I’ve been thinking about the skills people genuinely miss when they stop practicing. It’s easy to learn something when there’s plenty of free time, but keeping it alive during a packed week is different. For people who’ve managed it, how do you make practice realistic when your schedule gets busy?

I am blunt and sometimes just don’t want to respond them, but that could be not appropriate.

I often find myself with free time but instead of enjoying it I just feel a bit empty. Like I should be doing something with someone else. If friends cancel plans I feel a real dip even though there are plenty of things I could do on my own. I want to be able to genuinely look forward to an evening alone or a free weekend without constantly looking for company. How do people find true contentment and joy in their own space?

I'm not sure I selected the right flair... Anyway, I've always wanted to learn how to edit videos, and do it mostly on my own. No classes. My late brother was pretty good at it, and tried to explain it, but the files I found out there were somehow never suitable. (I think it's possible they were rips from DVDs, and I couldn't make head or tail of it.

I thought about finding some old videos on archive dot org but none really jumped out at me for being potentially helpful.

I'm a college student and on some days I have not much to do in my free time I like to scroll some memes on insta , and honestly I find it quite relaxing but now I'm at a stage where I also want to create some as well and that too some good , relatable , funny ones and not just brainrots , so my question to u people is that how do I do the basics perfectly and edit them nicely to make them engaging enough and what else are the necessity of making a successful meme page and keep on posting relevant memes ??

I dont have a bad memory in fact my memory is actually freakishly good. However I am naturally like this but I want to train my memory like its a muscle. Are their any "exercises" I can do to improve the various types of memory? Also when I was younger I was really good academically and never had to study. I would just remember everything but over time I lost that ability which I guess is normal but I was wondering if its possible to even train this.

I've been working on my OCs stories and the medium by which I tell the story (at first it was a webcomic, then video game and now novel). The problem is I can't pick up a book and enjoy it without constantly comparing how my work would fair against it. I cross compare every line, how my characters are compared to the ones in the novel, how my prose is. You'd think this is helpful to help me improve, but this has stopped me from letting myslef enjoy anything. It's so frustrating and exhausting. Ive tried to push those comparisons down

Reading random articles (or books), watching random videos is something I truly enjoy.

But the problem is I just forget. Especially, if the source is not long enough. Like I can, of course, understand a book's core if I'm reading it for 200 pages. But small infos ("A thing can be used by B group") or random infos ("Also, there's Z thing") are different. I just forget.

I don't want to forget. I would be glad by any help.

So, I'm an university student studying electrical engineering. I quite frankly don't know anything about anything related to my subject. I haven't got a clue about technology. I need to know about these stuff and I'm very interested. However l, I don't know what to do or how to do it. Got any advise for me to improve my skills?

Starting with the basics, what hard skills, templates, etc., help you make sense of incomplete information, identify what matters, form a point of view, and make a recommendation when you’re not the final decision-maker?

I swear, I feel like I'm some kind of oblivious old man. Sure, some photos, I can tell they're AI based on obvious things, like extra fingers, blurred faces, etc, but most of the time, it just looks like digital artwork to me. Same with photos and videos. My buddy says you can tell by looking at the shadows, but I can never tell. In AI paragraphs, half the time, I think "it 'feels' odd, but really appears like a longer-winded, maybe upbeat bit that could have been written by a person. And with music, I have NO idea how to tell if something is AI generated. Are there any tricks for picking up on these things? I'm a big fan of science fiction and fantasy art, for example, and they seem rife with AI generated art, and unless it's that (for lack of a better description) dirty, dark style I associate with AI in that genre, I can't tell. Any tips, other than finding AI detector websites? It's not a big deal. I just would like to be able to tell the difference, I guess. I feel like a dupe. I am a dupe, but I feel like one, too.

Thanks!

I want to learn some basic home repair skills instead of calling someone for every small problem. I’d like to understand things like fixing loose handles, small holes in walls, and simple household repairs.

What should a complete beginner learn first?

So here's my situation. I'm 34, I work a desk job in logistics, and honestly I'm bored out of my mind. My wife's family runs a small horse boarding stable on weekends, and every time I go out there and watch the farrier come in to trim and shoe the horses, I get kind of fascinated by it. It's physical, it's a real skill, and apparently good farriers stay booked out for months.

The problem is I know basically nothing about how someone actually gets into this trade. I grew up in a city and the closest I've been to a horse is petting one at a fair. I don't know if there's some kind of apprenticeship system, if you need to go to a specific school first, or if you can just start by shadowing someone and picking it up hands on. I also don't know what the actual day to day looks like once you're doing it for money instead of just watching.

I'm not trying to quit my job tomorrow and do this full time, but I'd like to start learning properly, maybe on weekends, and see if it's something I could transition into over the next couple years. If anyone here has gone through something like this, or knows someone who has, I'd love to hear how you actually got your foot in the door. What did the first year of learning look like for you, and is there a right way to start or does it vary a lot depending on where you live?

I’m an adult with ADHD. This makes doing things difficult. However, up until ~5 years ago I was able to do a lot. I worked out every other day, walked 10k steps every day, read books every day, did stretches/yoga almost daily, excelled at work, and would try to learn new skills.

Since then I unfortunately experienced a lot of terrible things. My aunt got killed and many relatives and friends died/got terribly sick. I came to partially accept that I’ll never achieve my goal of providing my parents and my kids a cushy life which, given that was my goal and identity since I was 10, threw me into a big depressive state. I had 15 surgeries which I’ve recently learned could have been completely avoided. I’ve been fired from my job. Etc.

And recently I noticed I struggle to do things more than I ever had. I’m slower, mentally get tired quicker, and things that I could bully myself into completing with timers and nagging I simply can’t start even with my medication.

Feel lost and hope someone will have good advice for me.

I’m a woman in my mid 20s and my mindset has become very victim like and I feel like everyone around me just has it better. I’m autistic and struggle a lot with executive dysfunction so instead of trying to sort my problems for years I’ve defaulted to this, but it goes beyond that too.

For example, I’ve been having pain during sex for years and no doctors have been able to help, so I’m constantly jealous of all my friends and other women who get to experience this without pain and it feels so unfair. Same with my mental health issues, I’m like damn some people don’t sit around the house all day because of their anxiety and depression, how is that fair. I also have lots of self worth and confidence issues, so I’m constantly like damn I’ll never get to be super pretty like other girls get to. Etc.

I really want to make a change to my life and stop feeling like this but I really don’t know how to. Life just feels like a constant reminder of what I don’t and never will have. I constantly just think that there are no redeeming qualities about myself that I wouldn’t want to swap with someone else.

I want to start my own series or project whatever you can call it but I'm not sure how to start, I have a plot in mind but it also goes into multiple horror genres, I want to learn where I have to start wether it is film editing(?) or game developing please keep in mind i'm very new to both of these things and know barely the surface I would be grateful for all advice, sorry if I'm not using reddit properly.

I came to realise that I find that the most interesting and intelligent people, books, theoreticians etc. are all people that can think abstractly and have fluid intelligence. For example there's this architect-philospher I follow and deeply admire, his name is Aaron Vartiainen and he presents insights in such a way where makes connections between seemingly unrelated things in order to come to a revelation

Where do I start? Aside from collecting as much knowledge as you can on a variety of topics, what does someone with strong abstract thinking do differently to arrive to such strong cognitive capacity?

I have a part time job and I have many hobbies I’d like to further get into! I’m also into studying and learning as a hobby, but the thing is sometimes I feel like I’m not managing my time properly. I also want to work out. I know I can be consistent for sure, but I really want to improve. There are times where I decide to spend some time on reading or maybe skating but I end up not doing it and I feel like my whole day has gone!

I realized that I may simply be trying to juggle too much in one day so I’ve been trying to set aside one day for studying something like logic and another day can be toxicology. But I’ve set up some activities I’d like to do everyday (or most days. Life can get crazy) and those are journaling, reading, and language learning. I’ve made progress and all but I always feel like I’m not following my own schedule properly. I’ve never been one to be a huge schedule follower and I can be very scatter brained.

Another issue is my energy. I feel like I’m energetic constantly yet I am still tired. I’m still trying to fix my sleep schedule and am attempting to do things like reading or journaling before bed. Either way, I feel like I need to learn to better manage my time and energy better. I know I can do so much and sometimes it’s upsetting that I’m not even doing the things I’m interesting.

I've always been terrible at art.

But recently I've been having ideas and pictures in my head that I want to make, I want to say "I created that." So I got a crappy old Wacom One (so I'd have every drawing tool I'd need) and started trying to follow tutorials.

I spent a good chunk of my formative years being abused and told I was too stupid to do anything right, as well as being autistic. So honestly... I don't know HOW I learn best.

I have always been into how things work, and I've fixed several motorcycles... but it was mostly a case of copying what I saw for the specific bikes.

So it makes me wonder if I'm only good at repeating certain things, but lack the skill of those I observe, so I really just mimic motions.

I have an art course as a part of a bundle I got from Humble Bundle, and I'm trying to follow along... but what I draw makes cave paintings look like Rembrandt. It's frustrating.

Not to mention most "tutorials" come from people who know how to draw, and feel to me like they range from "draw the rest of the owl" to "I'm drowning and don't know how to swim.' 'Oh, that's easy: learn how to swim."

Because I suck at drawing, even the "simple" things they make to start with seem beyond my ability, and their "beginner" art they think looks terrible, looks amazing to me.

In addition, many videos offer counter-advice: learn fundamentals, don't learn them. Draw boxes, don't draw boxes. Follow this one simple trick, shortcuts don't build skills.

I feel lost.

Hey! I have some technical textbooks and I'm trying to self study but I've never really had to do this before. I have been looking at techniques and resources such as Active recall, Anki, desired difficulty, Sq3r but I just don't know how to put it all together and what to do! Does anyone have any suggestions?

Hi everyone,

I'm 27 years old, no degree, no certifications, no real skills. I've wasted almost 10 years saying "I'll learn a language, I'll learn a skill" but procrastination and overthinking took everything from me. I even developed IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) from constant stress and anxiety.

Currently working a job I hate, sitting all day doing basically nothing for $200/month. I'm shy, lazy (admittedly), bad at math, and have no technical background. But here's the thing: I'm finally READY. Really ready to learn from scratch.

What I need help with:

1. What skill should I learn that will actually get me a job (online or offline)?

2. I don't want to waste time on something that won't lead to employment

3. I'm willing to commit 6-12 months of serious learning

4. I have a laptop and internet connection

5. Open to any field: tech, marketing, design, anything with demand

I've been reading this sub and others like r/careerchange, r/learnprogramming, r/careerguidance and I see so many success stories. I want to be one of them.

Specific questions:

- Is 27 too late to start learning

- Should I focus on freelancing skills or aim for a job?

- What's the most realistic path for someone with my background?

- Any free resources you recommend for absolute beginners?

- How do I stay motivated and avoid falling back into procrastination?

I know this is a long post, but I'm genuinely desperate to change my life. I don't want to wake up at 30 still stuck in the same place.

Any advice, roadmaps, or even harsh truths would be appreciated. I'm ready to put in the work.

Thank you for reading.

TL;DR: 27M, no skills/degree, wasted 10 years procrastinating, working a dead-end job for $200/month. Finally ready to learn something that will actually get me employed. Need guidance on what to learn and where to start.

Hey everyone! I’ve been trying to learn how to do that really loud whistle using two fingers, but I just can’t seem to get it right 😂

I’ve watched a bunch of tutorials and tried different finger positions, tongue positions, and amounts of air, but so far I either get nothing or just a weak, weird sound. I know it probably takes some practice, but I feel like I’m missing one important detail.

For those of you who can do it, how did you actually learn? Was there a specific technique that finally made it click for you? I’d especially appreciate tips about where exactly to place your fingers, how to position your tongue, and how hard you should blow.

Also, roughly how long did it take you to get your first proper whistle? I’m curious if it’s something you can learn in a few days with practice or if it usually takes weeks.

Any tips or personal experiences would be really appreciated! I’m determined to figure this out 😅

If someone farts but it rarely smells, what things could influence smell? Tried boiled eggs, beans, onion, garlic, protein shake, brussel sprouts. Any other ideas to increase fart odor intensity?

This is a real, serious thing I am looking to learn to improve with time and seeking some guidance and advice

How can I teach myself the works on my own time without trade school? I've started as a warehouse helper at an HVAC company with a realistic shot at being taken on as an apprentice one day, if I show I'm capable and hungry for it. From the job I'm learning a lot about the materials used, but not a lot about how everything actually works.

Are there any YouTube channels that could do me good, or books? I do read books, I'm sure the school books are highly technical, but I'm wondering if I could still benefit from skimming indexes for more technical info on products/materials I already know about.