This is the fifth post in a WP challenge (“Bloganuary”) to write something every day throughout January with the aid of a prompt. The above title is the prompt.
Oh, this is a tricky one. There are so many things I wish I knew how to do. Well, actually, it is probably quite easy to find out how to do things these days – I hear there are these “searching engines” that crawl around some kind of web and find the answers to all sorts of things. What is difficult is translating the cognitive knowledge into fruitful and successful action. I know the theory of doing many things, I just seem to slip up at the practical doing stage.
The list of things embraces everything to do with DIY, home and car maintenance, areas in which my knowledge and (especially) skills are sadly lacking. That is a kind of “universal something”. At a more specific level, I would like to be fluent in another language and to play the piano. I have dabbled unsuccessfully in both domains. Indeed, I still have a little paddle in these mysterious ponds.
I would also like to know how to do abstract reasoning puzzles. This is an area that has, well, puzzled me for a long time. They are supposed to be a measure of innate intelligence, but I think this is a debatable point. They are certainly measuring some kind of ability – or, in my case, lack of ability – but precisely what remains unclear. They are used in lots of assessment batteries for the job market and form a large part of screening tests for admission to universities such as Oxford and Cambridge, and to get into medical school. My sense of inadequacy in this area has led me to jump onto the previously mentioned searching engines, and it transpires that there are websites that help you develop the knowledge to do these mental tasks. I have yet to avail myself of them. I always thought it was a matter of how your grey matter was connected – or disconnected -, something more to do with nature rather than nurture.
More fancifully, I would like to know how to slow down time, how to go back and undo my mistakes in the past, and how to put the holes in a Swiss cheese. How’s that for comprehensiveness?
The Frothy Filosofer 