Ever feel like hard things are easy for you but easy things are really hard?

[Caitie33]

Does anyone else ever feel like despite being very intelligent and "book smart" that it is the simple things that you struggle with? My cognitive ability far outweighs my ability to actually do anything. I have a bachelors degree and did well in school, but have had a hard time with learning how to use the copy machine at work and stuff like that.

 

[xudo]

Does anyone else ever feel like despite being very intelligent and "book smart" that it is the simple things that you struggle with? My cognitive ability far outweighs my ability to actually do anything. I have a bachelors degree and did well in school, but have had a hard time with learning how to use the copy machine at work and stuff like that.

Yes. I did well at school and got a degree, but having to learn something like how to use a new washing machine seems beyond me. I'll get it eventually, but it takes me longer than it really should.

 

[4gottenLoreKali]

This perfectly sums up much of my struggle with life. I know I have talents, but the basic abilities to execute them are quite lacking. For example, I've amassed a great deal of worldbuilding and brainstorming ideas for an ambitious series of post-apocalyptic novels I plan on writing, but haven't completed a single actual story to show for it.

A more familiar example of this dilemma: people tell me I'm very good at writing and describing my feelings using text, but I tend to butcher actual verbal conversations, so I go out of my way to try and avoid them if possible. This is why I prefer texting as opposed to talking with people over the phone; if a person communicated with me both ways they'd think they were talking with two different people.

I don't subscribe to any religion, but sometimes I like to think that God looked at me as I was forming in the womb and said to Himself: "oh no, this Wesley kid is going to be too powerful! I better give him crippling depression and delay his ability to 'adult' so all the other people will have a fair chance!"

However, I'd like to think my social and executive functioning skills have improved in recent months. I transferred colleges before this year and am doing fairly well, much better than I was at the last one. I had been anxious about how I'd perform as an independent adult for a long time, but there's no reason for me to see why this semester (and my Senior year) won't be even better than my first at this school. The future is looking bright, even though progress can be frustratingly slow at times.

 

[Full Steam]

Yes.

I find I have to understand how a system works before I can use it well, whereas most people just want dumbed down, "I press, this, then this" models.

I understand computers very well as I started with electronics, microprocessors, PC's, servers, then software, OS, and networks.

I could be in the top 5% washing machine operatives if I was interested enough to map all the UI functions to mechanic operations.

But all I want is clean clothes, so I would just figure out a singe setting that cleaned everything, and press it every time.

I think this all comes down to executive function problems, and visual thinking. I wouldn't remember or follow a process, but I will create a visual map of how something works, which is harder, but far superior for complex systems.

 

[NeoPhile]

I'm like that. I hold a B.A. in Spanish, I've written literary criticism that's been published in a few languages, I've taught as a professor, I speak three languages, and I can program a website in multiple languages and hook it up to a database, but I can hardly tie my shoes. My dexterity isn't good.

 

[Bolletje]

I can perform a balloon angioplasty but I can't pull a beer.

 

[Caitie33]

Unfortunately computers and technology are things that I really struggle with. Anything that I have to remember a series of steps and do them in order is difficult. It's why I was always terrible at math. If I could do that better it would really help me at any job. I wish I could even remember I press this then that, let alone understand how the machine works. I worked at a 7-11 in college and it wasn't in the least bit mentally challenging but I probably seemed barely competent at that since it took me awhile to learn the cash register or anything that was a sequence that had to be followed in order. I'm an assistant teacher in a pre-k class and the other teacher has even a specific order for all the things they talk about when they get there and the calendar. If I do it I can cover everything we do, but it will be out of order. It's funny how I do many things a certain way or certain order and I am stuck in my own routine for some things. I don't even have to think about my own routines but can't remember someone else's at all.

 

[orphan]

Yup...
I can unload a 400lb plate of steel off the truck, walk down steps, across the yard... gently set it down.
Put three 2x4s in my hands.... I look brand new.

Write stories, poems, articles that publish... can't spell simple words.

There is a song.. "it ain't easy being me" Chris Knight

 

[Mia]

I'm good with machinery, I inherited many of my Dad's abilities in fixing things. Can assemble a complicated piece of furniture, a bike, even small motors; Without instruction or a schematic, somehow I visualize the completed 3D piece. But don't ask me to do anything related to electricity, I once cut a live electrical cable to my house with a pair of bolt cutters, I was wearing rubber gloves, and the bolt cutters had rubber grips, I was lucky I didn't die on the spot.

Put myself through school, college, university, yet in many ways I'm as naive a child who thinks they are impervious to hurt, and sometimes does not think. I react or just go ahead and do something without giving it much thought. Like the electrical cable. Almost cut off my toes once with a lawn mower. My spouse is always around when I'm using anything like a chain saw, circular saw, table saw, he knows what the possibilities are. And the noise makes me a little insane, and irrational I think.

 

[Keigan]

I'm visual, so I can think though any mechanical device or system, or any software logic. But I can't read a story and gain context of the authors intent unless I really work at it, technical manuals or blueprints I simply absorb and remember every detail.

 

[Khendra]

Yes, story of my life! I am that way to the nth degree. Two partial Master's degrees, but I still tie my shoes in bows, and I can't multi-task the most basic of things.

 

[Naturalist]

Unfortunately computers and technology are things that I really struggle with. Anything that I have to remember a series of steps and do them in order is difficult. It's why I was always terrible at math. If I could do that better it would really help me at any job. I wish I could even remember I press this then that, let alone understand how the machine works. I worked at a 7-11 in college and it wasn't in the least bit mentally challenging but I probably seemed barely competent at that since it took me awhile to learn the cash register or anything that was a sequence that had to be followed in order. I'm an assistant teacher in a pre-k class and the other teacher has even a specific order for all the things they talk about when they get there and the calendar. If I do it I can cover everything we do, but it will be out of order. It's funny how I do many things a certain way or certain order and I am stuck in my own routine for some things. I don't even have to think about my own routines but can't remember someone else's at all.

Basic computer tasks are a perennial problem at work! Just trying to reply to email threads or find forms I need results in me swearing and crying in frustration. The lab tech is used to rushing in when she hears me fussing, clicking a few buttons, and producing needed results--often without even asking what I needed, it's that simple for her! But I can understand really complex material in multiple subjects, and have taught myself many things others find incomprehensible.

As to following the order of things, I often cannot keep the order of notes in a very simple tune when playing my violin, but can play very complex things with much greater ease, especially when improvising. Right now I am really struggling to play basic session tunes when I go to the Irish pub. Everyone there thinks I am a rank beginner and babies me even though I have been playing for over 12 years, and can play very well when by myself and not bound to any particular set of notes at a given time and can mix up themes as I am inclined. It is very frustrating. Sometimes when the group takes a break I am tempted to play a really difficult piece solo, so that they can see that I do know what I am doing.