Try to keep it practical (like something that would not be fairly doable, you just havent gotten around to it…yet)

  • MonkeMischief@lemmy.today
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    edit-2
    3 hours ago

    The standardized NATO phonetic alphabet

    …for when you need to read alpha numeric codes or clarify spellings.

    Especially with, how, inexplicably, phone connections seem to have gotten more garbly in recent years.

    This code was invented to be reasonably understood as much as possible in less-than-ideal communication conditions.

    As time goes on, civilian life is full of situations where you’ll need to read off serial numbers, codes, or even spelling your own name, to somebody seemingly connected to you from a million miles away via coconuts and twine.

    So, learn it, and you never need to go “M as in…uh…'Mancy”'? ever again! Your IT department might thank you.

    …and let’s be honest, it sounds kinda cool. :)

  • TootSweet@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    10
    ·
    1 day ago

    How to convert various units of measurement. (Including between imperial and metric.)

    2.54 centimeters in an inch. Degrees Fahrenheit is nine fifths of degrees Celsius plus 32. Stuff like that.

  • WoodScientist@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    25
    ·
    2 days ago

    If you’re involved in any kind of protest, the phone number of a lawyer. Hell, generalize this. Make sure you memorize numbers of at least the first few of your emergency contacts. You never know when you will be separated from your phone.

    • chaosCruiser@futurology.today
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      8
      ·
      2 days ago

      You know, you are allowed to cheat in this test. Just write those numbers on your arm with a permanent marker or whatever. Get a fake tattoo, if you want.

  • vaionko@sopuli.xyz
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    8
    ·
    1 day ago

    Converting between hexadecimal and binary. It’s not that hard and it would’ve been useful many times, but I still haven’t memorised it

    • TootSweet@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      edit-2
      11 hours ago

      If you’re a software engineer, memorizing an ASCII table (particularly the hex numbers of each character code) is definitely helpful. If for no other reason than so that you can read things that are randomly written in binary without having to consult a table.

      Something not really otherwise terribly useful that nonetheless helped me keep my sanity: learn how to convert to base64 in your head. At work, we had really boring 8-hours-a-day training for a couple of weeks. To pass the time, I came up with random strings to base64 encode in my head. “Hat is 48 61 7a. The first six bits are 010010 which in base64 is an S. The next six bits would be 000110 which in base64 is G.” Etc. I’d write down the base64 strings character by character as I derived them and then check my results for errors when I got back to my desk.

      • CarrotsHaveEars@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        1 day ago

        It’s not something you try to recite. You just do it so many times you became too good at it to look at the table.

        Four bits can represent up to 15, from 0000 to 1111. Correspondingly, 0 to F in hex.

        Binary from right to left is 1, 2, 4, 8.

        One byte is eight bits. It takes eight digit places.
        XXXX XXXX

        0000 0000 to 1111 1111
        00 to FF
        0 to 255

  • Mighty@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    12
    ·
    2 days ago

    Basically any song on guitar that I like. I can sing the entire song back to front, but I can’t for the life of me remember the chord sequences. And I’ve been playing for many years.

    • sopularity_fax@sopuli.xyzOP
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      1 day ago

      Do Germans care a ton if you get the wrong article? That must be a common thjng for even native speakers to get the article wrong on millions of individual words

      • Ephera@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        13 hours ago

        I find that it’s mainly frustrating to those learning German at an advanced level, since using a wrong article immediately exposes you as a non-native speaker. Because yeah, as the others said, it hardly ever happens that native speakers use a wrong article…

      • Knossos@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        1 day ago

        They learn the article with the word. So they never really have a problem. The biggest problem is that the article is necessary to know how other words need to be written.

        Also, in English you can have one word that is written the same but can be the name of two entirely different things. We use the context of the sentence to determine which word is actually intended. Germans know through different articles, which word is intended.

        • Knossos@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          1 day ago

          Also no German really gets upset by it if you get it wrong. They know that German is complicated in that regard. They are usually just happy that you are trying.

          The only person that has ever said anything at all about it, is a colleague that I asked to correct me. It helps with the learning process.