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| I recently came across someone asking the following: "Do you enjoy doing things you're bad at?" This was brought up in response to someone lamenting not being good at writing fanfic, but it can pertain to anything really. I am curious what people make of this (and if doing things you're not good at is something you feel is worth your time). Fish Stik 2   ![Merit Badge in Newsletters
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| I am terrible at playing guitar and drawing, but do both because they relax me. I was terrible at wrestling but did it for years as well. Of course, if you read the reviews, I am also a terrible writer, so... |
| Some things, I suppose. I'm not a bad cook, but neither am I a good one, yet I can spend hours in the kitchen happily preparing all sorts with varying degrees of success. I am disastrous at most DIY and atrocious at art, so I tend to avoid. At WdC I can do quite well at nonsense poetry, but anything else is decidedly mediocre. Yet I still keep coming back. |
| That is a good question and to be honest, I would say yes. You don't have to be good at something to enjoy it. I'm trying to view more with some activities that I should do them for the enjoyment and not for how quality the result is or the response from other people, which is a challenge. While I don't do it right now, I enjoy painting and creating art. I even took classes in college when I received my first bachelor's degree. What I didn't enjoy in the classes was the critiques and only because they seemed unbalanced. Everyone else received a lot of praise from the other students with occasional advice for improvement. Most of the comments I received were all about what was wrong or could be better. I think I only had two or three images out of an entire minor in Art where the comments included praise. That was a little rough. Right now, I don't do any painting since it's hard in the studio apartment with all my stuff and two cats, plus not sure what to do with the chemicals when done since I prefer oil painting. Don't want to risk my silly cat trying to lick paint. My grandma used to paint. She got to the point she was afraid people would be critical over what she created, so she stopped. Which is very sad. |
If you like doing it, it might be worth doing, and trying to get better at it.
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| Hmmm. I'm a good (excellent) programmer, but the world is always changing and 5 years in the programming industry is a lifetime. Every now and again I have to challenge myself to learn a new programming language. Some languages are so similar to others I know, they are easy to pick up. Others have idiosyncrasies that enrage because of their illogical operation, and yet others introduce powerful paradigms that boggle the brain until you've got a real handle on them - and then their beauty shines forth. So yes, to begin with (a new language), I'm terrible, and I have to advance to a certain stage before I begin to enjoy it. I know the struggle is worth it though. Writing stories. Hmmm. I write novels because nothing else has the room to tell the tales I want to tell. Learning to write stories well is best done with short stories first (to learn to write well), and then progressively longer stories to learn how to construct the larger form. Just writing novels then is backwards: construction comes easily but telling the tale well and writing well (two different things) come much slower. Still, I enjoy writing novels, so I do it. |
| I hear ya at being disastrous at DIY. I had to sew elastics for ballet slippers years ago, and it...got done, but it was not pretty. I find sewing to be one of those things where my usually decent physical coordination just doesn't come through. Sewing requires precision that stems from hand dexterity I lack. I can assemble some furniture, though, although that's usually involving pieces bigger than what are used for sewing. Fish Stik 2 ![Merit Badge in Determination
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| I have been pondering this question for several days. I toggled back and forth until I finally put it into perspective for myself. How many times have I heard and read, the more you write and read the better your writing will become. I think that is true for about anything that one likes to do. The old saying? Practice Makes Perfect. So...I guess the answer for me is Yes! I love to write. I am far from great and perhaps just barely tipping the good mark. But, I am better than when I first started, and I like doing it, in fact, I love doing it. Chrys |
| To be honest, I'm not very good at sewing either. I can hand stitch a little to fix a damaged toy or pillow from a pet. I even have my great grandmother's sewing machine which I will never give up to anyone. However, each time I use it, I have to find a video how to even put in the bobbin. Then again, I can't have thread just around because my cat will try to eat it. If the machine is out she would literal sit there, eating the thread. One surgery was enough from that. So, now it's always put up, which makes it less likely I will use since I have to be vigilant the whole time. I still have hopes to sew more in the future and maybe even learn crocheting but for now, not so much. |
| This is a good question. Sometimes, yes. I love to sing, but I am terrible at it. When I'm at home, though, I'll happily sing along with my favourite songs, or sing something when I'm doing house work. The only people who'll hear me are my husband and my cats and they don't seem to mind too much. I may enjoy doing something I am bad at if I think there's a chance I'll improve with practice. For example, I used to be a pretty bad cook, but I knew it had to get better if I just kept following the instructions and it did. These days I even enjoy cooking some dishes. If there's no sign of improvement, though, then no. I'd really rather not. |
| I feel like a lot of people approach this question from the perspective of not caring about improvement. Myself, I do agree with the last part of your post. I think a lot of that is due to me already doing a lot of different things and aiming to become the polymath I see myself as. Tiled Name ![Merit Badge in Visit WdC 7
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| I'm not sure I enjoy things I'm specifically bad at, but I do enjoy trying new things which are, by definition, often things that I'm not great at. For example, I like playing board games, even new ones I've never played before; even though that usually means I end up losing badly to the person introducing me to the game who is more familiar with it. But I'm legitimately bad at singing and dancing. Do I enjoy doing either of those things, knowing that I'd bad at them? Not particularly. So I suppose where I come down on this question is that I'm all for trying new things, even things you might not be good at. But once it's been established that you're not good at something, it's rarely worth pursuing... unless of course you enjoy doing it just for the sake of doing it.  |
| Good question. I'm not sure there is one answer, for me. I think I enjoy the things I am good at because I've been encouraged to do more of them. So, I loved dancing in my younger days, and because I was good at it, people encouraged me to do more, and so I did. And I loved it. So, maybe I had a natural enjoyment, but also I was encouraged because of that. So, things I'm not good at. I was raised to be embarrassed by my shortfalls. I had a huge sense of shame at things like my artwork and ability (or lack thereof) at athletics. Especially my lack of artwork. I hated art classes and dropped the subject as soon as I was allowed. I hated that I wasn't artistic, and I often lamented my lack of ability. But, maybe, because I didn't persevere with it, I never gave myself the chance to get any better. And then, there is music. Along with writing, music is my life. I am passionate about it. But I grew up embarrassedly my singing voice. Dad used to make fun of me when I was little, trying to get me to sing better. It made me terribly self-conscious about my voice (which, actually, wasn't all that bad). I never sang in front of others as a consequence. In school, I joined the choir because I loved to be surrounded by music, but I always mimed for fear of being thrown out. However, when on my own, I sang constantly. I loved singing. I wish I had thrown my self-conscience aside and just belted out the songs. I think what I'm saying is my mindset has always been to feel ashamed of the thing I am not good at. This has often prevented me from doing things I enjoy, and that is not how it should be. No one should be made to feel inadequate because they aren't as good at the 100M hurdles as the shot put. You know? That's just wrong. |
| I feel like the question is asking about doing things someone isn't good at for the sake of doing it. And it seems like a lot of people will do something they're not good at for that reason. (Personally, I admit I'm in the minority of this one.) Color Bar Sig ![Merit Badge in Newsfeed
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| At first blush, I was going to ask, Why do something I'm not good at? Then I read Jeff's comment. I guess I would have to say it would depend on my learning curve of that new task. I probably would tend toward an easier path. But, in all honesty, I would try that new task at least once.  |
| Of course of course. If you want to know how, look up Dunning Krueger. The delusion that one is good trumps the reality of being good. You want to balance on the tip of thinking that you're just good enough to make effort pay off. Then figure out how to improve. That means balancing yourself on the low end of good, I think. Then look for feedback not on whether you're good or not--so long as it's not surgery and you're not hurting anybody--but on how you can level up. First level characters in D&D suck, even though they're better than 90% or more of the people. But they suck against what they can do tomorrow, and that's the right way. Be that hoover or get going!! |
| NO! In school, I hated violin. I wanted to play flute. I didn't. And then they wanted me to play bass. I said no. As an adult? DITTO. But... I'm getting better at some challenges. I don't easily learn languages; but, I'm learning Thai/Lao... slowly. I've learned that being 'good' at it doesn't matter much and that I will improve over time. There are other examples. |
| Considering I am on day 612 of learning Korean and I am very very bad at it, I would say yes. You can totally enjoy doing something although you are terrible at it. Annette Mod Squad |
| The bit about language learning is interesting to me, as I felt keen pressure to be more advanced in my Spanish skills when I live in Miami. It probably doesn't help that I look like I am at least partly Hispanic and lived in a Hispanic-majority area. I managed to learn some new stuff and even sell appliances entirely in Spanish. It was a draining experience, though, even though I was able to learn Spanish at a decent pace. Stikabet |
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