(I said she must be. Everyone is bad at something.)
My biostatistician is really really smart and awesome. Also, she is a world Sudoku champion.
We then tried to come up with things that we are really good at. I must say, it was easier to come up with things I was bad at. Here are my top five:
1.
2. Seeing dirt
3. Sitting still
4. Being zen
5. Keeping my mouth shut
My goal in life has been to avoid any job where #2 is important. I had one of those once. What a fiasco that was! #3 was a problem the first year and a half of med school, but fortunately that time has passed. #4 and #5 are ongoing battles. Throughout my clerkships I had an ongoing monologue with myself that consisted of me repeating, "Shut up shut up shut up. It doesn't matter. Don't say anything. Shut up." It helped to a degree. I will never be a zen person.
Now for things I am good at...
1. I have an excellent sense of direction
2. I am great at making lists and checking off boxes
3. Telling if a research question is interesting / worth pursuing / adequately substantiated
4. Remembering random shit
5. Imagining what other people feel
It turns out #2 and #4 are very useful for med school. #3 is useful for PhD-land. #1 is useful in life (but only when my husband lets me drive). #5 is probably useful in life, but is also NOT useful because it also means that I worry too much about what other people think of me.
Ah well.
Any interesting talents among my readers?
16 Pearls of Wisdom:
I have the WORST sense of direction and it really sucks. I also have terrible hand-eye coordination and physical endurance, so I'm bad at all sports. And according to the Wii Fit, I have bad balance. I'm bad at learning new languages. Like you, I'm also bad at being zen. Wow, it IS easy coming up with things that I'm bad at.
My first instinct was to answer this by saying I'm not good at anything, but I guess that's not entirely true. I'm good at math and logic stuff. I'm good at crafts. I'm also good at being organized and meeting deadlines, which is positively lame.
I'm surprised you say your sense of direction is bad. I thought all math people were good at things like that.
You're also funny, and have a great sarcastic sense of humor.
Thank you :)
Actually, one of my weaker areas in math was always geometry. We all knew our strong/weak areas because during math team competitions, we had to know how to divide up the group questions. (Isn't that nerdy? :) My strong area was number theory. My weakest area, unfortunately, was probability, which doesn't bode well for me as a researcher.
I am also horrible with directions but I am very, very bad at math. I have issues with numbers in general. Always mix them up. I am always forgetting basic things- like my phone in my car or somewhere in the house, or the keys... My sister thinks it's hilarious that I'm book smart but for all other intents and purposes, have the mind of an octogenarian.
But, I am a very fast reader. Great for reading in my spare time, which I have a lot of now :) and good for school in general. And I suppose I have a visual memory which is in part why I majored in History if Art in undergrad, and hopefully that will make histo, path and radiology go smoothly. Once I get there, that is. (but for some reason my visual memory deigns to royally screw up anything related to numbers)
The 2nd week of medical school (which was not even 3 months ago, but feels like a different lifetime) we were in a lab where we were asked to write down 10 things that we thought we were good at. I had 3 or 4 things and was really struggling to come up with more. I was only mildly surprised when it was revealed that the rest of the class had only a handful each. I'll never forget that one person had "Procrastination" at the top of his list, and he then shared that he spent the rest of the time procrastinating. It was at least worth a good laugh. But, it definitely says something when a class full of 45 people, all whom have made it into medical school can't come up with more than a couple of things that they are good at. Now that I've gotten to know many of these people I can't help but think back and shake my head and wonder why they (including myself) are willing to sell ourselves so short. Hmm. If nothing else a motivated individual with an inferiority complex will put forth abundant effort.
I'm bad at keeping my mouth shut and my opinions to myself. I'm terrible at crafts. I'm bad at not being distracted (Damn you, Angry Birds). I'm bad at being patient. I'm bad at cooking.
I'm good at...Angry Birds! I'm good at reading!
The bads are easy, hahaha
I'm bad at physucks-er, physics.
I'm bad at staying positive.
I'm good at eating and finding new restaurants to try.
I'm good at sports and other activities that require dexterity.
I'm semi-good at drawing :)
Well, I could get lost in a paper sack. Even in places where the roads run North to South, East to West I have problems with directions. I grew up in Atlanta where roads were planned to go around sacred trees and they are all named Peachtree. Thank God for GPS's. But I really suck at dying. Seriously, I have a congenital heart defect that kills children and I'm still alive. I had advanced cancer and my oncologist told me outright that he didn't think I could survive it. But seven years later, I'm still here. I have a chronic kidney disease that exacerbates my heart condition but I'm still hanging on. And to add cream to the cream, I have profound sleep apnea which not only exacerbates my heart problems but takes my oxygen levels down to deadly levels, and yet I am still alive. If I have to say what I really suck at, hands down, it would be dying.
Bad at:
1) Organizing my time
2) Staying in shape
3) Working quickly
4) Keeping my apartment clean and myself fed
5) Memorizing details
6) Relationships
Good at:
1) Connecting with patients
2) Seeing the whole picture in a situation
3) Math (but not statistics....hate the bloody statistics)
4) Ummmm....hopefully there's more somewhere...
Oh, and my math skills are frightening too. I reverse formulas and mix numbers up when I write them down. But speak them to me once and I can recite them to you years afterwards. Seriously, when I was in first grade I lived at 685 B Burr St. I'm 54 years old. First grade was a long time ago. My grandmothers phone number was 205-383-0985. She's been dead for 30 years now. I wanted to be a nurse, but I didn't think I had the math skills to handle it.
My husband did "difficult sums" (aka pure and applied maths) at university so I suppose that means he qualifies as a mathematician - but boy, his sense of direction is AWFUL! He can get lost in our local small town. I, on the other hand, have a pretty good idea how to get back to where I'm meant to be as long as I didn't have to do more than 360 degrees in leaving the road I was meant to be on. I prefer to drive - it saves arguing with him as I find where we are on the paper map.
And I can remember phone/PIN numbers - I've had the same cell phone number for 20 years, he still can't remember it.
Bad at:
- Tolerating incompetence.
- Organization. Come exam week, my apartment looks like it was robbed
- I have a hard time asking for favors (e.g., letters of recommendation)
- Having a disciplined sleep schedule
- Being politically correct.
- Anything artistically related
Good at:
- Math, physics, organic chemistry...I'm really lucky.
- Explaining complicated things to laypersons
- Explaining complicated things to educated persons that have forgotten or never learned in the first place
- I've been told that I write rather well
- Seeing through office politics
- Cooking
I'm horrendously bad at spelling. Thank you autocorrect. I've got a terrible sense of direction, but I can read and direct anywhere if I've got a map. Woeful at saving money, good at baking, bad at cleaning up. I'm also very slightly dyslexic. Which shows when I try to read something out loud (or tell me I need to turn left while driving). I'm a kickass speed reader though.
Bad:
~ Seeing crumbs before they hit the floor. I hate dirty floors.
~ Grinding my teeth in my sleep. Clenching while I'm awake doesn't help my jaws either.
~ Physics. Blech
~ Sitting still during a movie (more at home)
~ One more- I'm with medschoolodyssey...I hate stupid people
Good:
~ Relating and empathizing with people (everyone loves to spill their guts to me)
~ Doing makeup and hair (I have very steady hands)
~ Piano
~ MMA and Yoga I know they're ying and yangs
~ Research
~ Cooking
I'm good at sewing, photography and cooking.
I'm good with animals, and horseback riding.
I'm good at making lists and organizing.
Also good at remembering facts and learning languages.
I'm bad at not making messes when doing the above.
I'm super clumsy in my everyday activities. (Always hurting myself, which I think stems from me rushing too much.)
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