Are there some things that you cannot learn?

[Frequency]

I don't mean things like how to be a morning person, or to change your life, or think like a rich person, or any other such bollocks. I mean skills that should be learnable, things that have a right way and a wrong way, like, for example, Blender.

I'm WFH now, so I have more spare time in the evening. I decided it would be fun to learn how to make animations - nothing serious, just funny little animated people doing silly things.

After two hours of trying to turn blobs into something that vaguely resembled a human, I realised you can download free people-shaped blobs. Three hours into trying to get my people-shaped blob to move like a person, I realised you can download special control rigs. Another hour later, my people-shaped blob was no longer people-shaped. Poor Blob was a distorted smudge across the screen.

It then occurred to me that Blender was not going to be one of the things I could learn while doing and by reading online tutorials, and I should probably start from the basics.

I've spent two and a half hours tonight trying to flatten a cube. In spite of spending two and a half hours on this, I am only 20 minutes into the course because I have to keep going back. The lady from the video course is making me feel stabby, and it is no longer fun; it is the opposite of fun, but I will not be beaten by a software that a primary-aged child could master.

Is it me? Is it Blender? Are there just some things that some people will never be able to master no matter how determined they are?

Oh god yes. Playing soft ball at school I'd dread my turn to bat. My only aim would be for the bat to make contact with the ball. So many times I missed completely all three times and was out. And with badminton is for the shuttlecock to go over the net. Can't do tennis at all - can't even hit the ball 😂

I’ve never been able to learn to throw and catch a ball properly, but to be honest I’ve never been interested or tried very hard at it. I’m physically coordinated in other ways (am good at dancing and fast yoga for example) so I daresay I could improve if I tried.

Basic scientific concepts. I understand that an atom is made up of protons, neutrons and electrons, but I don’t understand what these are or what they’re made of, despite having read about it and had it explained to me. I get preoccupied with the basics which then stops me taking in anything else about the topic. I have a really hard time with the ‘it just is’ of science (like the Big Bang- why did it happen and what was there before?) and then I feel like I’ll never be able to understand any science at all if I can’t get past the stumbling block of why anything exists at all. 😂 (I realise that’s more of a theology/philosophy question than science- I guess that’s part of my problem) But I do like science and statistics used as evidence in debates and discussions- I’m just grateful that other people can explain those things and how they are relevant to whatever is being discussed.

I don’t understand how planes stay in the air and again, this has been patiently explained to me a number of times but I can’t quite grasp it and therefore don’t feel very safe in planes.

And there are little practical things that I have to do regularly but which I can never retain the knowledge of. For example filling up the water container in the car. Every single time I have to do it, I can’t remember how to open the bonnet or how to prop up the bonnet. I have the same problem with technology, so often have to ask DH to talk me through doing something on my phone or laptop, despite me having done it before.

I fear I’ve made myself sound really stupid but there are things I’m good at, like singing, playing music by ear, learning languages and mimicking accents or sounds.

I can turn my hand to most creative/craft things but crochet has always beaten me 😂
and languages - I’ve tried several but my head/ brain can’t get around it

Make small talk and “network”

To reverse park. Still terrible and avoid like the plague.

Read a map, or direct myself at all - have to use sat nav and it has to speak to me.

Have anything to do with car mechanics.

Build anything - even flat pack.

Change a duvet cover (coverless have changed my life).

Cook.

Im dsypraxic and a lot of simple things are super hard for me. I'm highly academic high achiever, so I have other gifts. :)

Treading water

Chopsticks

We were in Russia for over a week before we realised ресторан, which is the Russian word for restaurant, is literally the same word as Restaurant just written in Cyrillic.

We'd been pronoucing it "peck-toe-pah" 😂

So many people say "I tried this for a few hours and I am no good". It takes years to learn a skill. Not hours.

Chopsticks- very skilled with hands in other creative areas, can hold them well, but just can't grasp the basics.

Also maths- know how to apply concepts, but can't pass a maths exam to save my life! I know 2+2=4, but tell me it's an exam and I would just panic and overthink it.

I can actually read some Russian words as some of the characters are the same as Greek. Can't pronounce them though!

My mother gets the arse with me when I try to explain the Greek alphabet; she speaks French, Spanish and German quite well but take her out of her comfort zone ... 🤣

The only board game I understand is snakes and ladders. I don't understand monopoly. All card games are a complete mystery. I have never reversed into a parking space since doing it for my driving test sixty years ago- I would rather park half a mile away and walk back. I can read music and knit but can't get the hang of crochet. I can't hammer a nail in straight.

Cannot play Bridge
Have played Whist and Poker but Bridge - no chance

Swimming. I’m like a brick 😂. Getting cramp in my feet whilst trying to learn to swim doesn’t help, so I’ve given up.

I'm the opposite! I can whack a ball so hard and far, no fielder will ever catch it. Put me in the fielding team though and it's game over, can't catch or throw to save my life.

I was utterly useless at all team games at school, athletics too. Strangely good at tennis, badminton and martial arts though.

Wrist band things at swimming, cannot figure it out.
I sometimes have to use them at work too....not clever.

This.
I run a mile if I'm anywhere that involves "mjngling"

Anything that involves using strategies.

IQ type puzzles like, "If this picture is rotated through 90 degrees, which piece would fit the gap?" I'm great at answering quiz questions but my mind doesn't work that way- nor do I have the patience for it.

Dance - just too dyspraxic with poor sense of rythym. Theoretically, I should be able to learn at least the basics if I had lots of short, carefully broken-down, practice sessions as muscle memory can be acquired, even by dyspraxic people. However, when I tried social dancing my ankle swelled up like an egg at every session and I needed a steroid injection in the end. It was just too painful and too frustrating for me to consider trying again, I'm sad to say.
PS At first, I thought you couldn't work out how to use a blender. I did think that was very peculiar!

T’ai chi. I really wanted to do it but I couldn’t remember the moves. Every class felt like I had just started. I had to give up in the end.

Rubix cube.. I spent ages every evening i was in sat doing it, following the instructions over and over again.
By memory I can get 1/3 done, but just cant master the rest, if I pop the instructions in front of me I can do it in 2 minutes.. but just can't get it all in my brain!!

The only thing so far is how to use clingfilm. It’s my nemesis and we frequently battle.

I would have once said art of any kind. Then someone gave me a cheap pack of oil pastels and some graphite pencils and I had a quick go at a still life. Turns out I just never tried the right medium… 130 new oil pastels, pads, pencils and blending sticks and my first commission artwork is on someone’s wall. A family members, yes, but im still chuffed to bits.

Online banking, which now means any kind of banking for me as the nearest branch of my bank is a 2 hour train ride away ( I couldn't learn to drive either)
I can't remember passwords and codes and I get such anxiety over it I get quite ill.
I am quite computer literate, and still working at 77. I've always been very independent and it's just not on to not have access to your banking!

Skating. Roller, inline, ice - cannot compute.

Ricci calculus. Fuck that shit.

I am exactly the same, my daughter doesn't understand why I have to think about it.

The clock change. Springing forward, falling back yes yes but WTF is the time now?? For some reason my brain just cannot compute it. I spend at least month confused after each change.