Have you ever mastered something?

[Archer]

Yeah, staring at a computer monitor until my eyes bleed. In other words, web development (js/php/sql/html/css).

Oh, riflery, I've spent thousands of hours on the range with anshutz rifles. I used to compete nationally in my teens.

Social engineering, for better or worse.

 

[Brontosaurie]

I mastered "death magnetic" by metallica. That's why it sounds so bad.

 

[crippli]

I've found that it depends how much I want to do something, that decides the level I can do it. Usually I have quite few needs. But occasionally I feel motivated to perform more, in whatever it is that I may be occupied with.

Another example is a computer game I've played a lot and learnt all of its mechanics and values. I can play heroes 3 with anyone and I know how to respond to every situation or what move should be made, I know all of the tiniest advantages that I can get to the point where I struggle to find challenging opponents for me. Since playing 1 vs maximum (or infinite) number of AI with 0 resources is a piece of cake, I used to play multiplayer with the stronger players on specific maps, I used to do pretty well and even today I would be very surprised if someone played as well as I do (not that there aren't such people, but they are rare).

I only consider myself proficient in heroes3. It could be interesting to see how I would fare against a human. I've only played against the computer. But if you would want a bit of nostalgia one day, we could try, say a random m map on 200% difficulty. With the rest an random, 2cpu's. Auto-combat, 2 min turns?

 

[LOLZ9000]

I mastered "death magnetic" by metallica. That's why it sounds so bad.

Ahahahahaha. Zing!

I mastered:

1. Settlers of Catan
2. Fujigolf
3. Scrabble
4. Acting cool and smooth with girls I am interested in...despite not really being either of those.

 

[Inquisitor]

Mastery means becoming an expert at something. I set the bar high. It takes roughly 10,000 hours for this to happen. We don't let surgeons operate by themselves until they're well past this point. No reason other fields should be exempt from the rule. By this metric I have mastered nothing.

I would say I've reached a certain level of "proficiency" in many areas, but "mastery?" No.

 

[Sly-fy]

I`ve come close to mastering the Japanese language. I speak it fluently and work as a legal interpreter. Sure I don`t know all of the words, but I can figure out the meanings of most words I don`t know from either the context or the kanji (characters) that they`re made up of, or I simply ask a Japanese person what the meaning is (in Japanese.) I can both read and write. I`ve lived in Japan for two years, worked in Japanese businesses where no one spoke any English, and my ex wife is a Japanese who pretty much doesn`t understand a word of English. All in all, I`ve studied the language for ten years now. These days, I watch some Japanese TV programs once in a while, and read Japanese articles online etc. but I don`t consider it studying anymore, just brushing up on my knowledge so that it doesn`t get too rusty.

But with the Japanese language being an exception, I`ve mostly given up on everything I`ve ever tried before getting too far.