Popping a bottle cap off with any kind of flat object as a lever. A lighter being the most obvious one. In my first week of university, when I was 18, I took 30 minutes and practiced on everyone’s bottles. Once you get the knack of it, you can do it with pretty much anything. Has paid dividends for nearly 20 years now. Everyone who can’t do it is always impressed.
Best bang-for-your-buck time to learn vs usefulness skill I’ve ever picked up, I mean it.
It’s almost the same as throwing something with your hand so it’s super quick and intuitive to learn, but you can throw x3 farther with one. You can also throw it over buildings easily if angled higher. They’re easy and cheap to make, can be hidden very easily by stuffing in your pocket or as a bracelet. You can also throw a large variety of things from the size of a golf ball to a softball, carrying paint or other things.
how to read and write in Korean using the Hangul alphabet, a pure phonetic system of characters to represent syllabic sounds with which a variety of languages can be written with. It’s like romanization but with hangul characters. There are 24 characters. 14 consonants, 10 vowels. Each corresponds to a sound, nothing more. There are no deep symbolic meanings behind them. They were designed by linguists as a direct response to the overly complex system of Chinese characters – made purposely complex to create a division between academes (noble class) vs the working peasants (who were not as literate since they had no access to study). It was a simplification of the written form to ensure Korea had a near 100% literacy rate – which it achieved.
Find North. Insert a fairly straight stick in the ground. Place a rock at the tip of the stick’s shadow. Wait 15 minutes and place another rock at the new location of the stick’s shadow. A stick laid across the rocks will be East to West with the first rock being West. Another stick laid perpendicular to the first will represent North and South.
To travel in a fairly straight line theough a forest find a long sapling or branch aand drag it behind you. It is less likely you will drift off course because you can’t manuever around the smaller trees in the forest.
It depends on who is teaching them. I could teach you basic carpentry in 60 minutes (wood, level, square, hammer, drill, saw) and you could probably be an apprentice on a job site after that. Only because my father is so skilled, and I have learned extensively from him.
But you have to have a good teacher and a good student, no matter what the skill.
Comments
CPR. It’s really not that hard to learn and it could save a life.
How to win at Minesweeper
Finger crochet
How to find north using the sun and the time
making scrambled eggs
Whistling.
How to tie different knots
Juggling three balls at once
Throwing rocks at cans set along a wooden fence
Knot tying
Turn signal…
It’s possible to learn the Korean alphabet in about 5 minutes. Learning the language itself is a different beast though.
An basic oil change
A magic trick.
How not to be an asshole. Minutes to learn and a lifetime to perfect
Sewing by hand! It’s fun because it opens up dozens of possibilities of things to make
Lockpicking. Surprisingly easy.
How to swim
Making a water drop sound with your mouth
(random yt video)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1F6unIAZQqY
The simple solve for Rubik’s Cube can be learned in an hour. It’s not the fastest algorithm but it works:
https://solvethecube.com/
The basics of making balloon animals. As an attendee at Balloon Animal University, the first semester only took me about 20-30 minutes to master.
Listening.
The art of looking busy at work when you’re really just scrolling Reddit
Knife skills. How to hold a knife when preparing food. How to dice an onion efficiently. I watched this once and it upped my game immensely. https://www.skillshare.com/en/classes/knife-skills-a-mini-class-to-chop-like-a-chef/1266930828
How to use apostrophes (not “apostrophe’s”).
Queuing. You look at the line of people and the direction they’re facing. You go stand at the back of the last person in the line. Simple stuff.
Popping a bottle cap off with any kind of flat object as a lever. A lighter being the most obvious one. In my first week of university, when I was 18, I took 30 minutes and practiced on everyone’s bottles. Once you get the knack of it, you can do it with pretty much anything. Has paid dividends for nearly 20 years now. Everyone who can’t do it is always impressed.
Best bang-for-your-buck time to learn vs usefulness skill I’ve ever picked up, I mean it.
ASL alphabet
CPR. CPR. CPR.
It’s crazy to me how few people—especially those with kids!—don’t know CPR or the Heimlich maneuver
How to riffle shuffle with bridge for a deck of cards
Tie a tie
Using a sling.
It’s almost the same as throwing something with your hand so it’s super quick and intuitive to learn, but you can throw x3 farther with one. You can also throw it over buildings easily if angled higher. They’re easy and cheap to make, can be hidden very easily by stuffing in your pocket or as a bracelet. You can also throw a large variety of things from the size of a golf ball to a softball, carrying paint or other things.
Reading a tape measure only takes about an hour and is a marketable skill in most trades.
Shutting the fuck up. Its free, easy and very useful. Very underrated skill.
Knots. Seriously. Take an hour and learn a couple of the most useful knots and you will use them EVERYWHERE.
how to read and write in Korean using the Hangul alphabet, a pure phonetic system of characters to represent syllabic sounds with which a variety of languages can be written with. It’s like romanization but with hangul characters. There are 24 characters. 14 consonants, 10 vowels. Each corresponds to a sound, nothing more. There are no deep symbolic meanings behind them. They were designed by linguists as a direct response to the overly complex system of Chinese characters – made purposely complex to create a division between academes (noble class) vs the working peasants (who were not as literate since they had no access to study). It was a simplification of the written form to ensure Korea had a near 100% literacy rate – which it achieved.
Chess. Very easy to learn on how to play, but quite hard to master.
How to tell if your eggs are still good to eat with a bowl filled with water.
If it floats it’s a no.
If it stands straight up it’s still safe but it’s getting there
If to the side you are big chilling
First aid methods
Making hummus
Sharpen a knife with a whetstone.
Once you start you can’t deal with dull knives anymore.
Find North. Insert a fairly straight stick in the ground. Place a rock at the tip of the stick’s shadow. Wait 15 minutes and place another rock at the new location of the stick’s shadow. A stick laid across the rocks will be East to West with the first rock being West. Another stick laid perpendicular to the first will represent North and South.
To travel in a fairly straight line theough a forest find a long sapling or branch aand drag it behind you. It is less likely you will drift off course because you can’t manuever around the smaller trees in the forest.
It depends on who is teaching them. I could teach you basic carpentry in 60 minutes (wood, level, square, hammer, drill, saw) and you could probably be an apprentice on a job site after that. Only because my father is so skilled, and I have learned extensively from him.
But you have to have a good teacher and a good student, no matter what the skill.
Well I don’t want to brag, but 64 years ago I learned to breath first try.
How to use chopsticks