Belly-dancing. So difficult, and not even really fun.

Learning the Dvorak keyboard layout.

It seemed worth it at the time when I was playing a lot of monkeytype and I still love typing with it. But I made the full switch and forgot how to touch type with qwerty. So now I have to switch layout every time I use hotkeys and switch back to type. Switching is fast but an extra step.

I decided to switch because I think it’s a superior layout but honestly it’s not even that worth it. You will not gain speed, just more comfortable and satisfying.

SystemC simulation, for school.

This was well over a decade ago now and the libraries we were using were absolutely ancient at the time. We had to simulate a game. I absolutely hated it.

If nothing else, that class prepared me for linking error induced headaches

People pleasing, spent nearly four decades getting so good at it thinking if only I could be just that little bit “more good” that I’d get what I want and need from people and relationships only to realize I’ve been plenty good this whole time, it’s a fools errand and I only attract people who will move the goal posts every time because it’s what I expect and have trained for

Descriptive Geometry.

Basically obsolete by the time of mastering the techniques due to CAD software.

Here’s lesson notes from somebody.

https://www.archweb.com/en/gallery/descriptive-geometry-lessons/

The field starts out simple with orthographic projections, but later you work on problems like : you have a top view of a 3D tube angled in space and another tube crossing it at an arbitrary angle, and then another view.

Find this smallest distance between the two tubes in space.

Neither are down the tube axis, so you start the process if finding the axes and producing a head on view to develop the crossing tube to then find a point to point minimum measure between the two cylinders.

By the time I’d gone through all this, in CAD you just click the two tubes and ask for the distance (min or max)

I learned how to work hard and be good at my job and actually get things done, not just look busy and act important.

Jokes on me, the entire management make 100x more than me and do 100x less. And they get to spend hundreds of millions on stupid projects that are horrible ideas, but I have to cut back on my area to save $100.

I should have put all my stat points into soulless bullshit corporate jargon and none into intelligence.

Hold my MCSE in NT4 and Novell

Gained the year Win2k dropped

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

Driving. Never used it.

Cursive handwriting