this post was submitted on 14 Jul 2023
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What special ability do you posess that most people don't have?

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I can tell whether a food has milk in it simply by eating it and waiting a few minutes.

It’s kind of a shitty superpower, to be honest.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

This is similar to mine. I can detect the presence of nickel in an alloy at a certain concentration by how much it makes my skin tingle. Prolonged contact will result in a rash.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I have an uncanny ability to figure out the optimal size container to use to store leftovers. Kneel before my power!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

But can you find the correct lid to that Tupperware?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I am your nemesis, I inevitably dirty several containers trying to find the right size.

We can fight when I am done doing the dishes.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Grit. Most people think I have some sort of innate natural ability with everything I do. In reality, I just persevere through difficulty and failure, as many times as it takes to arrive at success. The downside is that I have a decent number of things I have tried that I probably should have given up on sooner.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I can cook minute rice in 55 seconds.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

In real life people trust me, even if they don't know me. It's the middle aged white lady superpower. Apparently we are the group of people who are deployed to do surveys about personal habits, health, sex, because people trust us.

When younger (and still to some extent) I also seem to get picked out of crowds way more often than statistically normally for things where performers are choosing someone from a crowd. My mom thought it was remarkable, there could be a thousand kids in an audience but always I was picked out to go on stage. And no, I am not exceptional looking, it was not due to looks.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Do you like wearing bright colours?

I remember a local zoo used to have a dolphin show where they'd pull a child around in a small inflatable boat, and I desperately wanted to be chosen for it. My mother helped me pick out the brightest clothes I had that morning, and guess what? I was picked.

That zoo no longer has dolphins. It was not a good environment for them. Well before my time, they even had an Orca - it must have been an utterly miserable existence for it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I'll have to go back & look at pictures but no I don't think so. I was tall for my age though, but since it was always mixed age groups, don't think it was a literal 'standing out'. But yes - kissed by the whale, the dolphin, the birds, walked tightrope, swung on trapeze, tried to juggle, every show at every theme park, every time.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I can hang things straight without using measurement tools. I just ‘sense’ it is straight. A nice power to have.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I’m a good lier, I passed a lie detector test while lying.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I forget the plots of movies and books fairly fast, and I'm able to enjoy them "for the first time" many times.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

That's amazing! I always wished there was a pill or something that could give me amnesia for a fee hours so I could enjoy something for the first time again.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I'm able to guess plot points in movies before they happen. This includes guessing how the kid keeps the family from eating the meal in Troll 2 and guessing the kind of sword Excalibur was in Sharknado 6.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I find that I'm really calm in emergency situations. When someone (including myself) gets hurt, I have a way of being the guardian in the room that stays calm and gets things done.

I broke my wrist pretty bad at the start of the year, to the point that I had surgery done and now have a metal plate and 7-8 screws. When it happened, I was oddly in fucking zen mode--despite the pain. I called my wife calmly, instructed someone to call an ambulance for me (made sure to specify non-emergency since it was a closed fracture), and made jokes at the hospital and in the ambulance. I was even taking selfies during all of the hospital procedures so that I could document it.

Outside of that, I'm an anxiety and ADHD-riddled mess that can barely make a decision on what snack to eat, and feels like he's productive at nothing.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Bit embarrassed to admit this, but I used to seriously believe I had the ability to read woman’s minds.

I used to walk into a party/bar and instantly know if I was going to have sex with a particular woman. This was virtually infallible. (Disclaimer: This didn’t happen every time I went to a party, nor did I necessarily choose the woman, but every time I felt that feeling I was right.)

Turns out many years later I realized I just had a good understanding of woman’s body language. And could tell when a woman found me attractive enough, and was horny enough, to let me pick her up.

FTR I do feel foolish for ever thinking I had some supernatural ability with women, but I was somewhat attractive and charming, so that went to my head.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I used to walk into a party/bar and instantly know if I was going to have sex with a particular woman.

I can do that too. It's very easy for me. The answer is always the same: no, no they are not

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I can think selflessly.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Being unphased by traumatic situations. At least right away. If a loved one dies or there’s a terrorist attack, I feel nothing until usually months go by. It then hits me randomly and I get as upset as you’d expect one to at the beginning.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Not really a super power, but I’m deaf since birth, hearing aids since 3 months old, and I can read lips from ten feet away, which means that I can follow a conversation perfectly fine bc I can read lips, while everyone else has to have someone shouting in their ear from a foot away in noisy environments.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Okay, story time? Have you ever read lips to a conversation and learned some juicy gossip?!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Haha, if I have, it never made it into my memory. But I did have an FM system for school as a kid. Sort of like a microphone the teacher wore around their neck that streamed the audio directly to my hearing aids. The signals could go far. If the teacher forgot to mute it or turn it off, I’d hear the sounds of them going to the bathroom down the hallway. Which was super irritating when I was trying to focus on my notes.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Apparently, lucid dreaming. Been doing it my whole life, requires no effort to initiate.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Man it takes me maintaining a dream journal, some MILD affirmations now and then and about 15 Reality check per day to even get atleast one lucid dream in a week and when i get busy and couldnt keep up with my dream journal and reality check, i would need to start from scratch to get to that previous level and that could mean month gap between lucid dreams.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Give a proper first aid for minor injuries. People tend to dissmiss minor burn/cut/bruises, but first aid right after it is what minimizes lingering pain,.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Being able to lose anything I put my hands on. Not a good power, but it's all I got.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Come over here and put those magic hands on my belly fat, you wizard!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

If you consider having "thick skin" a superpower in the social media era, then that.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Good navigation ability and sense of where I am in relation to landmarks, places and even celestial bodies. Also works for time.

Some of my friends need phone GPS just to get around the city they’ve lived in for 15 years!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

GPS just to get around the city they’ve lived in for 15 years

I do, but only because it knows about upcoming traffic and construction so I can avoid it altogether instead of having to react once you're stuck in it.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Jup, I have the same ability. Even in big, unknown cities I almost always find my way back. It's almost like it's saved in 3D in my brain.

I also always know where north is, even inside a building.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Nice. There are dozens of us.

I made a remark about where north is while in a building for a work conference a few weeks ago (the views were nice), and realised the person I was talking to had no idea what I was talking about!

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Took me a while to realize that this is actually a real life superpower, but - I can fix things. Throw it away? Meh... Repairing, upcycling? Bring it on!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Me too! The older I get the more I find fixing things is not as common as I thought. Just the other day I was at a friend's place and they were struggling opening a window. Five minutes later it was fixed. The sash spring fell off, super simple fix. They were cursing at it for months without any effort to figure it out, but that's most people it seems.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (2 children)

This yes! Also being able to do something after watching someone do it is a good skill?

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