You spend so much time — years, maybe — nailing down a specific skill or developing an area of expertise, and then suddenly, for whatever reason, it's all for naught. What gives?
1. "I know all the tricks to make a website look as good in Internet Explorer 6 as in Chrome, Safari, or Opera."
2. "I got a BS in biochemistry, then I drove a forklift for 14 years. Now I'm an electrician."
3. "When I was a kid, CDs were king. This was also back when a typical CD was like $16. I’d mow lawns in my neighborhood for $10 each, which was good for about a dozen albums a month. My parents also gave me lunch money for school, which I pocketed for another album a week. I sacrificed nutrition and my weekends for the entirety of my middle school and early high school years to build up a massive album collection that was the envy of all my musician friends. It was glorious. I thought for sure that this would be the crown jewel of my adulthood and I would pass them on to my kids someday...and then the iPod came out. It was all pointless."
4. "This is the life of a geneticist: The field moves quickly with the technology and techniques, but they are all very complex and difficult to learn. More than once in my life, I have poured myself into a specialized skill to be the best in the building, only to have that skill become obsolete the next year. It never feels that bad, though, because the replacements are almost always faster and easier, and either they get you better results or they don't really take off."
5. "Sorting and organizing my MP3 collection."
6. "Minecraft. From 2011 to 2019, it was my go-to depression game. When my depression got bad, some days I'd play for 12 hours. I built a whole huge city with districts, multiple tall buildings, a rail system, a mob zoo, etc. I kinda miss it sometimes."
7. "I spent half my Army career in various schools learning to repair nuclear missiles. Now I'm doing desktop support and teaching the new guys how to install printers remotely."
8. "Piano lessons paid for by my Asian parents. Didn't make them happy, didn't make myself happy, never got any good at it, and gained no useful skills whatsoever for the several hundred hours per year for multiple years I spent practicing."
9. "I took two years of French instead of Spanish in high school. I live in Texas."
10. "I got an aviation degree because it used to be the only way you could qualify to become an air traffic controller. The age cutoff is 30 and I graduated when I was 29. Well, they decided to 'restructure' the hiring process mere months after I graduated, and they canceled all hiring panels for two years. I aged out, and now I have a fucking useless degree that I still pay student loans on."
11. "I'm a semiprofessional game developer — I managed to accidentally wipe the drive that held all my work. There was 10 years' worth of meshes, materials, and code. It's been 10 days and I've just been in a sort of state of shock, having tried and failed to recover the lost files."
12. "World of Warcraft. I haven't talked to any of my old guildmates in years. I got server first kills and worked my ass off to be at the top of my game, and it means next to nothing. I look back fondly on the time I spent, and wouldn't trade the experience for anything. But it really does nothing for me."
13. "I have a bachelor's degree in astronomy from one of the world's best universities. I now work as a software engineer."
14. "I spent over a decade learning how to draw and studying design techniques. I tried to work as a professional designer and illustrator, and it was terrible — it made no money. Now I'm a software developer. Every once in a blue moon, it's useful for making graphics, but it's really just pointless."
15. "Indigenous knotting. I used to be able to make the most beautiful dresses, armors, and regalia using traditional knotting and beading techniques. I broke my arm about a decade ago, I got fat, and I got arthritis. Now my hands don't even work well enough to teach the next generation how to do it."
16. "I was a Jehovah's Witness for 30 years, averaging 15 hours a month knocking on doors and preaching about an Armageddon that will never come. I've been free for 23 years now!"
17. "I played around 12,000 hours of soccer. I got pretty good at it, but it didn’t work out, so now I’m an engineer who secretly can play soccer at a professional level."
18. "When I was 20, I got a job at an up-and-coming tech company. Six months later, they went IPO in a big way, and I was worth $2 million on paper. Six months later, the market crashed, and the stock tanked — before I was legally allowed to touch the shares."
19. "Sanskrit lessons in school. Not once have I used that language since I gave my 10th exam."
And finally...
20. "My marriage."
Got your own? See you in the comments!
Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.