= 27d567bc2d48d9f40e9ccc20ea370b15)
Antisuji comments on How to Be Happy - Less Wrong
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
= 783df68a0f980790206b9ea87794c5b6)
Loading…= b715d02e85f7b3b4ae65ca3d3e450868)
Subscribe to RSS Feed
Powered by Reddit
= f037147d6e6c911a85753b9abdedda8d)
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
Comments (201)
This was great, Luke. I didn't see anything in the post or replies about developing skills that aren't explicitly social/extrovert-focused (other than the perhaps the related encouragement to operate in "the flow"), so I thought I'd share a personal story of such development.
When I was in 3rd or 4th grade, my handwriting was terrible. My mom bought me one of those learning-to-write-cursive books where you just copy letters over pages and pages, using a bot and bottom solid line and a dashed middle line as a guide.
This drastically improved my handwriting, but I think it also increased my fine-motor skills or something, as I found I had the ability do things like calligraphy and, more recently, fine-ish woodworking. I share this because I think the skill was more or less learned, and the knowledge that I have done the cursive book let me look at other things and think, "I think I might be able to do that." For examples, see:
I share these because they are all instances of using my cursive-based hand control on something not obviously connected/related. I learned to inlay literally by watching one video and reading one instructable. Again, the cursive was all that allowed me to look at the video and instructable and think, "Wow, I think I might actually be able to do that." So I tried and think I succeeded.
Ok. Long comment. Just trying to get something on the board about trying to find potentially useless skills (wow, I can write like a kindergartener), and applying them to other areas. I've simply replaced a pen with a diamond tipped etcher and a router and made some things that were very satisfying to me and increased my happiness. I've made three of these boards for birthdays now and giving them away is quite satisfying as well. Since others have seen them, I've also been able to find three who are willing to buy them from me, which is also quite satisfying!
Think outside the box when it comes to skills -- you may do something you think is mundane but that could be put to pretty neat use elsewhere.
I had a similar experience in the realm of cooking and baking after watching several seasons of Good Eats about 5 years ago. I wasn't exactly a stranger to the kitchen before that, but I didn't really have the confidence to try new or technically tricky recipes until I'd whisked up a few batches of mayo and cooked variations on AB's split pea soup a few times. I probably wouldn't have tried perfecting my rye bread recipe as I did a few years ago (well, nearly perfected) nor tried my more recent experiments with preserves and candymaking without that initial grounding in success.
By the way, if you happen to be making an extra cribbage board in the near future I'd definitely be interested!
That's fantastic! It does help to not fail abysmally at one's first try. I think that's what that cursive did for me -- it kind of laid the groundwork of the skill via something that didn't matter in the least (who cares if I write outside the lines in a book?).
I will add a note to keep you posted on the cribbage boards!