Basic Skills People Are Surprised Not Everyone Knows

Author image for Eric Lund
Eric Lund
Nov 30, 2021 3:00 PM EST

Sure, no person is a master of everything. We can't all be classically trained musicians who also know how to do rocket science while working on our flawless six-pack abs. But for god's sake, know how to hold a broom. It's shocking to learn that a close friend doesn't know the first step of holding a fork or changing a tire, and it happens all the time. In fact there are a surprising number of obvious things that people learned way too late in life.

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  • 01
    Font - Iowa_Dave · 2d - edited 2d Changing a tire. I grew up not terribly into cars but everyone around me stressed how important just being able to change a flat tire was. It was a badge of honor to be able to do it under 10 minutes. I once stopped some guys about to put their jack under the plastic air-dam under the front bumper. That would have crumpled up like a Dixie cup.
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  • 02
    Handwriting - genericmovievillain · 2d Using utensils. Worked with a girl who held a fork like she was Norman Bates. She was 6 months pregnant and handled utensils like she was five
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  • 03
    Smile - UnluckyObserver_1 · 2d 2 S I'm shocked at how bad some people are at following writen directions. Not travel, but like... assemble furniture, follow a recipe or experiment, read an instruction manual.
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  • 04
    Font - ThatGuyWithThatFace_ · 2d Mopping/sweeping 22.3k Reply Share Report Save Nit3fury · 2d Manager at a movie theater. It's bonkers how many 16 year olds have never even HELD a broom let alone successfully swept something. It's wild.
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  • 05
    Font - moistpup · 2d · edited 1d I had a friend who grew up with maids. He was 18 and gay and his family kicked him out. So he got this tiny little run down studio apartment in Los Feliz. He was super proud of it, and invited me to see it. He was using candles to light it when I got there (maybe to save money? Maybe to hide the blemishes?) and had left an ashtray on the floor, which I accidentally kicked and got (cold) ashes all over his carpet. He freaked the f'-'k out. “What do I do? How am I
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  • 06
    Font - He pulls this standard upright vacuum into the middle of the room and then stares at it. After a few seconds wondering what he was doing I asked "do you not know how to use a vacuum?" "No, you have to understand, we always had maids, I never even made a bed before last week." So I plug it in, turn it on, and take it a couple times back and forth across part of the carpet. Then like a child with the Fisher-Price popper vacuum he went to work. He was over the moon excited. 25 years later it
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  • 07
    Organism - babybaloneyfriend - 2d Laundry, especially emptying the dryer lint. So many places I've stayed had "bad driers" that were packed full of lint! How these people did not start a fire is amazing. 19.4k Reply Share Report Save MOONSTOLEN - 2d 3 3 At home we don't have a dryer so I never had to learn how to use one. But the sims 4 taught me that I had to change the lint otherwise it would cause a fire after a couple times.
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  • 08
    Font - Handsome121duck · 2d I kid you not, I lived with a guy once who had a butler his whole life. Things I taught him: 1. The funky knife with a hole in it is not useless, it's a potato peeler 2. You open cans with a can opener 3. Nothing needs to be microwaved for 10 minutes For the record, I really liked this guy and he was incredibly fun and kind.
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  • 09
    Font - GlassCannonLife · 2d - edited 22h 3 2 Being gentle with your things. Any time we get help from siblings and their spouses I'm astounded by how roughly they treat all of their things/how rough of a job they're ok with accepting. Also when assembling furniture.. My best mate put together a set of shelves using a drill as a driver on the short and easy to insert Allen keyed screws.. Stripped half of the heads and forced a few in at slightly off-angles and also stripped their threads a bit. L
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  • 10
    Rectangle - Sneaky_Arachnid - 2d - edited 1d 93 S Basic cooking skills. I once saw a guy try to cook pasta by dumping raw pasta shells in a frying pan with a little oil...
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  • 11
    Font - saryn4747 - 2d - edited 1d commenting this here bc it fits so well: I once babysat my dad's coworker's children, and one time his wife came home early, she asked me to help her cook some spaghetti and meatballs. I accepted thinking that's an easy meal, and that she just wanted me there for company. Boy was I wrong because I ended up doing everything! She kept asking me how to do things, and when I would tell her she would do it wrong. Just so you guys have an idea: when she asked me what
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  • 12
    Font - Hour_Refrigerator526 · 2d I heard a story a few months back about a kid, 19, twenty something, moved out on his own. He was asking how often he needed to clean his oven because he was doing it daily and complaining about how much of a chore it was. After some clarifying questions it came out that he was not putting his meat in baking dishes or pans. Apparently he was slathering up his meat with whatever seasoning and then cooking it straight on the baking rack.
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  • 13
    Font - CameForTheFunOfIt · 2d Swimming. I feel like I need to be a lifeguard every time I go swimming and watch some people flail wildly in the water they could just stand in.
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  • 14
    Font - Barbara_Celarent 2d Using the index of a book. 8.7k 5 Reply Share Report Save turboshot49cents · 2d S So, I spent a year working with at-risk youth at a high school. There was this one day this boy was doing homework and said something like, “I wish there was a part in books that told you where in the book you could find what you're looking for." And I was like, "Uh, let me show you something."
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  • 15
    Font - GODDAMNUBERNICE · 2d e S Explaining things. If I explain something and someone tells me they don't understand, I explain it again, but frame or phrase it differently. I will never understand why so many people think just saying the exact same words again in a more exasperated/condescending tone is at all effective.
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  • 16
    Font - EarthExile · 2d S The Scientific Method. My public school science teachers drilled us over and over on critically designing experiments. I thought that was normal. Turns out, my home town just has really good public schools. My eighth grade English teacher had a doctorate.
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  • 17
    Font - UnwittingPlantKiller - 1d - edited 1d Basic awareness of when to call emergency services I recently saw a guy having a seizure on the ground on a busy street. There were 100+ people standing around watching him. I shouted 'has anyone called an ambulance?" and everyone looked at me blankly. People were recording with their phones but hadn't thought to call an ambulance for the guy. This is in the UK so it's free to call an ambulance and the man's hospital treatment would have been free. Th
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  • 18
    Font - biancanevenc · 2d Bagging groceries. I mean, isn't it common sense to put all the frozen items in one bag, produce in another, raw meat by itself in a bag, cleaners separate from food? Does it really have to be taught that you shouldn't put a cantaloupe on top of bread?
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  • 19
    Font - scubagirl44 · 2d Reading a map. I grew up traveling long before computers. I've handed several adults paper maps while driving and they didn't even know how to find where we were. I guess it isn't a skill you need anymore though. 2.6k Reply Share Report Save leelougirl89 - 2d - edited 1d The real skill is re-folding a paper map after you're done with it. Can't be done. Nope.
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  • 20
    Font - madInTheBox · 2d Following an instruction manual. I heard people say "I don't know how to build an IKEA cupboard" . Neither do I, that's why they ship it with instructions
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  • 21
    Font - TheAustinKnight - 2d Writing. The first peer-reviewed assignment I had in college was a major wake-up call. I could not believe that so many of my classmates could barely spell, punctuate, and use proper grammar--let alone approach making an actual argument in their essays. It got worse when I entered the professional world. Doubly so when I started teaching.
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  • 22
    Font - BugsRucker - 2d Spelling. I mean everyday language, even texting. Sed instead of said, dun instead of done kinda stuff. Watching smart 50 year old men in manufacturing get introduced to sending an email is mind blowing.
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  • 23
    Font - Prestigious-Eye3154 - 2d Pitching a tent. Family camped a lot when I was growing up. Mostly because we were poor and it was cheap vacation. When I went to college there was a dorm vs dorm competition (essentially a team building experience). One of the event was pitching a Eureka Timberline tent, probably the most common tent used by Boy Scouts. Yet, all my dorm mates stood there staring at a pile of nylon and tent poles, totally confused. I had it up in a few minutes and we won.
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  • 24
    Font - IStubbedMyGarlic · 2d Act responsibly. It still blows my mind that my ex couldn't bother do do basic house chores that I was doing at seven years old, and that she tried justifying not picking up her paychecks from the temp office because she was too lazy to go walk a mile down, or even just drive down.
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  • 25
    Font - 1playerpiano - 2d I taught my dad the Pythagorean theorem. He needed to know how long to cut a piece of sheet metal to be on the roof of a barn, and it turned out to be the hypotenuse of a right triangle. He didn't believe me until I showed him the math. He has a bachelor of science in agriculture and horticulture.
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