What projects or repairs do you wish you had the time or skills for?  What
sort of skills do you wish you had?  

16 responses total.

I have always wanted to be able to make a comfortable and durable pair of
shoes.  The commercial ones hurt my feet.  So far I have made a pair of
sandals that I can't walk far in (no padding), some sheepskin slippers (warm),
moccasins for indoors for a roomate (who never wore them) and one pair of
shoes from a pockeboot (free leather, rummage sale).
But it is not at all durable, leather is too thin, as are the soles.  I might
need something better than an awl and a needle to work on tougher stuff.
Some day, possibly soon, I may learn to make kitchen cabinets, but other
furniture seems to be available cheaper used than the materials cost.

Let me rephrase the question.  If you had a year off from work, and minimal
other obligations (somebody else to do all the shopping, cooking, laundry,
cleaning, etc.), what projects would you like to start or finish?
        In our case, this would include building a house that we started,
getting the yard under control, fixing up another house that we started
(getting the heating system reversed, adding a glass door in the hallway to
the bedrooms to block kitchen noise, putting a wall and floor in the place
that used to be two closets and will eventually be one large one, reroofing
the garage with metal roofing, getting the yard under control, etc.), learning
more about how an oscilloscope works, learning how to use a tone generator
with the oscilloscope to trace radio problems, learning how to braze,
cleaning out the basement and garage...
        Jim wants to point out that there are things you cannot learn even in
an infinite amoutn of time, things like a sense of rhythm, language ability.
Are there skills you have tried to acquire but could not?  He says there are
genetic predispositions for some skill.

  I disagree.

  The human mind is a wonderful thing, and it is sad that we only use 10% of
what our brain's are capable of. Languages can be learned, but it takes will
power, desire to learn and practice, and lots of it. 
  It took me a short period to learn the characters of Morse Code, and
practice made me proficient. I am way rusty because of lack of practice, but
in 3 short years, I went from 0 wpm to over 40. I only need 1 month of
concerted effort to get back up to 20, where I should be.
  How about the piano? or speaking Spanish. All it takes is practice and
desire. Desire is a funny thing. It can make you do things you never thought
you could. Anyone who says they cannot learn is not trying hard enough.
  
  When I was 7, I was uncoordinated. I had 2 left feet, and I daydreamed, I
had terrible grades. I was given a drug to fight the daydreaming, and I joined
the band playing the drum. I improved my rhythm, and I got with the program.
I'm not saying drugs are the answer. I no longer need the drug, and I still
have a slight attention problem, but I do have rhythm. 

  My point is----> Anything can be learned.

What band to you play with?

If I had to take a year off of work, I would get another job.  There are
various projects around here that I would love to get done given a few days
to work on them, but the projects I find interesting enough to spend an entire
year on involve stuff that is way too expensive to pay for myself.  I would
need an employer to pay for it.

I need much more than only a year off with full pay ;-)
 
I agree with Jim, but only to a point.  Just because a person learns
something doesn't mean they will good at it.

Yes.  Even something as amorphous as "sense of rhythm" can be learned. 
Practice learning languages, with thought not just by rote, will develop
language ability.  Practically no one is truly tone deaf in the sense of being
unable to *learn* to hear pitch well enough to recognize and sing intervals.

Nonetheless, in all these kinds of things there's variation in what we
might call natural ability.  I'm pretty musical, but I lack the physical
coordination to ever be (say) a great concert pianist no matter how much
I might practice.  I think I could be fairly good with enough practice,
but the *great* ones practice all the time on top of several types of
natural abilities that I don't have to such a great degree.  In effect your
inborn talents act as multipliers for your efforst.  Or, of course, vice
versa.  Unless you really have an overriding desire to do one particular
thing, you're much better off not making it your life's work unless you
actually have some ability in that direction.

My prificieccy in typing ii not going to inprove to the point where others
would say that i had acheaved proficiency.  I have alreary reached my
limitation due to my inability to think (compose) and type (express) the
wtiten word.  It's an eather or situation. I find that I'm unable to read my
own thoughts when put to paper and unabel to compose a comprehendable idea
while typing. This example may not seem so bad unless you consider that it's
been 13 min. since I starter and I'm relating  something which I've had much
previous practice trying to explane.
        That said I now stare at the keyboard woneding where to go from here.
A problem that dosent apear when speaking onless interupted, 
Oooops I hhink I'M starting to loose It.
stop the timmer at 23 mim. + bye jdeigert

Jim typed the entire previous response by himself without help, with four
fingers and a thumb.  He says he can type as fast as he can think while
typing.  He has been typing for 35 years.  How many more years of practice
will it take to get above 6 wpm (uncorrected)?  He wishes he was better at
reading and writing, but is not optimistic.  He reads books on tape and types
through my fingers.  I wish I were strong enough to move refrigerators, but
I don't think any amount of practice will make me so, so I let Jim move them.
I doubt that I will ever acquire a good sense of direction - when downtown
I have to look at street signs to determine if I am on Liberty or Washington
streets.  For some reason, I cannot ever manage to visualize plumbing in 3D,
upside down, while Jim has no problems with this.
        The sort of skills I was talking about are not the above.  You cannot
teach a totally deaf person to sing exactly on pitch (am I wrong?), or a blind
person to distinguish colors, or a dyslexic to read fluently.  But I would
like to know more about how to wire a house (I will get my chance to learn
soon), and how to prune fruit trees (we have a few sacrificial victims lined
up), and of course how to read Latvian and other things that I find easy but
have not had the time for.  It should not take Jim long to learn to braze his
bike (the frame fell apart, probably because he carries 100 lb loads on it).
        Omni, how many years' practice would it take for you to learn to run
a 3 minute mile?  Or sing soprano?

  The first thing I would have to do is lose about 200 pounds, then we'll talk
about running. I don't do that very well. But I used to bowl very well. I was
given the basics in a week, then I spent the next 5 yrs perfecting my form,
adjusting my equipment, etc.  I peaked in 1989, when I had an average of 200.
I am very out of practice, and I don't expect that I will ever be as good as
I was. 
  As for singing, I sing on a regular basis. I am unable to do tremelos, but
I can carry a tune. Singing is good for the soul. 

  Jim, maybe you're not a writer, very few of us are. To some, writing comes
easily, to others, like you and me, we have to work at it. I am still learning
about the structure of an essay, and I wish there was a class that I could
take that wouldn't cost anything, but would teach me the fundamentals of
writing. Since I have found none, I have to learn from what I read. 
  I think you have potential, and I don't think you're dyslexic. I just think
you're a little more mechanical and a little less analytic. Don't sell
yourself short by saying you can't think. I see a lot more in you than you
do.

The reality is that we are not all the same in our abilities.  I think
that is a good thing!  If we were all the same, life would be pretty
boaring and, perhaps, there would be little appreciation for other
peoples works of art, music, organizational skills, etc.  Jim D. may
have a difficult time crafting a sentence, however, his craftsmanship
is fantastic.  I find that a disability in one are is often made up
with an ability in another area/s.
 
We all have things that we are good at and things that we are no too
good at.  I find that really neat.  It distinguishes us form others and
gives us uniqueness.

I think there may be a limit to the number of things one brain can learn to
do, and therefore nobody can be good at everything.  In childhood, certain
areas of the brain specialize, so it really does help to learn pitches when
young.  (Got to go measure tape recorder belts now.)

  I don't buy that one either. The brain is one of the most complex and
misunderstood organs. There is knowledge as to how it functions, but there
is so much that remains unknown. I would safely say that the only time the
brain cannot learn something is when it's owner ceases to live.

  How many people have trained for one occupation, then trained for a
completely different one? If there were limits, it just wouldn't be possible.
I guess the bottom line would be that one must keep an open mind, and learn
something new every day. The brain is a muscle which must be exercised or it
will atrophy. I have seen it happen.

The brain is a muscle!?

  It may not be a muscle in the classic sense of the word, but like a muscle,
you have to routinly challenge it to keep it at it's best. Crosswords,
reading, analytic thinking, solving complex puzzles and problems are all forms
of mental exercise. 
  I knew someone who said that he had stopped learning, and refused to read
any books. Instead he watched TV from the time he arose in the morning until
he went to bed. I saw his brain function decrease greatly. It was sad to see,
but what can you do?
  I vowed that this will not happen to me. I read, and take time out of every
day to do mental exercises. I will not lose my brain function.

The brain is not full grown at birth, it continues growing, I think for about
5 years (the age when it is grown enough to learn to read).  Certain parts
of it specialize for things like vision, and even if a problem with your eyes
is corrected after that, you cannot process visual signals and therefore
remain blind.  Different speech abilities are located in different parts of
the brain (even verbs and adjectives reside in different spots), but if you
have brain damage when young enough, another part can take over.  In cases
of dyslexia, sometimes the right hemisphere takes over language functions
which are much better done by the left hemisphere.  The left hemisphere
specializes in sequential activities such as spelling, the right one in 3-D
stuff like plumbing or tracking elephants.  In Jim's case, the right
hemisphere, which usually has a vocabulary limited to obscenities and other
emotional words, has taken over language functions, with inherently
comparatively poorer ability.  This is probably genetic rather than damage,
since a nephew has similar problems.  I would not view it as a disability but
as a shift in abilities.  Maybe more of the left hemisphere is left free ofr
other things, don't understand.  But I am sure that different brains are
genetically more capable of learning different things well.  Just as different
other body parts may be better suited for certain tasks in certain people.
The brain is a physical object.

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