Ask Lemmy

Hold my MCSE in NT4 and Novell

Gained the year Win2k dropped

Butterfly shuffle

I honestly can't think of any, even though I have many examples that objectively seem to not have been worth the effort.

Easiest example is flight school. I went to a tech college for its professional piloting program. Got my private pilot cert and multi engine rating, and completed IFR in the simulator. But when it came time to sign up for IFR in a real plane, I couldn't get approved for enough student loans to cover the cost, so I dropped out, switched to business school, got a tech job, and dropped out of business school too.

By all accounts, the debt I racked up (like $75k) and the pilot license I haven't exercised in 14 years are all a huge waste. And my flight instructor was such an impatient ass that I feel mildly scarred from the times he yelled at me.

But, I will never get over the massive feeling of accomplishment I got from earning my private pilot certification. And even more so, earning my multi-engine rating. Even if I failed a part of each of those checkrides and had to retake those portions, I passed them. Even if I never fly again, I am so fucking proud of myself for earning those.

I guess since I never actually graduated from any of the many colleges I've dropped out from (three or four depending on how you count), pilot license is my closest analog.

Also have a CDL and skill with docking 53 foot trailers, and tons of forklift experience. Those haven't been used in a very long time and I may never use them again, but still feel like important parts of me.

Making tofu from scratch. Also sourdough.

I love cooking in all forms, and there are a lot of things I happily do from scratch. I love baking bread, making my own oat milk, mixing up my own seitan from vital wheat gluten, and a whole bunch of other things.

But making tofu was something I tried a bunch of times and have ultimately given up on. It is extremely time consuming, very difficult to get right, and makes a worse product than what I can buy at the store. It isn't even cheaper to do, as the cost of the soybeans and the cost of the premade tofu are about the same. I may make it on occasion if I plan on serving it on its own as a dish with soy sauce, but that is about it.

With sourdough, I found it easy to get into, but my husband and I both prefer our baked goods to be not sour, and we both have pretty sensitive tastebuds in that regard. It is easier for me to just use instant yeast whenever I need it and make something we both prefer to eat.

Taught myself how to snake spit. But now it sometimes happens on its own so I really wish I hadn’t trained my mouth so well.

As an old time computer nerd I have uncountable examples of deprecated knowledge. There is no use in knowing how to use the reserved upper memory in autoexec.bat and config.sys, nor how to use Napster or Kazaa.

But all these skills do shape your brain and way of thinking.

Assembly language taught me to be precise and think before typing. Flash taught me that nothing lasts forever, as big as it might seem.

Eventually, all this adds up and creates a profile that is very demanded in my career.

That said, my mom taught me to thread a needle without looking. And I can't sew, so that's that.

Let me think -

Mostly software training at work for systems they immediately abandoned.

My interior design skills languish for lack of money.

Most of the other stuff I can do gets some use I think.

English sheep counting, a base-20 number system. Often called Yan Tan Tethera. Lincolnshire is the best version.

Functions and derivatives, from late high school to college. They were extremely tedious, and I had to learn tens of formulas I don't use very often.

I got a bunch of software certs for when I was first job hunting and now they either no longer exist or have been so changed that the certs don't matter.

Driving. Never used it.

I'm a trained electrician. Despite taking and passing a reputable school for it, I can't get licensed to do it in my state because you have to have 2 years apprenticeship. You get an apprenticeship you have to go through a school supported by the union. The only school supported is the one they own.

Despite being fully capable of wiring a building to code, installing a solar array or electric car chargers I can't do shit with the information and it way a year and $2k fucking wasted.

Ventriloquism. I dont use it at all anymore. Learned it because i thought it would be fun and one could make some jokes with it but nah

Getting a private pilot certificate. Was fun, but after going to every airport within range, not sure it was worth it.