If you could master one thing without studying

[Crouton]

If you could overnight become a genius in one area what would you choose? This is with no studying, no practice etc, just like having the knowledge injected into you. Or in another case, knowledge/physical capabilities (for example if you want to be a sports pro).

For example, become the best football player, suddenly by fluent in French, suddenly know everything there is about computers, have endless knowledge of history etc.

For me I would choose mathematics. I've always struggled greatly with numbers, and while it doesn't hinder me too much in my adult life, I'm fairly sure my mathematical knowledge is equal to or less than most primary school kids. I was terrible at maths in school and all the teachers put me in the bottom classes or just about gave up. I could always understand words, and did well in subjects on English Literature, and always understood images and did well in art subjects, but numbers do not click for me.

I'm also amazed by people who are good at maths. I think it's the coolest thing to be able to sit down and write whole pages of a single equation. I'd love to be able to do something like that.

 

[Major]

Great thread. There are so many things I'd love to master, but it's difficult to choose one thing.

I guess I would choose communication. It's something I've always struggled with, and I've just never been a good speaker or conversationalist. I feel like that's always been the only thing holding me back.

Math is a great answer. I'm not a genius or anything, but I've always excelled in math and I love working with numbers. Math is the language of the universe. If we ever encounter intelligent extraterrestrial life, the one thing we would certainly have in common with them is an understanding of math and physics.

 

[Stego]

I love to tinker and build, so I would probably say engineering: mechanical and electrical and thermal. And I mean master master, like Macgyver and Tony Stark on steroids. There is a lot of good that can come from it, but also a garage full of parts is my natural habitat and it would just make it a wonderland for me.

I wanted to say math too because of the desire to really apply it to physics and understand dark matter, quantum mechanics, and all the other fundamentals of the universe, but really I have a man-crush on physicist Lawrence Krauss and would just spend weeks talking with him and working on formulas. Engineering uses a lot of math, so it's connected, but I really would want that amplified vision of bringing a design to fruition in an efficient, streamlined, purposeful way.

Really good thread idea.

 

[Hilander]

There are so many things I would like to be great at. Mathematics, geology, archeology, physics, I would have a hard time just picking one.

 

[Konshentz]

There's lots of things that come to mind but I'll go with poker. That way I could go to Vegas and play in the World Series of Poker and not get laughed out of there. Haha.

 

[MenInTights]

For me it'd be piano. There's nothing more beautiful to me than a well played piano and I'd love to be the guy doing it.

 

[Knight_of_Albion]

Myself

 

[The_Chameleon]

Toss up... Electrical engineering, molecular biology, or programming in C#.NET. I'd take any one of those. Probably the programming so I could finally code the AI I've been working on and have it help me with learning everything else. I have the structure down, but lack the guru level programming skills to make it happen in a timely fashion.


- Cham

 

[Shooting_Palanx]

Something to do with Electronics, building things, re inventing things, or making new things out of old rehashed parts of different ... things lol for lack of a better word.

Or definitely medicine. How the body works, how to survive and what not. I know it's supposed to be one thing, but what the heck.

 

[NewGamePlus]

If you could overnight become a genius in one area what would you choose? This is with no studying, no practice etc, just like having the knowledge injected into you.

So in other words, this topic could be titled "If you were Neo from the Matrix, it would be 'I know _______'"

I like this topic. There are a ton of ways I could go with this one.

I think if I had to pick one right now this instant, I'd probably go with having all the legal knowledge in the world from every state's laws across the country to be able to pass the bar and practice law in any given one of them and do better than even the best attorney out there. Like being so good that if you had to get O.J. off a 2nd time even with all the newly presented stuff, I could (I wouldn't, but still, if I wanted to, I could). That would be great because actual attorneys are in general evil people and it would be great to not have to rely on the LACK of knowledge I have and standing by realistic expectations for how human beings can be reasonably expected to respond to situations and instead have that PLUS lots of helpers along the way to use as I need to. I don't think I need any specialized knowledge at all for my issues, but it would be nice if I did. Also, it's very annoying to have people say to get representation as though that's somehow a CHOICE when in fact it's not because if you don't have money, then you don't have that choice.

Another added benefit of that route is that not only could I make a career out of it if I had the knowledge, but even more important for my actual lifelong goals, I could send an even stronger message by having the OPTION to make a career out of it but REFUSING to. There would be little more satisfying for my purposes than to fully fulfill the stereotype career requirements of the people who have been the sources of my problems for years, but to STILL refuse to take that path simply because I insist on doing things I actually care about and make a living from them somehow. It would just send that much stronger of a message and make what I do eventually do that much more meaningful. Like "Know I can, but I won't".

It's like taking this concept of me as the "Su-pa-hu-man Refuser" (my intended custom avatar title, btw) to a whole new level than I already have taken it.

BUT... if I had to choose something that's more me-based rather than need-based, I'd probably want my technical skills with video games drastically enhanced to the level of the best of the best of the AGDQ speed runners so that I can use them for my entertainment goals and know that because of them, I'm going to accomplish all the custom stunts that I set out to do that much quicker. That way each one doesn't take as long or require expending as much effort to complete.

OR, if I wanted to sort of produce the "reverse time effect" and go back and do things the way I wish I would have done them from childhood onward, I'd master MMA and make up for lost time not doing that because of stupid reasons that got me away from it.

So that's like 3 total ideas that would be satisfying in 3 different ways.