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I think these people are all around us and we just don't always recognize it. I have a friend who, in his youth, decided one day that he was going to be left h

I think these people are all around us and we just don't always recognize it. I have a friend who, in his youth, decided one day that he was going to be left handed because a teacher he admired was left handed and he wanted to be like them. He is genuinely left handed now. I'd heard of the opposite - often with severe treatment - with asian parents, but never that. On that note, I had a left handed teacher who could write sentences in kanji in full mirror mode two handed (both swapping left and right and double-swapping left-right/up-down). His parents had beaten him and taped down his disobedient left hand. I can read at full speed upside down. It makes absolutely no difference. It's a good party trick, and one had a practical purpose where someone was presenting an offer letter to me which had all the wrong values, which I knew because it was on the desk in front of them and I simply read it, so I pre-empted them and told them to go get a new letter made, much to their confusion. If you've ever known someone who was an expert non-digital artist, yes, it is true that they do typically practice a ton to hone their skills, but the ability to simply capture an object, person, animal or scene at a glance is uncanny. I know someone who has that skill, but for politics. They look at the situation and see exactly the players, the motives, etc. As far as I can tell, their entire career is based on this. A weird talent I've never heard anyone else describe.

wheels 3y ago
A lot of people simply don't have a dominant hand. They're typically grouped with the people for the hand they write with, but that's a pretty incomplete picture. I suspect your friend who "switched" never had a dominant hand in the first place. I'm one of those folks. I write left handed, but other stuff tends to be mostly, but not completely, right handed. This is mainly since there's a small advantage to right handedness (baseball gloves fit, mouses are there, guitars are right handed by default, etc.). There's a lot of randomness: I eat right handed, except when using chopsticks (left-handed), including long cooking chopsticks, but tongs (which have a similar purpose) are with the right hand. Assumed unrelated, but responding to a different part of your post: I can also read and write in mirror image with little loss of speed. I've never thought of that being particularly special. I just started randomly taking notes in mirror image in high school out of boredom (and right-to-left is slightly more comfortable for lefties).
- mywacaday 3y ago
  Switching hand to right hand only was definitely forced in the Irish education system back in the 50s/60s, I have older relatives who were forced to switch hand. There are also people who completely ambidextrous, look at the professional snooker player Ronnie O'Sullivan on YouTube. He plays against people who would have put in equal amount of time tin the 10s of thousands of hours and no other professional player can play as fluently on either hand.

wheels 3y ago

A lot of people simply don't have a dominant hand. They're typically grouped with the people for the hand they write with, but that's a pretty incomplete picture. I suspect your friend who "switched" never had a dominant hand in the first place. I'm one of those folks. I write left handed, but other stuff tends to be mostly, but not completely, right handed. This is mainly since there's a small advantage to right handedness (baseball gloves fit, mouses are there, guitars are right handed by default, etc.). There's a lot of randomness: I eat right handed, except when using chopsticks (left-handed), including long cooking chopsticks, but tongs (which have a similar purpose) are with the right hand. Assumed unrelated, but responding to a different part of your post: I can also read and write in mirror image with little loss of speed. I've never thought of that being particularly special. I just started randomly taking notes in mirror image in high school out of boredom (and right-to-left is slightly more comfortable for lefties).

mywacaday 3y ago
Switching hand to right hand only was definitely forced in the Irish education system back in the 50s/60s, I have older relatives who were forced to switch hand. There are also people who completely ambidextrous, look at the professional snooker player Ronnie O'Sullivan on YouTube. He plays against people who would have put in equal amount of time tin the 10s of thousands of hours and no other professional player can play as fluently on either hand.