Things/Skills You Wish Someone Had Taught You (Sooner)

[Galant]

Regret isn't always the most helpful thing, so it's not always advisable to look back at how you wish things could have/should have been. However, learning from mistakes, especially other people's mistakes, can be priceless.

There have been times in my adult life I've come to learn or realise things and then gotten a little upset no-one took the time to explain or teach whatever it was while I was young. Then, hopefully, I get over it and, if necessary, continue to learn/improve what I need to.

So the question is, what things/skills do you wish someone had taught you or taught you sooner, or maybe could have had help learning? And do you feel happy/comfortable in that area, and if so, do you have any recommendations/tips for others who have to learn the same thing?

EDIT - I was going to include my experience on this but I'm out of time so I'll have to add it later.

[sammyc]

1. basic practical skills: 2. that I wasn't 'smart' in any real sense just because I could pass exams (if I had been smart enough then sort of paradoxically I would have known this obvious fact far sooner of course). 3. how to think for myself & question stuff.

I largely blame school for all of the above - I remember taking a year of so-called 'commerce' lessons, calculating depreciation on business vehicles & bookkeeping & whatnot, but not a whit of useful basic info about economics, how business works, or even rudimentary skills like opening a bank account right up to the day I left. (School means 'old school' in my case, chopped up chunks of maths history french etc, of course it's pretty different now).

Ditto that passing tests does not a genius make; I had far too many teachers who because I wasn't any trouble to them & could coast along gave out lazy 10s out of 10s for what was entirely mediocre work. I very much doubt this would have continued past age 16 but I quit before I got that far & the scales could fall.

Thinking for myself is the skill I (finally) more or less managed to pick up, and you could say that's what led me to put greater value on discovering things the hard way, than had I been spoonfed all the way along, as I then questioned more things in more depth than I would have otherwise - and in fact unlearning things is what has taken me easily as long as any learning process I've undertaken. Waste of valuable time on the one hand, but crucial to my current self-made personal outlook on things.

[TooNice]

1. The day someone introduced me to the term TCK was the day I could put behind my internal identity crisis. Would've have been nice to have found out a couple of years before I did, but it's not something people really think about unless they are one themselves.

2. Take the time to properly stretch, all over. It's easy to get stuck into the "MOAR POWER!", "MOAR STAMINA!" mindset, but flexibility is every bit as important in most sports.

There are also a bunch of other things that in hindsight I wish I discovered sooner, but most are stuff I stumbled out of curiosity rather than something someone had taught me and I wished it happened sooner. Examples of such would be like learning Japanese and Chinese characters sooner, learning snowboarding much sooner, learning about parkour etc. I spent a lot of time cultivating the mind learning a wide range of things, but I did little more than hitting the gym (when I can be bothered) between adolescence and early adulthood when I was supposed to be at my peak.

[Zak33]

So the question is, what things/skills do you wish someone had taught you or taught you sooner, or maybe could have had help learning?

how to leather a car after you wash it.

I wish someone had taught me that earlier in my life.. I was 19 before I learned it properly.

Once you can do it .. everything else in your life also becomes cleaner. House windows, kitchen tiles, the mirror in the bathroom, floor tiles....

anything with water marks.

[jimborae]

Welding !
Engineering - I should have been an engineer but my father and school thought they knew better. I mistake I've regretted ever since.

[Zak33]

Welding !
Engineering - I should have been an engineer but my father and school thought they knew better. I mistake I've regretted ever since.

well my dear chap... you can still learn

[Lucio]

How to read instructions, then I could look up everything I wanted to learn

[big_hairy_rob]

Socializing/protocol - Well into my 30's and still don't get it!

[outwar6010]

I wish my parents taught me to create back ups of game saves. I've lost my ps3 saves like twice. This was before the cloud.

[Zak33]

I wish my parents taught me to create back ups of game saves. I've lost my ps3 saves like twice. This was before the cloud.

your parents?

blimey.. I guess that IS viable now.. I could teach MY son to back up game saves...but my parents would have been... less able

[Hoonigan]

Patience, the ability to save money and how to keep a girlfriend.

Those things would've been nice.

[BobF64]

the ability to save money and how to keep a girlfriend.

I believe those are mutually exclusive.

[sammyc]

Socializing/protocol - Well into my 30's and still don't get it!

Social niceties are a man-made abomination imnsho and the sooner we unlearn them and just say/do what we want without thinking it will be somehow 'wrong' the better - and bearing in mind most people you meet will statistically be an idiot anyway by my calculations - then maybe just give it up in favour of some nice welding along with jimborae.

[Zak33]

Social niceties are a man-made abomination imnsho and the sooner we unlearn them and just say/do what we want without thinking ......- and bearing in mind most people you meet will statistically be an idiot anyway

oh you're a right charmer

[sammyc]

oh you're a right charmer

That's not the half of it but joking aside - too many people are made miserable in the process of fitting in & whatnot. We need more Onslows and less Hyacinths. More Grayson Perrys, more Morrisseys, more Mr Beans, more Miriam Margolyes-es - whatever your own flavour of nonconformity, people will (ought) think more of you for it.