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  • This post rather got me questioning what skills or talents I have. None.

    So I guess all of them are taking me way longer. When I want to learn something, I usually end up spiralling into thoughts that it's too late for me and I should have known that much sooner, like others did.

  • Learning a new language. I normally pick things up pretty quickly, but learning a new language has been a slow slow process, but worth every second :)

  • French.
    I figured since I was exposed to it for a year as an infant, it would help me out when I was farting around with electives in school. Well, nope-- that 'infant period' was just too early I guess, and classroom learning didn't work for me, regardless.

    What actually helped a tonne was just vacationing in Paris for a week (i.e. helpless immersion), and later, developing a passion for Franco-Belgian comics, which led to me using the DuoLingo app on phone whenever I'm bored or have a spare moment.

    ~Six months in, I'm just blown away by how much I can read without too much trouble. Google's vanilla "Translate" app helps a bunch when I'm stuck. Of course it's also good to have other aids, such as a handy chart of verb conjugations, etc, but really it was just DuoLingo that caught me on fire.

    Feel free anyone to drop by our Lemmy community devoted to European graphic novels if you're interested.

  • Driving stick, still haven't figured it out and now that I lost sensation in my feet, seems like I'll never get it.

    I understand how it's supposed to work, I just can't do it without stalling.

    • Learning to work the clutch and feel the friction zone is a more difficult skill than some want to admit.

      Learning to drive a motorcycle was a bit overwhelming, I remember my instructor talking about applying the brakes with right hand and foot while disengaging the clutch with the left hand and downshifting with the left foot… and thinking “how the hell is anyone supposed to keep track of all that!”

      I do miss my stick shift though, it was more fun to drive even if less practical.

      • Oh right… It’s a good thing I already knew how to drive stick before taking up motorcycling.

    • This might sound dumb, but I'm doing this with Euro Truck Simulator. I've got the wheel/pedals/shifter, but I can't for the life of me get it to not stall out, especially when pulling heavy loads from a standstill.

      I've seen pedals that have haptic feedback for feeling the clutch engage, and I'm honestly considering saving up for it, cause I'm obviously missing something here.

      • I doubt it will really compare to an actual truck. When you're driving one, the pedal is the easy part. The truck has so much torque it is harder to stall, unless you're loaded heavy and on a hill. The tricky part is getting your shift windows without synchromesh.

        I remember when I was learning, it was a bit challenging to hit my shift windows at first, and remember what split I was in when I was on the road. Back then I had a little xB and a FJ40. Both of those were manual. When I got back into one of them, it felt insane that anyone could screw up in one of them.

        I had already learned front end loaders, skid loaders, and a skid steer, and was working on a certification for case controls on an excavator, so the coordination complexity of hands and feet were no big deal.

        The clutch is all about feeling the difference between the spring pressure and the friction.

        Anyways, at least for me it can help to think in perspective like this; about other areas where the same basic skill applies with perhaps even more complexity. Like after a few days on an excavator you stop thinking about the individual controls and start thinking about the bucket like your hand and the boom like your arm and the pivot like your waist. The brain, or at least mine, abstracts away the motions like an extension of your body. It is such a strong connection and the hydraulic feedback is so direct, that you can "feel" with the bucket without actually seeing into the trench. Like if you hit a rock, a root, or even conduit in the ground, you can feel it in the controls like it is a part of you.

      • Too much clutch, not enough revs.

        I had a lot of trouble learning on my brother's Kia. When I got my own MT car, it was so much easier, mainly because the clutch on the Kia was extremely heavy. See if you can adjust the clutch pedal spring to make pushing the clutch pedal easier.

    • The key for me was being told: it’s okay to ride (to hold) the clutch a little before/during/after you’re switching gears.

  • The ECS design pattern.

    Oh you meant talent? Well I didn't get my drivers license until I was 19.

  • I started getting into music in 2017, couldn't make a song for shit until 2023 I finally got to a decent spot. Though even then I have a lot of failed attempts still but I think that's normal.

    • Hey that's about when I started! And I also have a LOOOOT of awful stuff, but only now am I starting to occasionally make stuff that I don't immediately hate.

      Currently participating in Weekly Beats, which is something I'd never have considered even a year ago.

      Of course, I'll be learning the entire rest of my life, so...

86 comments