I'm envious of people who are good at being bad. It's a skill that lets you choose how to develop yourself. I've noticed that it's really difficult for me to be bad at something, by which I mean that of my brain hasn't decided that it really needs to keep doing something, I gravitate towards things that I'm already decent at even if I don't really feel like I enjoy it. Doing even things that I might initially enjoy q…
I have the opposite problem. As soon as I become remotely competent at something, I have a hard time bringing myself to do it.
The Mental Benefits of Being Terrible at Something
21–30 of 72 posts
Re: The Mental Benefits of Being Terrible at Something
#22I'm envious of people who are good at being bad. It's a skill that lets you choose how to develop yourself. I've noticed that it's really difficult for me to be bad at something, by which I mean that of my brain hasn't decided that it really needs to keep doing something, I gravitate towards things that I'm already decent at even if I don't really feel like I enjoy it. Doing even things that I might initially enjoy q…
Try cooking. The skill cap is high, it doesn't take much to make things OK, and you gotta eat. it has helped me a lot. Plenty of times I don't want to do it, but it's hard to put off for long. You can screw up a lot, and the results are still edible. Every damn meal I make has problems. Usually it's pretty good, but there are things I can do better with the output and the process. No matter the outcome, I feel better…
Many people simple cannot fathom this. They deny the existing of any such possibility.
Re: The Mental Benefits of Being Terrible at Something
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
Try cooking. The skill cap is high, it doesn't take much to make things OK, and you gotta eat. it has helped me a lot. Plenty of times I don't want to do it, but it's hard to put off for long. You can screw up a lot, and the results are still edible. Every damn meal I make has problems. Usually it's pretty good, but there are things I can do better with the output and the process. No matter the outcome, I feel better…
Cooking is one thing I'm terrible at: there is no feedback loop at all. No matter how much time I spend on 'experimenting', I don't get any better. Many people simple cannot fathom this. They deny the existing of any such possibility.
Re: The Mental Benefits of Being Terrible at Something
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
Try cooking. The skill cap is high, it doesn't take much to make things OK, and you gotta eat. it has helped me a lot. Plenty of times I don't want to do it, but it's hard to put off for long. You can screw up a lot, and the results are still edible. Every damn meal I make has problems. Usually it's pretty good, but there are things I can do better with the output and the process. No matter the outcome, I feel better…
Cooking is one thing I'm terrible at: there is no feedback loop at all. No matter how much time I spend on 'experimenting', I don't get any better. Many people simple cannot fathom this. They deny the existing of any such possibility.
Re: The Mental Benefits of Being Terrible at Something
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
Cooking is one thing I'm terrible at: there is no feedback loop at all. No matter how much time I spend on 'experimenting', I don't get any better. Many people simple cannot fathom this. They deny the existing of any such possibility.
Tasting what you cook while you cook is an incr/edible/ feedback loop
Re: The Mental Benefits of Being Terrible at Something
#26I'm envious of people who are good at being bad. It's a skill that lets you choose how to develop yourself. I've noticed that it's really difficult for me to be bad at something, by which I mean that of my brain hasn't decided that it really needs to keep doing something, I gravitate towards things that I'm already decent at even if I don't really feel like I enjoy it. Doing even things that I might initially enjoy q…
I have the opposite problem. As soon as I become remotely competent at something, I have a hard time bringing myself to do it.
Re: The Mental Benefits of Being Terrible at Something
#27I suck at karaoke, but it is so much fun. Even more because I am so bad at singing. My friends usually cannot stop laughing when my voice starts to break. It would be enjoyable too with a good voice I guess, but I do not wanna miss the times we had fun singing with my poor voice
Re: The Mental Benefits of Being Terrible at Something
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
Try cooking. The skill cap is high, it doesn't take much to make things OK, and you gotta eat. it has helped me a lot. Plenty of times I don't want to do it, but it's hard to put off for long. You can screw up a lot, and the results are still edible. Every damn meal I make has problems. Usually it's pretty good, but there are things I can do better with the output and the process. No matter the outcome, I feel better…
Cooking is one thing I'm terrible at: there is no feedback loop at all. No matter how much time I spend on 'experimenting', I don't get any better. Many people simple cannot fathom this. They deny the existing of any such possibility.
I've burned soup. I believe you, it can be super hard. There is a feedback loop, you're maybe not seeing it yet. Look at all the things, try lower temperatures, let things take longer.
Experimenting is a later skill. Follow the recipe as well as you can, and observe the outcome. I want to say you'll know where the errors are, but that's not realistic. Maybe your oven is poorly calibrated. Maybe it's too hot for too long. or not hot enough.
The main point is, this is a place you can try and fail, and try again tomorrow. If you don't like the product, figure out why it's bad and fix it. Lots of room to try stuff out, and even if you're vaguely close, you get food. For me, eating changes my mental state. even if the food isn't good, it has this weird effect of ending hunger.
You do you. If cooking is too hard, don't do it. But kinda the point is; try, fail try, fail, try ok, try good. You can figure it out. 7 billion other people did, you can too.
Re: The Mental Benefits of Being Terrible at Something
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
Cooking is one thing I'm terrible at: there is no feedback loop at all. No matter how much time I spend on 'experimenting', I don't get any better. Many people simple cannot fathom this. They deny the existing of any such possibility.
Tasting what you cook while you cook is an incr/edible/ feedback loop
@silvestrov: just try easy recipes and buy good and fresh ingredients, and continue with harder recipes once you get the hang of it.
Re: The Mental Benefits of Being Terrible at Something
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
Tasting what you cook while you cook is an incr/edible/ feedback loop
Only if you have a good sense of how things should taste and intuition for how what you put in affected it.
And of course, it takes a long time to taste something and realize exactly what it misses or what causes it to taste good, but as long as you are able to test out different recipes you'll eventually end up with quite a few dishes that taste great.