Something you're just good at with minimal effort and/or you learned much more quickly than average.
For me, it's paper snowflakes. My brain just seems to effortlessly figure out what cuts to make to the paper wedge to make it turn out exactly how I want it. Largely useless, but good fun and was a much-needed ego boost when I was a kid :]
No you just say "yes" and move on with your life and then refuse to believe you agreed to be pegged by 56 bearded men in a Toyota Yaris when they insist you did.
I have an excellent sense of time and space, i can accurately tell how much time and distance I’ve gone without tools. Im great to bring along for a hike.
Out of interest, do you have a vague ability to tell orientation (magnetic north) with your eyes closed? Research is showing some people have magnetoreception and that it may have been more common in our human ancestors but lost to many over time.
It could explain why you’re so good at telling distance and time.
Here's a pretty recent paper on this. I only skimmed it but boy does this seem wacky. It is in Nature, though, so I guess it's at least somewhat serious...?
Reminds me of an obvious/interesting factoid I once saw pointed out:
Every single one of us is at the end of an unbroken line — aaalllll the way back to microorganisms — of folks / critters / etc. that lived long enough to procreate.
Hearty fuckers, every one of us. In a certain sense…
I am a really quick reader compared to most people. Doesn't sound that amazing and it's certainly not unique, but it comes really handy. Always helped me with exams, as I got some precious minutes more to actually work instead of reading. I can go through books and articles really fast. Retention is not amazing, I'd say it's about the same as when most people read in their normal speed.
I really envy the people that can read quickly and retain everything. But I am also content with being relatively quick.
Sure you think paper snowflakes are useless but wait for an elementary school play to need set design and they will crawl in their hands and knees to rescue them 😉
I'm good at puzzles, particularly like jigsaw puzzles, but also games like flow where you match the pipes. I can sometimes do it so quickly I don't understand how I know what I'm doing, it's more like instinct.
I can do this as I’m drinking something - one gulp is roughly one ounce. Was especially handy with water fountains when tracking my hydration, but that hasn’t been relevant since 2019.
Chess. I’ve been playing since I was a kid, and sometimes I’ll create new accounts on chess websites to see how quickly I’ll get them rated to 2000+. I’m living proof that chess players aren’t that smart though because I’m a dumbass when it comes to literally anything else.
I have unusual muscle control - I can make my eyebrows and knees dance, plus I am a regurgitator. Not as good as Stevie Starr but enough to have a disgusting party piece. I am disappointed that I never mastered the art of the flatulist.
I’m really good at getting cats to vocally respond to me. I don’t know if I’m just on their wavelength or what, but almost every time I start a convo with a kitty I get a response. Oddly specific, but also pretty fun. Kids love it lol.
Very fast reflexes and I can see in the dark far better than most people.
I had never realized that my eyes were different until my compulsory miltary service. I could reasily read maps when others couldn't see shit and I never stumbled during night training in the forest.
Fast reflexes are generally pretty cool to havel, but it's not fun when a knife falls off the kitchen table and it is impossible to stop your own hand trying to catch it.
My "learned talent" is fixing mechanical devices. When I was 6 or 7 I took apart and fixed the family VCR so I could finish watching the Smurfs. My mom found me studying the jammed mechanism, with all the parts lying on the living room carpet. She had a fit and wanted to collect the parts away, I started crying and told her that I'll never get it back together if she messes up their places. She watched as I released the stuck tape wheel and reassembled the device. And it worked.
I've fixed countless devices with just visual analysis and pure intuition after that.
I am literally unable to remember people's faces. If you talk to me, go for a walk, and come back ten minutes later, I won't recognize you.
Once, the guy who sat next to me at university for two years, and with whom I spent countless time together, took the same bus as me. I hopped on the bus, saw him, and my brain told me "Uh, that's kind of a familiar face, I guess". I smiled to him (because he looked familiar), then I passed him and and went to sit some rows behind.
He's made fun of me ever since.
The worst thing is, I work at the front desk of a hotel. I always struggle to remember who's who. Sometimes I recognize their shirt, their hair, their voice, or I see a family with two kids and remember "oh yeah, they're from room 210". But most of the time, I must ask them to remind me which room they are, even if they checked-in just ten minutes before.
I can look at a small open space (trunk, corner of a room, shelves, etc) a and then look at the item I need to fit in that space and say with a decent amount of confidence "yeah that'll fit perfectly" or "that's gonna be slightly too big"
Yea this is me. I'm really good at packing spaces. I've had to repack people's cars to get everything to fit for long trips or moves. It's like I can see how to make the pieces fit together to maximize space.
I've got a competent and authoritative voice. People frequently assume I'm the most qualified in a group when I'm really objectively not as soon as i start speaking. Whatever I say or decide rarely gets questioned and people just keep letting me do stuff. When something is my word against another's, people believe me.When I say something is needed, it's done. When I make a proposal, that's usually what's agreed on and done without me really trying to push it.
In particular, my accent gives me a distinct advantage, as I speak with what some might describe as a "BBC" English accent. I work using English outside of the UK in a multinational company, and it's served me very well.
In international contexts people just seem to trust that I know what I'm talking about, because they think that I sound like I should be narrating a nature documentary.
I'm not super sure what it is for me. I'm able to code switch pretty easily, and I don't speak obvious dialect unless I explicitly mean to (I'm not a native english speaker, but it applies to english as well). It's generally a great thing to have. I know a few people who struggle with being listened to, and honestly, it looks like it sucks.
The only downside I've ever seen is that you have to be super honest to yourself about what you can and can not handle, or it can spin out of control quickly. Sometimes others assume you're capable of anything they ask you to, and you don't correct them because you think you might get away with it. But when you can't pull it off, they will be disappointed and not very understanding.
So it kinda becomes your job to point out your shortcomings to others early and frequently, which takes some mental energy, and I struggled with it when i was younger. I was very insecure on the inside, while seeming very confident to others. But I learned that if you do it in a competent voice, it just makes you more trustworthy because being honest about your mistakes and shortcomings when other people already think you're capable is seen as a mature and responsible thing. So it works out in the end.
Drawing, painting and sculpture in general. I guess with AI advancing as it is, these skills are becoming more and more useless every minute but that's what I got.
I've sat on a potter's wheel twice in my life and both times the instructors seemed impressed at the results. "It's said people like you were potters in a past life". But I didn't become a potter or ceramist in this life, so...
Having an ear for new languages and their pronunciation- I can memorize vocab and grammar quickly but what makes a big difference is being able to parse a conversation and pick out the pieces I don't know or didn't know until I heard it used. It makes it easier to dive in and learn as I go, which is so much faster, but unfortunately it also means I dabble a lot because I'm always wanting to try a new language.
Super flexible biological clock - I dont get jetlag - at all. I can fly half way round the world non-stop and get off at the other end and just carry on with my day, go to sleep when its night time at my destination. I also find shift work really easy, as long as I get some sleep at some time before or after I'm good. I can also turn sleeping on/off as required. I should have had a job that required a lot of travel
Running. I'm pretty fit and I work out (retty much only bouldering tho). Despite running on average once a month I can run a 45 min 10k. I think if I actually trained for running I could be pretty good but I just prefer climbing as a sport.
I've always had a natural grasp on running, but never really enjoyed running over 5k, and at anything above 10k I'm quite bad. If you ever decide to pick up running again you might find that shorter distances (1-5k) are a better fit for you, people are different :)
I can smell extremely well. Can tell where coworkers / family members were (like on the staircase, in a room etc), recognize which seasoning is used in foods, that sort of stuff. Every once in a while I try to follow scents like a dog but it doesn't work out that well.
On an unrelated note, I hate taking the subway, especially on hot days for uhh reasons.
Also I can hear pretty good, my friends use me as sound radar in Audio-Direktion heavy FPS games like Tarkov or back then PUBG.
My eyesight is pretty bad tho, probably for Balancing.
We are like polar opposites, my hearing and sense of smell are pretty bad, but I see significantly better than the standard 20/20 vision test (I can effortlessly read webpages on my phone in desktop mode).
I recently discovered I can use an angle grinder with a level of precision and finess most people take some time to develop.
From free hand cutting straight lines into pretty much anything that can be cut, to precise cut of stone, cement or even metal.
I was dead afraid of this particular power tool for all my life and only when forced to use one to do some repairs around the house I discovered I could handle it so easily.
I have a strong visual sense. I can create movies in my head, and skits. Helps with art and writing.
Also, I'm emotionally intelligent. Unfortunately I'm also incredibly sensitive/and a cry baby. :/
I came here thinking I had no natural talent, but this resonates with me.
I always wanted a device that I could wear that would play what I'm hearing/seeing as I'll make up entire songs in my head. I can "hear" everything, but I can't play a single instrument lol sometimes I'll hear just a few notes and then it's off to the races as a whole new song is going on in my head based on just those few notes.
On the direct opposite... I'm an aphant, meaning I cannot visualize in my head. I do "visualize" or imagine places, but there is no actual visual aspect to it.
I've seen it described as a desktop PC with no monitor attached. All the information is there, it just does not get rendered.
Some people see it as a hinderance, but for me, it's just the way I think.
I'm pretty good at sensing the emotions of people around me. It's not magic like some people think, but an obsessive awareness of small facial and body movements.
Oh, and writing dialogue is super easy for me, not sure why some people have a hard time with it.
These are possibly related. I am absolutely terrible at sensing people's emotions around me and understanding body language, and not so coincidentally, I am absolutely terrible at writing dialogue.
I’m a perfect failure. If you hand me anything, no matter how complex or simple, I will fuck it up beyond all chance of repair and you will never figure out how it happened because even I don’t know.
Citation: my life, job, friends, ex-gf, family, hobbies, etc..
My ability to whip a story up at the spot is pretty damn good. I run Dungeons and Dragons in a homebrewed world, and a good part of it is made up on the spot. While doing this, I always make sure to keep consistency.
The only thing I'm lacking is long monologues.... That is hard to just make up
That's a fantastic talent. Creativity is one thing but quick improvisational creativity is a whole other level
For monologues: do you do ok improv-ing dialogues? If so maybe you could trick your brain by thinking about how a monologuing character is kind of having a dialogue with different parts of themself