Useful doesn't mean you'll enjoy it. I have the math skills but no musical skills. I wish I could sit on my patio and strum a guitar.
this post was submitted on 12 Mar 2026
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I'd keep music skills, OP. The world has enough calculators.
The calculators do music now though, and no one cares :(
Trading my "people always want to tell me what went wrong in their life"-superpower for excellent executive function. Pretty please.
So many folks here just mentioning things that with time and effort they could just straight-up learn.
Music isn't magic, Art isn't something you're born with
Respectfully disagree with you.
I've been taking music lessons for years, to find that I don't have the ear nor the rhythm for it.
Ten years of dance classes, I love the feeling of floating over the floor with an English Waltz. But ask me to stop counting in my head, or improvise rather than trained patterns, and I fall apart, just rocking in place.
Painting too. Aquarels, not acrylic. I don't have the imagination nor, again, the fine motor skills.
The Arts are not for me.
I am a man of electronics, mechanics, computing, soldering, Lego, woodworking, sailing, geometry, 3d modeling. And I can teach and plan and organise.
It's all practical, tangible stuff. That is who I am.
Sounds like you've just not found the right way to learn that works for you, tbh
Eh you can’t ignore the effect talent has on skill development. Their brain can literally be wired in a way that something like rhythm can be difficult to master whereas someone else can pick it up easily. Some of these things you’re just born with and can never change.
The same applies to high level math and art
It's at most a headstart
It’s more of a multiplier. Regardless of practice someone without talent will never catch a talented and dedicated person.
Huh, I guess that explains all those bands of musicians where none of them had any talent and then went on to have zero success, such as AC/DC, Slayer and Metallica
Mainstream musical success is not a metric of musical skill. However if you look at any violin soloist, they have to be talented.
Also I’d also argue many of those band members do have talent.
Nah, Metallica are talentless hacks, they're famous for it
I see you didn’t refute my primary argument.
I just don't think it's true tbh, and you're selling yourself short
I have no evidence and don't care enough to find any either
Try taking some theory lessons, it helps with things immensely by giving a stronger foundation
I feel you. When trying to paint I want to make an exact copy of reality because I can't imagine what is the essential thing to make something recognizable as it. I can't imagine it well enough in my head.
Have you read Drawing with the Right Side of the Brain? Could help you think about art differently.
I'd trade the ability to pick up my underwear with my foot and toss it into the laundry hamper for invisibility.
I'd trade my dick sucking skills for skill at playing guitar.
Have you tried taking up the (skin) flute?
The fact I played flute in 4th-6th grade makes me wonder if those skills just translated... 🤔
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I feel like there's got to be people out there that want the opposite trade.
"Being good at guitar doesn't help me at all. Everyone hearing me play wants to suck my dick and not the other way around! 😩"
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I would trade all my skill and knowledge in history and geography for just being able to program in rust
I would gladly change my math ability, that is small, for some musical ability, that is non existent.
Music isn't magic, it's not an innate talent, but rather a skill.
And like every skill, with time and practice and research, anyone could learn it.
Just not everyone's got the time.
I'd trade 90's computer skills for 90's social skills. Because 90's social skills are relevant today, while it's been a while since I've had to resolve IRQ conflicts via jumpers. And switches no longer have a ~~Chasey Lain~~ daisy chain port thanks to multiplexing.
You've had a Lotta dick
Had a Lotta dick
I've had a Lotta time
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Id trade the skill of knowing how many carbs are in any dish with the skill to naturally release insulin to process the carbs of any dish. Or am i trading a skill for a perk?
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I would trade my accumulated engineering training and skills in order to be a great musician. I'm done with office work, staring at a screen all day, and coming home mentally exhausted. I want to be able to go to a jam session and shred with the best.
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I need better emotional regulation. I wish I could just go "Yeah this is going to completely suck" and then get it done.
Is doom scrolling a tradeable skill?
I'd trade my writing skills for coding skills. I feel like I'd be happier programming than teaching kids how to write.
Don't want, both jobs are being decimated by AI, so you should have plenty of time to learn whatever you want real soon.
You had me at "teaching kids".
I'd lose my mind. Happier coding and vibin to music. You know, the OG vibe coding.
I have the jack-of-all-trades skill.
I can play guitar, piano, cello, oboe, drums and sing, write computer programs, poetry and short stories, read at a fairly fast pace (I've clocked myself at over 1800 pages a day, 4 full novels, without skipping sleep), I have decent eidetic memory, I've read multiple encyclopedia's from A to Z, I am apparently unable to get lost, I can do carpentry and electrical work, home repairs, automobile repairs, fix electronics, toys, gewgaws and gadgets, I know dozens of stupid human tricks like folding joints out of place and flipping eyelids, crossing eyes and flexing tongue.
I have literally never run into anything that I cannot do to some degree other than a pull-up or play the classical flute.
If I had to trade that skill for something else, I do not know how to properly value it. All I know is that everyone around me considers it basically worthless.
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