasonable turn of phrase. I can put a positive spin on requests, responses, workplace communiques so people don't feel they're being castigated or lectured to.

And I am tactful. I control myself very well. It's not a talent, it's something worked at and quite hard won.

I can bake like a motherfucker and my pizza kicks serious ass. At least 20 people have told me I should open a pizza joint. (as if)

I am also a pretty good photogruffer, but an excellent black and white printer. (photogarphs)

Me want pizza. ;) I like pepperoni and cheese, lots o' mozzarella, on a crispy almost burnt crust. AND the sauce needs to be plentiful. I'll give you 30 minutes for delivery.

I'm really good at jacking off, both literally and figuratively.

How does one jack off figuratively? Do you imagine it, then paint it?

I'm good at physical skills (juggling, poi, acrobatics, martial arts, balance, etc), languages, and guessing the plot twists to movies and TV shows. And other stuff, but I don't want to brag ;)

I'm great at loading the dishwasher until nothing is left and/or nothing else will fit, derailing conversations, working with dogs, seeing humorous connections, ominous signs, and suspicious motives where -apparently- they don't exist, using an Etch-A-Sketch, and upside down mirror writing. No known market for my skills unfortunately.

I'd like to barter. Anybody want to trade my talent with an Etch-A-Sketch for a smidge of kinesthetic skills? Eh, Stress Puppy? Other than guessing plot twists I have none of yours skill set. :(

I'm good at knowing a little bit about a whole bunch of things.

I'm good at playing the clarinet.

I'm good at becoming interested in a particular hobby and getting fairly competent at it, then losing interest and moving on to something else.

I'm good at making some sarcastic or sardonic remark that people will misinterpret as insulting.

Uh, no thanks. I like being a professional level show off.

get outta town. you stole my post you jerk arse.

all except the clarinet, thats a little gay.

im good at getting better than average at something, peaking and then moving on to do it with something else.

lately i've gotten good at making my life as easy to handle as nitroglycerin. if i make one wrong move, shit is going to hit the fan.

ruminating. I'm a fucking pro.

Ruminating? Isn't that what cows do?

If I can find time when I'm done knitting and listening to show tunes and opera, I'll come beat you up for that... you brute!
Oh yeah I'm good at that too. Have you ever read "Learned Optimism" by Martin Seligman? I found it useful. More useful than I expected from the title.

i like it when things just work dont you?

I'm good at improvisation.

Bullshit. You are not.

You just made that up.

I'm very skilled at prevarication Frankly it's a wonder I ever do anything at all.

I am highly profficient at waiting until absolutely the last possible moment to pull my finger out and get the fuck on with stuff. Unfortunately, when it comes to academic work I am also a perfectionist. This leads to a great deal of unnecessary stress.

you think YOU'RE good at procrastination? Let me just tell you how good I am at it......

.....in a little while......maybe later.

im good at getting distra...does anyone elses computer screen flicker a little when you blink at it fast?

:lol2:

Not true! I watched this thread for weeks preparing my answer.

If you can blink close to 60 frames per second, then that would qualify as something you are good at.

Heh heh! She said pull my finger!

We laugh at honor but are shocked to find traitors in our midst. -- C.S. Lewis

Just what do you mean by that? :eyebrow:

im good at making smart arses act like i didnt really just offend them

isn't that right phag?

he he, he said phag

I'm incredible at pleasing women, for hours and hours. Unfortunately, I haven't gotten to perform for some time now!

I broke the topmost glass shelf for our refrigerator while washing it. It startled me--I wasn't scrubbing it or moving it at the time, it was in the frame, resting in the sink, and **SPASH!!** The sink was filled with pieces of glass the size of a popcorn kernel. Lots of kernels.

Fifteen minutes later, I had the food back in the refrigerator, on our new plywood shelf.

Aren't you concerned that the difference in heat conduction properties between glass and plywood will adversely affect the temperature distribution? Not to mention the amount of light that will go down to the the lower shelves which, I'm given to understand, has something to do with how long the food will stay fresh.

No. Once each shelf type is cold, they remain that cold, despite the material. I think there would be a far greater chance that a substantial temperature change would occur because some food would be move in and out of the refrigerator. If anything, the wood seems like a poorer conductor of heat and would therefore contribute less to the temperature of the food.

I'm even less concerned about this issue, since the amount of light the food gets when it's not being observed is zero (or at least that's what Mr Schroedinger's cat tells me). The transparency of a wooden shelf in the dark refrigerator is a moot point.

It also helps that I'm an unfussy eater.