Do you have a pointless superpower?

[GnomeDePlume]

You know, that thing you can do which others cant but which is surprisingly useless.

Mine: I tie shoelaces upside down which is great if I am tying someone else's shoelaces but means my own are upside down (ie loose ends at the top of the knot). This was a useful skill when DCs were little but now they are in their 20s and dont need me tying their shoelaces.

DH: putting up coving - he can just see all the cuts he needs to make so there is almost no wastage. The house is perfectly coved. We dont redecorate often enough for him to use this skill.

Anyone else have a pointless superpower?

I can tell the time y looking at the sky and am only minutes off.

I have a photographic memory.

Moreover, I think my particular skill is being able to read emotions and almost minds (not quite!!) it feels as though there is almost another dimension that others I'm with can't quite see...yet I can.

I can tell what time it is without looking at the time. I’m really good at knowing when a certain amount of time has passed.

I remember facts people say. This freaks people out, so I never mention it. Say I met them 3 years ago, I can recall the conversation we had about their child/dog etc and if I ask how they are by name, they find it really weird. I’m very good with names. I can also remember car registrations. My DH thinks I’m on the autistic scale, but I just find it normal and think it’s odd if people can’t remember basics about others. I’m also very good at mimicking accents and handwriting. Hey, I could be a great criminal! 🤣

I also wake myself up just before my alarm, but I think that’s pretty common.

I instinctively know prime numbers, even quite long ones, without really knowing how, some numbers just 'feel primey'. I've been able to do it since I learned what prime numbers are in year 6 at primary school (I'm now 40yo) so far it has proven to be of no use whatsoever.

I have two useless whistling skills that I impress very few with. I can stick my tongue out and whistle by blowing up my philtrum. The other one allows me to whistle long phrases without stopping for air. I can keep the same note going whilst breathing in as well as blowing out.

I can build flat pack furniture without instructions. I just know how it fits together and where each piece goes and which screw etc.

I can name every single country and its respective capital in Africa. Knowing this has been of zero use, every time I have done a pub quiz I wait for my moment of glory, it never happens.

I can stop people hiccuping with a weird hypnosis type thing. I used to use it on my kids but now use it on work colleagues etc who think it's freaky
I can read recipes and know instantly if they're going to work or if they need a longer cooking time, more seasoning etc.
Like others on this thread, I also have the spider sense and know when the cooking timer is about to go off without looking at the time.

I can find things immediately when other people have been looking for ages. I just instinctively know where they are (usually because I saw them earlier, or I use basic deductive logic to tell me where they’re most likely to be ...)

I have such a good sense of smell that one of my friends calls me a bloodhound. People get me to smell things for them, like to tell whether something is going off for example. I can also smell when women are on their period (which isn’t pleasant tbh).

I have foresight - my mother does too. It’s only very limited though; we have both ‘experienced’ major news events (things like a famous person dying or a disaster that killed a lot of people) a day or two before they actually happened. It’s a bit freaky tbh.

I normally can guess if women are expecting a boy or a girl I've been right 99% of the time. I don't tell them what I think they are having I just announce it in my head then when they give birth I think "yay I was right"

Ignoring my MN posts, but I can spot a typo (including the misplaced apostrophes Autocorrect accepts) in one pass of a document. Before Covid, colleagues used to come down five floors to have me check crucial presentations.

I can read and write (crudely) upside down. Very useful as a teacher!
I can also sense whether someone is having a boy or a girl from the time they're around four months pregnant.

I can speed-read and see typos/spelling mistakes just looking at the whole page, they jump out at me. My husband sees this skill as very annoying and not at all super.

I lack skills in most other areas, particularly closing cupboard doors and managing to stay awake when watching tv in bed.

I can also always tell which direction north is. Really handy when coming out of a tube station etc.

The only place that this doesn't work is Reading. I think it's because I've been drunk every time I've been there and I flip north and south. Even though I know I do it, I still do it.

Bloody Reading of all places.

I dont have a single superpower i am boringly average to useless at most things.

I can remember people's dates of birth really easily.
I work in the NHS, and often have to note DOB on referral forms and the like, so this can save me a good 20-25 seconds looking it up, as least 7-8 times daily. It's a gift .

@Ffsseriously

I dont have a single superpower i am boringly average to useless at most things.

Being average is the greatest Superpower of all!

Every market researcher in the land will be throwing free items at you to try out, or paying you for your opinion.

Blimey! You are worth a fortune in average comments and you don't even know it.

I have such a good sense of smell that one of my friends calls me a bloodhound. People get me to smell things for them, like to tell whether something is going off for example. I can also smell when women are on their period (which isn’t pleasant tbh).

I used to work with a woman who had a phenomenal sense of smell. She could tell what people had eaten the night before, despite them having showered, cleaned teeth, changed clothes etc that morning. She said she could smell it on their skin - and was always right. Not just stinky stuff like curry or garlic, either - things like beans on toast or poached eggs.

It was a power I was glad I didn't have, as there was one bloke in the department ("Lurking Michael"), who was very sweaty and even I with my almost non-existent sense of smell hated being in the same room as him.

@SignOnTheWindow

I am a magnet to pub bores.

I attract drunks.

Those people who always know where North is, can you still do it in the tropics? I'm quite good at it, but much less good in DH's home country which is about 5 degrees north of the equator.

I'm really good at attracting narcissistic bullies. That's pretty pointless!

I’m officially a ‘super recogniser’ - I’m amazing at facial recognition. I’ve done tons of tests etc for university research/police research. It’s sort of like having photographic memory for peoples faces.
Also I can pick things up with my toes...

@DillonPanthersTexas I sympathise. I can recite the books of the old testament (drummed in at Sunday School). Does it come up in pub quizzes? No!