I know not everyone of us has a special talent, but many of us do. Some are just incredible. So, what are they??
Edit: Please don’t be humble. Let it out. Be proud of it and share so we can marvel.
Min/Maxing? In any sufficiently complex game I can determine something that would be an efficient path to victory and pursue it harder than anyone else. I seem to really have a knack for making something work precisely to what I want even if it struggles in other respects.
It’s most apparent when I play Stellaris with friends. I self-impose a penalty not to play particular builds that are the best at my min/maxing preference but my not-tryharding play-style will still put me at twice the research output of the next player extremely quickly. Granted my empire has extreme and exploitable weaknesses that theirs doesn’t but my gamble frequently pays off.
I have a harder time making it work in Civ6 but that’s likely because I play it really infrequently. I believe I’ve figured out what needs to be done to make it happen though.
Removed by mod
I’m a software developer and for some reason I have the knack for breaking anything I touch.
I once wanted to add a calendar from a URL, and assumed that putting it into the “add calendar” entry would do that. Nope, turns out that just creates a new calendar with an invalid name. I kept getting emails about having a folder with an invalid name that my work’s IT team couldn’t actually remove.
That’s a gift that a QA team might pay a premium for.
I learned as a developer that I can see the flaws in systems before most other folk which led me to become a system architect. I had one boss ask me “when you look at a forest do you just see paths for fire to spread?”
I’m incredibly quick at learning music/songs by ear, mostly singing cuz even tho I’ve played a couple instruments for… God 15 years… I still can’t fucking find a tune on them to save my life
But if I hear a song with coherant lyrics 1 or 2 times then I can repeat it from memory acapella, instrumental solos and all, with perfect accuracy on lyrics and like 95% accuracy on the notes due to my iffy singing voice
Probably related: on the fly ad-libs replacement of lyrics. Like coming up with a weird Al parody on the spot (not saying mine are as funny or anything just giving an idea). I can even make them coherent and properly rhyme for a verse or two sometimes if I’m really on a roll. Too bad I get so embarrassed in front of people that only a few have seen it IRL, but it’s always been a hit at the DND table when I needed to improv tavern singing or something
But if I hear a song with coherant lyrics 1 or 2 times then I can repeat it from memory acapella, instrumental solos and all, with perfect accuracy on lyrics and like 95% accuracy on the notes due to my iffy singing voice
Woww! That is some Mozart level stuff
I’ve got a similar power, maybe a step lower than yours. I managed to complete and compete in higher levels of orchestra band without actually learning how to read music. I would be able to play the song after hearing it a few times. I use sheet music as an instruction (if needed) on which notes to play (this note equals this fingering on the instrument) rather than speed/tempo of the song. Applies to whistling/singing too.
And very similarly the on the fly ad-libs which makes for some funny “jokes” I can throw around with friends as I’m not very good with actual jokes.
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My pattern recognition is off the charts. I can’t explain it very well as I don’t know “how” I do it, but I often know what went wrong and where which lends well to the job that I do. I’m that person going to IT/dev teams like, “you gotta trust me bro”, and I don’t think I’ve been wrong yet at my current job (knock on wood). Beyond work it is very helpful as well.
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Super visual memory. If I’ve been there once, I remember it, not an elaboration. Even locations that have changed with time, or it’s been years since my last visit. I can’t wayfind using names of streets but I can visually guide myself. I can visually picture myself walking through malls to locate the exact location of stores, shelves, items on the shelves. An extreme super power to min/max my outdoor time spent. It’s also kind of fun watching YouTubers I like and then randomly spotting something mundane in the background and knowing exactly where they are; and pulling it up on Google maps to prove it to people in the room who doubt my abilities.
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Similarly to the above, if I’ve read it, I know where it is. My mom has an actual photographic memory so she remembers the facts and where she read them. I only got half of that, and remember where I read it (on the page). It’s more helpful than it seems, especially when you remember a vague fact and you pull the book out to the exact page to reconfirm your knowledge or use a direct quote in a paper. I do also remember the information/facts but not as exact as photographic memory/special interest peeps; but much better than the average person so I can still wow people with random trivia.
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Finding alternative solutions to problems. The problem is still resolved, just maybe not using the most “obvious” solution. Very unfortunately, I had a job interview for a PM(?) role in which that they used 3 brain teasers to evaluate my performance for the position (ugh, I know). I ended up solving all 3 teasers, but just not in the way that was intended or matched the “correct answer” on Google. I didn’t get the role, but jokes on them, I think that being able to think of our of the box solutions to problems is actually more beneficial for a PM(?) role than a cookie cutter answer!
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Some overlap with other people in the thread: Musical inclination, autopiloting/good in medical emergencies, following instructions apparently (+1 on the general mood of this lol) and by extension writing instructions.
My pattern recognition is off the charts. I can’t explain it very well as I don’t know “how” I do it, but I often know what went wrong and where which lends well to the job that I do. I’m that person going to IT/dev teams like, “you gotta trust me bro”, and I don’t think I’ve been wrong yet at my current job (knock on wood). Beyond work it is very helpful as well.
I’m also in IT and can troubleshoot like crazy. It’s quite common for me to identify root cause in packaged applications where the vendor support is unable. In one case I was able to tell them exactly the mistake they were looking for in their Java code despite having zero access to their code. I always warn support staff that I bring them two types of problems - utter brain farts where I usually solve it right after submitting or something that is just bizarre/complex as hell. In those bizarre/complex scenarios, the main limitation in my solving the problem is typically proprietary/secret information that they don’t make available. I often have to guide the troubleshooting in those support cases knowing generically what is wrong, but not having the details to just solve it.
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I have lots of ideas, concepts, etc and they are always ahead of the time. I will expose them and people look at me like I’m weird, saying I’m wrong and/or it’s is impossible, being angry at me (?). Then when it happens I see nobody.
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I expose what seems like an evidence and natural for me in domains like psychology, sociology, anthropology. People think it’s incredible and asking for my PhDs. I was at a 4 months seminar. I listened but never really talked. At the end, I give my synthesis of it and it sent in the final document. But, the professors didn’t think about this interpretation before I exposed it.
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I never learned anything following the methods at schools. I learned a long time after finishing schools that I am self-taught. For example, I went to Iceland for holidays and began learning the language. I don’t know how and why.
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I like to say what I want and it actually help the people. I told a psychologist to have more self confidence.
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I also can “see inside the people” or “read inside of them”. Some are like open books. This can be scary for the person. I’m used to it.
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If I don’t have to be humble at all, people of any degree are amazed by my knowledge and ““intellectual capacities””.
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I have what I can best describe as a general knack for reverse engineering or understanding other people’s work the hard way. I learned to code by reverse engineering original DOOM, and back when I worked at a hobby shop my manager called me a mad scientist because I would, among other things, mix up my own paints to see if I figured it out. I also pick up how existing codebases work pretty quickly, which would probably be useful if I actually got hired. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
I’m naturally good at making disparate connections and taking in a whole area of a business/tech etc and understanding it. But any ideas I then have are seen as too hairbrained or rediculous or out of the box or impossible and put down by others instead of being seen as clever and interesting and useful.
When deeply depressed I can see the future. It’s probably my mind picking up subconscious clues, but I’ve accurately predicted earthquakes, phone calls from people that I haven’t heard from in months, and oddities like getting a rock chip in my windshield or seeing an unusual bird.
God I wish it was something like lottery numbers.
@BackOnMyBS ruining my life
I, too, make some doosy decisions that end up being harmful for me.
@BackOnMyBS For me it’s systematic avoidant behavior. I try to avoid risks so hard it is slowly ruining it 😄
@BackOnMyBS I tried being a risk taking hedonist type person and masking as hard as possible but I just didn’t enjoy it and I ended up around people with no respect for the safety of others. They were willing to overlook emotional peculiarities like autism as a result of the same attitude which led to being around legit criminal psychopaths haha
that was me in my motorcycle years. it was fun, intense, and exciting, but risky af. i knew 3 people that died.
@BackOnMyBS yeah when people get hurt and die there’s no fun in it unless you see yourself as some sort of bluesy morose reflective type. people who willingly take on unnecessary risks acting like that became disgusting to me. for me it was the car accidents and the blackout drinking. i still can’t bring myself to drink because it makes me remember how bad people can get with it. it just doesn’t feel safe.
I am insanely good at word bomb
what’s word bomb?
a game where it gives you some letters and you have to use them (in order) to make a word within the time limit, the prompts get harder over time until there is only one person remaining
example 1:
- it gives prompt ‘and’
- you could give it: ‘and’ or ‘land’ or ‘random’ etc.
example 2:
- it gives prompt ‘ngl’
- you could give it ‘angle’ or ‘tangle’ or ‘anglerfish’
Between the ASD and the ADHD, I’ve gotten incredibly good at making intuitive leaps to cover shortfalls in cognition.
Like, I’ll catch less than half of what’s said thanks to the auditory processing issues but I’m still able to follow a conversation as if my mind wasn’t wandering. I got bad marks in algebra for failing to show all the work that my brain solved unconsciously. Social deduction games can be weirdly easy and even my partners can’t tell when it’s my turn to play the imposter. Complicated stuff like software debugging comes easily, and I often find a solution taking shape in my mind before someone finishes explaining the problem.
The book “Collaborative Intelligence” is on the 3 most-common of the 4 innate-mind-languages we think in.
- Visual-thinking
- Auditory-thinking
- Kinesthetic-thinking
It totally ignores the 4th.
- Implication-Pattern-thinking/Abstract-Thoughtshape-thinking
which, from what I’ve read, is possibly more than 50% of the physicists people.
I think in abstract-shapes, which means that instead of seeing the appearances of something, I need to see how it works, before I can then abstract-out its thoughtshape, which is what my mind holds onto.
I’ve no internal-visual, which is falsely-labeled “aphantasia” ( no-imagination ) by psychology.
I’ve plenty of imagination, but it works within the mind-function that I have, not in some mind-function I don’t have.
This difference allows me to “see through” appearances to more fundamental/underlying reality, much more easily than more-conventional minds do.
As Temple Grandin’s TED talk on kinds of minds pointed-out, however, I’m mindblind to many things that the more-common mind-functions catch:
She wouldn’t have put the emergency-generators at Fukushima at the bottom of a pit, beside a tsunami-infested sea, because she would have seen them flood ( she thinks in movies ).
I wouldn’t ever have noticed any potential problem, because I’d have been “looking at” the function withing each generator, & feeling the beneficial-protection of having them not easily attackable, or something.
You NEED to have all-4 innate-mind-languages working on any product/service that you’re going to release, as each has its own mind-blindnesses.
Don’t leave any 1 of 'em out!
But being of the least-common ( & ignored by much/all of the psychology profession/industry ), is a kind of superpower, when their prejudice isn’t grinding on one’s validity, fersure.
: P
I’ve no internal-visual, which is falsely-labeled “aphantasia” ( no-imagination ) by psychology.
It means you don’t have mental imagery. People with aphantasia can still have an imagination.
that’s super interesting! thanks for sharing. now, I’m think about reading that book. maybe my library will have it.
Conceptual thinking apparently. I guess most people think with words. I think with concepts, visuals, emotions, and other sensory inputs. It means I can understand things much more quickly by associating concepts. And combine those things quickly to make something new. I rarely need to memorize all the details of something if I can extrapolate those things from the conceptual models in my head as needed.
But it does mean that every word that I use needs to be translated from a concept first. Translation takes time and energy, just like it does for the majority of people who speak multiple languages with widely varying grammatical patterns.
Ooh, I think I’m the same way. How can someone figure out how their thinking works, be it conceptual, language, visual, etc?
This is relatable. It’s very useful for doing science, but the problem then is that you have all of these ideas in your head that are impossible to express succinctly because you need to invent new words, so it’s very hard to sell the idea to anyone, and you end up working alone on everything and achieving very little.
I am good at finding things because I think about things in context of their place in the world.
At my job, I am good at finding problems in data because I know how all the files work and how our systems interlink. If something is missing, I know where it gets taken from and work backwards from there. If some additional is there that shouldn’t be, I know the rules of why things get taken and can figure out why.
At home, I can find objects easily because I know what they are used for and have a good memory, so I can easily remember the last thing an item was used for and start there. This helps a lot with a partner who has ADHD and is constantly misplacing things.
My finding skills have also been great for finding stuff on the Internet, but Search Engine Optimization is slowly degrading that. I am still very good at finding deals on things people need on Craigslist though, as I am very good at figuring out which listings are good and which are ads just based on the description given.
