Poll: How Ambidextrous Are You? | Hacker News Reader

Poll: How Ambidextrous Are You?

22 pointsgraderjs16 comments

Try this simple test: Fill a cup half way up with water and and hold it in your hand as if you were going to drink from it, but instead hold it at belly-height and jiggle the cup to rotate the water inside counter-clockwise.

Try first to rotate the water in the cup counter-clockwise with your dominant hand, and then counter-clockwise with your other hand. If "neither hand is dominant" flip a coin to see which hand goes first (heads is left, if you need guidance). If you spill the water in between, refill it to half.

How long can you continuously rotate the water counter-clockwise smoothly (without creating splashing, internal turbulence or other mess: not necessarily spilling out of the cup, but enough to break the smooth rotation)?

Aim for at least 10 seconds with your dominant hand, and then compare with your other one. :)

Important note: based on a comment, it seems some people find counter-clockwise easy but clockwise hard. As this is suppose to test your limits, switch to the rotation direction that is the hardest for your non-dominant hand and then do the test using that hardest rotation and vote the result from that.

If you want to comment with how long you can rotate counter-clockwise, go ahead.

Right hand dominant, and feeding the resonance with either hand feels fairly easy, I feel the wave coming and responding to it comes naturally.

I do try to use my left hand every so often, but I wouldn't say I'm ambidextrous. In general, I find that my left hand is not very good at adjusting how much force is needed for fine movements, so for more complex tasks than swirling water the level of control is pretty rough.

I can browse the web, code, or do other basic activities with the mouse in my left hand, but I wouldn't try to play videogames with it for example (and let's not talk about my handwriting!).

Thanks for reminding me one key thing I left out: you need to try to rotate it as quickly as possible. 3 - 4 Hz of cup rotation is OK.

Interesting exercise! I've noticed a very long time ago, that different sides of my body are strongly dominant for different tasks.

Most things: right hand dominates, it's also the default for trying new kinds of activities. I sometimes retry with left hand, and sometimes stick with it.

Writing: right hand. One-handed typing - left hand. Playing guitar, I like tapping - my right (plucking) hand often can't keep up with the left, so left is doing double duty. Friend had a left-handed guitar, ended up flipping it around. Can't play piano well, again right hand is struggling to keep up. Also using left hand with the trackpad, while right has the mouse - neither hand feels comfortable with the other device. The list keeps going.

The legs are also asymmetric! Skating (longboard, dancing, downhill) - left foot forward (regular). I'm not great at riding switch, with the exception of just a couple tricks where I'm somehow way better than regular. Jumping - always landing left foot first. Kicking things - right foot. Climbing stairs - I always skip the first stair (even if I continue one stair at a time), left foot almost always goes first. Cycling - as weird as it sounds, even before I started skating, I never liked right turns, and then I struggled a lot to learn toeside slides.

It's not that strange, knowing each half of the brain is wired to the opposite hand, and that the two halves work very differently. It's worth it to explore, which hand/half is better at what, it might be a very personal thing.

I am right hand dominant and can rotate the cup clockwise and counter-clockwise > 10 seconds in both hands. This is definitely due to the fact that I have played the drums for > 25 years and have not only trained to do some beats in reverse, I have trained all of the fancy stick twirling I do to be equal in both hands.

I'm right handed, but probably due in part to having played violin and guitar as a youth, I use my left side for many tasks. When I was about 10 or so and starting to get into basketball, someone suggested I should learn to shoot the ball left handed, so that I could efficiently drive to either side of the court as though it were my dominant side.

Interestingly, my youngest daughter is completely ambidextrous. She switches off between her two sides without even realizing she's doing it. We were playing mini-golf this summer and she would casually switch depending on the hole. She's not yet a switch-hitter in softball, but I suspect that could happen at some point.

This was interesting. I consider myself left-handed, but I do a lot of activities right-handed too. For example, I use my left hand to write, eat, and brush my teeth, but I use my right to throw, to play guitar, to navigate on my phone, and to reach for things. Still, I couldn't quite keep the water rotating as smoothly with my right as I could with my left.

I'm right-hand dominant.

It's easy to rotate the water counter-clockwise with either hand.

It's easy to rotate the water clockwise with my left hand, but a bit harder to do with my right hand.

Used to be right side dominant. Then suffered serious injuries on my knee and shoulder in a road accident. Started using my left side more.

Now I'm fairly ambidextrous

I didn't do this water thing yet. I'm mostly lefthanded. I can mouse with either hand, and in my left hand with or without the buttons swapped.

I'm surprised there are so many coordinated people here, the top categories of respondents (so far) are the most ambidextrous. I'm a leftie, but I can't do counter-clockwise in right-hand like basically at all. It's like impossible for me unless I go really slow and big circles like 1 - 2 Hz and really big. If I try to make small fast rotations (like regular, like you're supposed to), I can't do that at all, not really. A total mess. Splashes, spills. Pretty funny, but just can't do it.

I can go counter and clockwise in left hand easily. I can do a pretty messy clockwise in right hand under half the duration I can in left, but just changing the rotation to counter is off the charts harder for me in right hand. So it's surprising to me that there are people who can supposedly do it both hands whatever rotation. I think I believe they can but I'm just super impressed and surprised. You have to keep the speed up tho (3 - 4 Hz or faster) to make it real. I kind of have to see it to really believe it tho I think :)

I'm a leftie, but snowboard regalar, kick right-footed, golf and guitar right handed, shoot left handed, I can throw and catch both hands but much better on left. I write and draw left handed, but can do a very rough (tho better than most) write with right hand. Watch only ever on right wrist. Swipe type with left hand only. Mouse/trackpad with any hand (switch it up as fingers get tired). I can touch type on a HHKB with no letterings, but can't one-handed with either hand on that (no sense of location one handed). Who types one-handed anyway? I can do it with letterings but it's definitely hunt and peck. Fork and spoon in left hand almost always, knife in right. I love being just the way I am. It's also very interesting to hear other people's experiences. People's body capabilities body are divided up between tasks and sides, which is kind weird but fascinating.

I'd give my right arm to be ambidextrous!

[Sorry. Someone had to]

Thanks. [I thought it would have to be me.]

I just want to point out that counter-clockwise in left hand is not the same motion mirrored as counter-clockwise in right hand.

It's probably already clear, but just in case: it's not supposed to be mirrored.

If clockwise is harder for you using your non-dominant hand, try to rotate the water clockwise for each hand. If counter-clockwise is harder using your non-dominant hand, try to rotate the water counter-clockwise for each hand. If neither hand is dominant, pick the rotation direction that's harder overall for you.

Another important note: try to rotate it as quickly as possible. 3 - 4 Hz of rotation for the cup is OK.

I'm right-handed, and it's much harder for me to rotate the water in my left hand clockwise than counter-clockwise.

Good point. I'll add an instruction to switch rotation direction to the hardest one for you.

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