The Beauty in Completely Useless Skills

Why learning for learning’s sake is far from pointless

When I was in sixth grade, I spent upwards of five hours each day learning to yoyo. To me, it was serious. I was training. I dreamt of competing at internationals alongside professionals like Paul Kerbel and Gentry Stein. Watching Stein compete at nationals that summer was one of the most exciting moments of my life.

I thought yo-yoing would be my career. I imagined myself competing in front of millions, coming up with my own finger-spin combination, completing expert horizontal routines with ease.

Half a year later, yo-yoing began to fade out of my life. School got busier; I didn’t have time to spend so many hours on it anymore. I never made it to that international stage.

And that brings me to my question: Was the time I spent on yoyoing a waste?

No. No, it wasn’t. Sure, I’ll never be asked to yoyo at a job interview, and unlike more athletic pursuits, it didn’t bring me any improvement in the strength department. Yo-yoing is, as skills go, relatively useless.

Far from useless, though, are the things you learn in the act of learning.

Learning to yoyo taught me how to handle dedication. It was my first time being truly passionate about anything, and I learned how to juggle that hobby I loved with the rest of the obligations in my life.

Yo-yoing also taught me how I learn. I came up with a formula to learning new tricks; I realized that I learned better from written tutorials than from videos; I even had a way of determining my level of mastery in each skill I’d attempt.

This carries over to every useless skill I’ve learned or will learn. Reflecting on my hobbies, there’s a beauty in useless skills. They are our training ground for the harder parts of life, our chance to care without the fear and stress that come with “real world” jobs.

Now, excuse me while I spend the next hour and a half fiddling with my Rubik’s Cube.

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