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What's a new skill that you've picked up recently?
What's the skill?
How did you pick it up?
Did you intend to learn it, or was it more of a product of circumstance?
How did you go about learning it?
The skills can be anything, and they don't have to be life skills! Maybe you just learned how to, say, rocket jump in Quake? Tell us about it!
Oh my, I'm doing a follow-up on some ADHD threads but honestly, lots of small things.
I've learned
My proudest skill though? I learned to be content with myself and live life one day at a time. :)
What are you doing to learn Spanish? The older I get as a US citizen that has grown up in an area with a decent Spanish population, the more I hate that I haven't picked up more than a few words.
I recently saw the mobile app "Language Transfer" recommended by a fellow tilderidoonida. There is a also a website languagetransfer.org.
Totally free, no ads, just pure awesomeness, highly recommended. There is a full course on Spanish for English speakers.
It's one of the most undervalued resource to learn some languages, I really hope it will expand their method to Slavic languages and Mandarin soon.
Yeah, I donated £20 to this as I thought it was worth it, even though I have since mostly forgotten to actually do it…
Honestly, right now, I just do about 30mins-2hours of Duolingo everyday. It's a long process but there's not many shortcuts to learning a language, you just have to put in the time.
I just googled one day "best way to learn another language pc apps reddit" and it told me Duolingo was good, so I'm doing that for now. I'll use stuff like HelloTalk when I feel more comfortable (maybe at the end of summer), to practice.
Try Dreaming Spanish, it’s seems good although I’ve not had the time to really do enough to be useful
I'll check that out! Thanks!
Is that the one by Fluency? Where the icon is a white F on a purple background? I somehow got lifetime free a whole ago and used it for a bit but found it mostly repetitive (for the stories) or unhelpful (for the vocab). I would have preferred some actual explanations rather than just guessing the word, especially for the more obscure tenses and conjugations.
I think it’s independent, but it’s similar idea to what you describe so you might not gel with it
Easy Spanish (YT and podcast), No Hay Tos (Podcast), Españolistos and Spanish After Hours (YT) are great resources for me.
haha, it is fun to say to do to-do lists. what did you mean by that? now, how do you make your to-do list?
I used to just plan my day in my head, or plan stuff in my head. It's fine, but nothing beats plain old pen and paper.
I've planned my whole summer vacations (camping), what to buy, what to replace, what to reserve, all on a couple of lists, it really smoothed out the process.
Also, for my weekend chores, now I always sit down after my morning shower and write down what I want to do for the day. It kinda makes it official and I'm waaay more productive that way.
Right, thanks! I used to do this a long time ago too. The use of keyboard replaced my flow with pen and paper, but I yearn for the days where I did not use digital means but was still productive. Gonna go back to that practice again.
I highly recommend it! I used to do it on my phone/pc too, but for some reason, it really works better for me on paper. I just have small notepad stack (is that the word?) on my kitchen table and use them freely every week.
That works well for long term goals too. I used to write them on paper and post beside my bed to remind me every day what I was hoping to achieve. It's surprising how easily I can be distracted by the urgent and lose focus on the important. Eg. The washing machine is leaking and needs repair vs. build a stronger friendship with my brother in law this year.
I still do it but it's on my phone - not as effective.
How to wrap a cord or hose up over-under! I have always worked hands-on jobs and I must have coiled four thousand extension cords around and around my elbow and palm, but that adds a twist with each wrap. Over-under requires a little more coordination but always unfurls perfectly. All of my air lines, hoses, and umbilicals are perfectly stored now.
Decades ago in college I worked as a theater tech for the summer Shakespeare festival. It went well. Our boss was one of our young cool professors. One day we were breaking down a set and he got us all high on hash…
…and then someone tried to teach me how to coil the 300’ extension cords over/under. “You know, it’s so easy. Just twist your hand on the second coil.”
I wasn’t a stoner those days and to me it was impossible, some nth-dimensional higher brane topology. Someone eventually came to check on me and found it had taken me three hours to properly coil a single extension cord lol.
I took an "Audio Technology" class in high school and this is literally the only useful skill I learned from it. I'll almost certainly never need to adjust knobs on a sound board again, but damn is it cool to be able to toss a coiled extension cord across the yard and have it lay itself out neat and tidy. Over-under is something everyone should know!
My previous job was for a hot tub company. Coiling hoses was a pretty common occurrence but somehow not even the boss who had been in the industry for ~40 years or his father who had been in it for even longer knew about over-under.
It was a huge irritation whenever I needed to deal with hoses because they went everywhere and got tangled up when anyone who wasn’t me touched them. The hoses were pretty long too, since they had to reach across an entire showroom and have enough slack to not fall off and pour water on the (sometimes carpeted) floor and make a big mess to clean.
As far as I’m concerned, over-under is mandatory training.
Huh! TIL, thanks!
I'd not heard of this before, but that's kind of cool. Googling and finding this video to explain it, the little hand twist reminds me a lot of the wrap method of casting on in knitting that I learned as kid. Something like this, though the variant that I learned involved all four fingers and the upper palm instead of just the index finger, which actually makes it closer to this over-under thing. That should make this easy enough to remember.
I'll have to start doing it this way, since I love to coil and velcro-tie all my cables to keep them neat.
I learned this when I was in choir dealing with microphone cables. Very useful skill. It always surprises me when people don’t seem interested in learning it, and want to just go back to twisting everything into knots.
There's a neighborhood near me where it's really difficult to find parking ever, but there's this one-way street that can only be reached by going down two other one-way streets and then turning at the end because it's nestled in between two parks and lasts for one block total. That final one-way street is always at most 50% full and you can always park there easily. I learned how to get there.
I am picking up guitar again and this time I got over the "learned the starter four chords but my fingies hurt" hump. Written a few songs and working on some more! :)
I also recently picked my guitar back up, it's been a while but it's coming back quite naturally. Fingers are starting to finally no longer hurt from the strings :)
It's great when you get the calluses and then your fingers are kind of primed to not hurt as much even with less practice. I've been picking the guitar up every couple of days and my fingers aren't resetting back to square one like when I first started.
As the dad of a toddler, this topic made me sad at first, thinking about how I haven't had time in years for casual skill development. But then I thought about it and realized parenting is a constant gauntlet of intense skill building, especially in emotional maturity and I think that's a pretty cool skill to grow.
Parenting IS a skill, it's hundreds of skills! How to deal with X, Y, Z, W, X... plus, since it's often a two-people job, there are some communication skills you get to hone too :)
What's a social/parenting skill would you say you greatly improved?
As I said above, I think the big one to me is emotional maturity or stamina. What I mean by that is a combination of patience, grace, and surviving the constant wear down on your energy levels (emotional, mental and physical) as your kid(s) never give you a break. You build up that stamina to stay calm, stay present, and provide a good example. I think as tiring as it is, it's really made me into a more compassionate and patient person in the rest of my life as well.
Baking bread! A chipped enameled dutch oven actually prompted this adventure because I was researching uses for it before it had to tossed. Turns out bread baking is a great application. I started at the end of April and after some sad-shaped (but tasty!) loaves, I feel like I really have the hang of baking basic boules
Any tips to prevent sticking? Ive tried baking in a dutch oven a few times, in particular one of those no-kneed recipes, and felt like the crust stuck too much. Not just to the bottom where i could add cornmeal but the sides, too
Parchment paper that's rated for high heat works well. I use a silicone bread sling to make it easier to lower the dough into the preheated dutch oven, but it only protects the bottom. Honestly, my bread doesn't usually reach the sides of the pot, which at 5 quarts is admittedly overkill for most home breads. Finding a smaller recipe or scaling it down might help, or using a larger dutch oven if you have access to one.
Now’s a good time to mention my favorite kitchen hack. If you crumple parchment paper well before you put it in a container it will better conform to the shape of the container.
Though for bread and other baked goods it may not be great since it will add texture you may not want, so instead I’d cross two sheets of parchment paper that are approximately 3/4 the width of the pot.
Oh, geez! Pot size is such a simple metric to try changing. I used a little 3.5 qt pot back when I tried, as it was all I had. I have a 5qt now with far more bottom surface area, and it's never crossed my mind to try baking in it. Thank you!
I'm not a bread baker myself (and I have never done it in a dutch oven), but is there any reason that oiling it doesn't work? That's what my mom did when she baked bread when I was a kid, but she was using normal bread pans. I'm curious if there's some difference present when using a dutch oven instead.
I think, oil could work for some styles of bread, but it will just create a different texture. Growing up, my grandmother would oil her bread pans, and then even coat the whole finished bread with butter when still warm. She made very soft, fluffy white bread loaves, and the oil helped keep them soft I think.
I prefer to bake more.. I guess chewy.. loaves and aim for a really crispy crust. Along the consistency of a sourdough (even if Im not actually using sourdough starter).
I did basic car body repair for the first time this week because a deer ran into my driver's door and cracked the bondo that has apparently been there for 10 years.
Overall, it looks like crap.
That is fine by me, though, because for like $60 in Bondo, sandpaper, and spraypaint, I can at least keep the water out and the rust at bay.
I feel like I missed out on a quintessential high school experience by not doing this until a couple of decades later.
Smaller scale, but a few years ago I put large scratch on my car's roof down to metal and wanted to prevent rusting. Tried sanding, priming, and painting (well, dabbing paint a vaguely similar colour to my car over the primer) myself.
It looks awful, but it hasnt rusted, and who's looking at the roof anyway?
Clawhammer double-thumbing and three finger banjo!
I've played guitar for twenty years, mandolin for 10, and got a banjo two years ago. I started on clawhammer, never really progressed, then watched a video by Wayne Erbsen playing a song from his book to demonstrate the technique (which I'd seen a few times) and it clicked on my fretless banjo, probably because it has wider string gaps, and it's been much easier to do after locking it in the first time.
I was playing with three finger (Scruggs style? but my banjos have nylon strings and I use the pads of my right hand), and the rolls started to make sense, so I started playing with melodies I know with both techniques and working around them.
It's been great fun.
I learned how USB memory works and how to flash a USB memory stick with new firmware. I was trying to rename the brand and product codes of a USB drive to be Cyberpunk themed.
First ended up bricking the USB stick, then I had to learn how the software works and what it does. Learned about NAND flash mapping.
Through that, I actually learned a lot about exploits and HID spoofing because the flashing software allowed me to flash it as different kinds of memories and devices, so I looked into it and fell down a rabbit hole of all sorts of exploiting techniques.
Very interesting, wanna share where did you get the knowledge from ?
I'm really good at figuring things out and like to fall down rabbit holes. So mainly through forum posts, wikipedia, and just online research.
The forum posts were the most helpful, and there were a lot of resources about using the flashing tools to repair dead or dying USBs, or repairing fake or counterfeit USBs to reflect their accurate storage.
I mean I also have a foundation in understanding that almost anything is possible, just with varying levels of complexity and difficulty, so I approach most projects like that. There are only 2 possible outcomes for every problem I approach this way, either I succeed or I learn about something and learn why it won't work.
Which forum(s) did you find to be useful ?
Mostly the russian ones on USBdev.ru. And a few others. I just sort of reverse engineered what they were doing.
Nice, thanks for suggestion man.
About two months ago I joined my local HEMA club! Learning how to use historical weapons, and also do some fencing and sparring. Longsword, saber, and rondel dagger
Tons of fun, and a great workout! I've gone as far as picking up a long baton to continue practice at home.
I learned how to fix a microwave. I didn't have to 'learn' any new techniques but I did learn about my specific microwave and have a lot more comfort tearing into those things now.
Tildes has recurring threads for what-programming-projects-are-you-working-on, what-are-you-reading, and I think a few others. I would love to see a recurring what-are-you-repairing thread.
Good job with the microwave. Not a lot of people would have tried repairing that (including the ones who are unaware of the danger of the capacitors inside them).
Another great discussion question!
I recently learned the basics of soldering, at least enough to fix my garage door opener. That was a really gratifying feeling, as I've been curious about the idea of fixing electronics (we're surrounded by them!).
I know its not actually recently, but this prompt reminded me of the useless thing I spent three days learning during the pandemic. Because of those three very focused and largely frustrating days I can now tie a monkey paw knot. Which there is never any call for. But I know how to do it!
I have picked up 3D modelling recently. I am not too good with it, but was able to design some things for my friend to 3D print for me. I have been using FreeCAD for software, and I find it can be a bit clunky, but I am starting to get the hang of it now.
I don’t know if this is a skill that I picked up recently, but if it isn’t then it’s a skill I’ve come close to perfecting recently.
Zombies on CoD BO6 has super strong aim assist (on console, not sure about pc). If you hold down RT to fire and repeatedly tap LT to aim down sight, then you’re basically guaranteed crits. And because you’re basically guaranteed crits, every loadout can have the CHF barrel to increase headshot damage.
It’s nice, because you get more essence, a resource to purchase upgrades, from crit eliminations and if you’re grinding camos you can get somewhere between 1000 and 1500 crit eliminations in a single run up to round 31 or so.
It’s not nice because playing isn’t really enjoyable anymore without Rampage Inducer activated. Not until round 7 or 20, indefinitely activated. Most random lobbies aren’t down with that it seems, but in the last week or so there was one lobby that left it on. Grateful, I did my part; I ran through the entire EE, made 10 of 14 door buys, and had 36 revives.
I don't know that I could call it a skill, but I occasionally get into the mood to dump and back up physical media. Well, back up and convert for other personal usage.
A while back I did my bluray collection, which was pretty easy compared to what I did this time. This time I dumped my Switch cartridges so I could use them on the Steam Deck. This was a pretty painful process. I did eventually manage it, but admittedly there was a point in the sifting through archives of DMCA'd tools where I was just thinking, "if they're going to treat me so much like a pirate for wanting to play the games I paid for then why not just be a pirate? It would be so much easier and apparently I already am from their perspective."
So I guess I now know how to dump Switch games.
As an aside, I have to wonder if DMCA'ing dumping tools (not the games, just the tools people use to dump their games) is actually a good idea. I feel like the kind of people that dump to upload aren't going to have any issues finding the tools anyway, but people that casually want their own personal collection elsewhere finding it easier to pirate the games than to dump their own may have a seal-breaking moment. In my opinion Nintendo would be better off if they targeted the sweet spot where it's annoying enough that most people won't bother to dump them, but without making it significantly more difficult than pirating. Having people enter and get desensitized to the "downloading pirated games" stage seems so much worse.
To get a kid who has lost focus to get back on track, simply stop what you’re doing and talk about a different subject for a little bit. Sometimes you just need to let them indulge in a little mental wanderlust for a bit.
LLM prompting.
Seriously, this is a skill. You have to imagine that you're talking to an autistic (an autistic here) savant almost.
To be clear, I'm working with OpenAI 4o-mini: cheap, far less environmental impact, and effective.