Learn ‘Useless Talents’ With This Subreddit

You may already know that I love picking up new skills, whether that’s sewing a patch on some clothes or ripping an apple in half with my bare hands. That’s why I love the r/LearnUselessTalents subreddit.

I first discovered it when I was looking for an apple-splitting video, and it delivered. The other posts range in their usefulness: often it’s just a TikTok of something cool, posted as a “How do you do this?” request. Other times posts are short videos or full-on tutorials for how to do the cool thing.

Take this double-knot shoelace trick. On first viewing, it’s magic. Then you watch it a few more times and think, ok, I can do that. Then you try it, and start to wonder if the video is somehow faked. But after watching it maybe twenty times, paying attention to a different aspect each time (where is the end of the lace? Which thumb goes on top?) I was able to do the trick myself.

Some of the activities are easy once you get the idea, like playing Jingle Bells on a comb (It has to be the kind where the tines are of different lengths) or convincing people you have eight fingers. Others are medium difficulty: how to moonwalk, or create a tornado-like eddy underwater.

And then there are those that will take more time, but it’s pretty cool to see the trick broken down into bite size pieces. Take this one-minute explanation of how a person can, in an appropriately padded gymnastics facility, learn to do a backflip. Even if you don’t intend to do the tricks yourself, it can be cool to see how others learn.

This article has been updated since its original publication.

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