Couldn’t admit this to myself until my 40’s, but I have a serious mechanical handicap. Doesn’t stop me from trying!
We had standard tests in elementary school and I jammed out in the 90+ percentile on most subjects. The last part was called spatial reasoning. Here’s 3 shapes, if you put them together, which shape will they make. Stuff like that. Tried really hard, couldn’t do it.
I can take things apart pretty well, and I’m good at creative solutions, just can’t get the thing back together.
Oh, holy crap, I have the same. I was looking at a Scientific American print magazine a long time ago and in the back there were 2 quizzes. One said take these letters and make as many words as you can, and I knocked that out of the park, so easy. The other was a series of images of pairs of 3d models - like the ball-and-stick things used to show molecules. They said some are mirror images and some are the same, and they were rotated in different ways. Basically said find which are mirrors and which aren’t, how many can you find in 5 minutes.
None. Not in any amount of minutes. I looked at them for an hour, until I was crying, my brain would not see it. I also can’t read maps unless they are facing the same way as I am, oriented with the actual world, but that must be common because phones do show them that way now.
I find this interesting. I know the OP’s question specifically asked for things that don’t affect you day to day, but do you find any kind of daily activities difficult? Just random thoughts… Folding clothes? Parallel parking? IKEA furniture?
I can parallel park fine (but am kinda old and used to have to) and was not dyslexic or anything - I think part of my problem with that puzzle was that you can take a p and flip it to be a b or q or d, the whole idea of them starting out as mirror or not didn’t compute somehow, lost between my eyes and brain.
Maps, yes, it used to mess up my life but no more, now that you can rotate them. I used to take paper maps and lay them on the ground with north pointing north and could not easily read MapQuest on my work computer because my desk faced south. If I had to navigate while my ex was driving he would laugh at me for holding the map sideways or upside down but it was much easier to read upside down words than a map that was upside down in relationship to the world.
Funny enough, I can parallel park! When I was 16, so many decades ago, we were told we had to do it to pass the test, so I memorized the directions and practiced. Came time for the test, I knocked it out so perfectly the instructor was like, “OK, ya got it, next test.”, before I even finished! Quite proud of that BTW!
Wasn’t until my 40s until I cold instinctively tell left from right, horizontal to vertical, still take a split second to think on it. At least I don’t have to snap my left hand, only one I can do it on, to find left vs. right!
Day to day? I have loads of crappy guns that I’m experimenting with. Love the hobby so much because it stretches my spatial recognition to the very limit without being too frustrating. For example, I was shooting, or trying to shoot, a little .22 rifle today. The bolt won’t close all the way. For the fucking life of me I cannot see why it no longer moves far enough forward. One day I’ll take it apart and put it back together again, it’ll just work, and I’ll have no idea why.
And no, I cannot fold a fitted sheet. My mother could make one flat as a pancake and wrap a gift like it came from a robot. Me? Nope.
Mad as hell when my phone map orients North. Who asked you do do that you sumbitch?! 😂
Wait, now that I think on it, I think I got it backwards. See what I mean?! Fuck I’m confused as to direction. Give me a compass and tell me which way is home.
Got lost in the swamp last spring. “OK, just go north to this waypoint. STAY north.” Took me forever, crawling through mud and sticker-vines, over and under deadfalls, checking my compass every 20’, lost the foregrip on my antique shotgun, crawled out 20’ from the edge of camp. Home!
You FEEL me! I’m in the woods and on the water, every week. I go places others do not. I got a “mechanical” compass at all times, a compass on my Casio, a compass on my phone. Not like I can read them for shit, but I can at least get pointed, roughly, the right way home.
I refurb crappy guns for fun. I’ll tear a 50s shotgun down, get it all cleaned up, wood redone, all that, and then have to call my 22-yo friend across the street, “Hey Dave! Can you come look at this?” He puzzles over it for a few and everything snaps back into place.
Couldn’t admit this to myself until my 40’s, but I have a serious mechanical handicap. Doesn’t stop me from trying!
We had standard tests in elementary school and I jammed out in the 90+ percentile on most subjects. The last part was called spatial reasoning. Here’s 3 shapes, if you put them together, which shape will they make. Stuff like that. Tried really hard, couldn’t do it.
I can take things apart pretty well, and I’m good at creative solutions, just can’t get the thing back together.
Oh, holy crap, I have the same. I was looking at a Scientific American print magazine a long time ago and in the back there were 2 quizzes. One said take these letters and make as many words as you can, and I knocked that out of the park, so easy. The other was a series of images of pairs of 3d models - like the ball-and-stick things used to show molecules. They said some are mirror images and some are the same, and they were rotated in different ways. Basically said find which are mirrors and which aren’t, how many can you find in 5 minutes.
None. Not in any amount of minutes. I looked at them for an hour, until I was crying, my brain would not see it. I also can’t read maps unless they are facing the same way as I am, oriented with the actual world, but that must be common because phones do show them that way now.
I find this interesting. I know the OP’s question specifically asked for things that don’t affect you day to day, but do you find any kind of daily activities difficult? Just random thoughts… Folding clothes? Parallel parking? IKEA furniture?
I can parallel park fine (but am kinda old and used to have to) and was not dyslexic or anything - I think part of my problem with that puzzle was that you can take a p and flip it to be a b or q or d, the whole idea of them starting out as mirror or not didn’t compute somehow, lost between my eyes and brain.
Maps, yes, it used to mess up my life but no more, now that you can rotate them. I used to take paper maps and lay them on the ground with north pointing north and could not easily read MapQuest on my work computer because my desk faced south. If I had to navigate while my ex was driving he would laugh at me for holding the map sideways or upside down but it was much easier to read upside down words than a map that was upside down in relationship to the world.
Funny enough, I can parallel park! When I was 16, so many decades ago, we were told we had to do it to pass the test, so I memorized the directions and practiced. Came time for the test, I knocked it out so perfectly the instructor was like, “OK, ya got it, next test.”, before I even finished! Quite proud of that BTW!
Wasn’t until my 40s until I cold instinctively tell left from right, horizontal to vertical, still take a split second to think on it. At least I don’t have to snap my left hand, only one I can do it on, to find left vs. right!
Day to day? I have loads of crappy guns that I’m experimenting with. Love the hobby so much because it stretches my spatial recognition to the very limit without being too frustrating. For example, I was shooting, or trying to shoot, a little .22 rifle today. The bolt won’t close all the way. For the fucking life of me I cannot see why it no longer moves far enough forward. One day I’ll take it apart and put it back together again, it’ll just work, and I’ll have no idea why.
And no, I cannot fold a fitted sheet. My mother could make one flat as a pancake and wrap a gift like it came from a robot. Me? Nope.
Funny, i have a really hard time with maps unless they are oriented with north up. The modern gps orientation drives me crazy
Mad as hell when my phone map orients North. Who asked you do do that you sumbitch?! 😂
Wait, now that I think on it, I think I got it backwards. See what I mean?! Fuck I’m confused as to direction. Give me a compass and tell me which way is home.
Got lost in the swamp last spring. “OK, just go north to this waypoint. STAY north.” Took me forever, crawling through mud and sticker-vines, over and under deadfalls, checking my compass every 20’, lost the foregrip on my antique shotgun, crawled out 20’ from the edge of camp. Home!
You FEEL me! I’m in the woods and on the water, every week. I go places others do not. I got a “mechanical” compass at all times, a compass on my Casio, a compass on my phone. Not like I can read them for shit, but I can at least get pointed, roughly, the right way home.
I refurb crappy guns for fun. I’ll tear a 50s shotgun down, get it all cleaned up, wood redone, all that, and then have to call my 22-yo friend across the street, “Hey Dave! Can you come look at this?” He puzzles over it for a few and everything snaps back into place.