What is something niche that you consider yourself an expert at?
For me: I am one of the foremost experts on Team Fortress 2 video recording/editing and automated clip gathering within tf2 specifically. Even more specifically within the context of competitive play but the knowledge applies to casual play as well.
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I build liquid rocket engines, and their fuel refinement systems; in a manner thats totally legal for normal (US) civilians.
for instance, did you know that your house's natural gas line is usually ~80% (varies by municipality, lowest I've seen is 74%) methane by volume, and is actually shockingly easy to purify and pressurize into usable methane for a methalox cycle engine?
its even easier to make LOX (liquid oxygen), all you need is: air (in vast supply here on lovely Terra) literally any cooler design that gets down to -183C....( the Glifford McMahon cycle works; and you can build that at home), a fractionating column, (you can buy them off the internet, you'll want metal, but glassware is still fine-ish as long as you account for thermal shrinkage....and never ever let it heat back up to room temp), a cryo-rated compressor (sold on ebay), and a dewar (also on eBay)?
This is exactly the type of incredibly niche answer I was hoping for! Its also super interesting! How did you even get into this?
I like things that go boom.
the ATF doesn't like it when I tell people how to make their own firearms though. suffice to say..... if you know how to build a rocket.... you can build a shotgun, the laws of physics are the same, just on slightly different scales.
Are you this guy?
haha; alas, no, I am not.
He did give me several ideas though. I'd be glad to call him a friend; were we ever to meet.
Haha was hoping your link would go there!
I’m an incredibly good riichi mahjong teacher! I also teach go, shogi, and koi-koi too. It’s nice landing gigs when an anime convention pays me to go out and run panels about this stuff, helps round out the monthly income nicely, plus I get to travel and take good art pictures while I’m out!
Oooooo!!! I am a big fan of playing Go! I wish I had more opportunities to actually play with people in person. Everyone I play against these days is someone I also taught how to play.
I am also a big fan of playing Go — but I'm quite bad at it considering how much time I spent trying. The game I'm actually good at is NetHack.
No one is good at Go, no one. Even the ones sitting in the Nihon Ki’in playing for a Honinbo title wouldn’t say they’re good, and they’re the ones being televised.
If I recall correctly, we share a city!
Ooh, perhaps you have heard of Hikaru No Go?
A lot of people have mentioned it to me, so I flipped through it for a bit and was pleasantly surprised to see that the manga uses actual go consultants to make sure that the material presented in the books is accurate and useful!
I’m not really an anime and manga enjoyer in my day-to-day though, but I’m glad those people exist.
I know a lot of things but none of them are relevant or impressive to anyone.
I mostly just get pushback when I try to talk about them, like I work in IT security, but apparently since I don't work for the CIA I 'must not be very good at it'.
This is your stage to brag about your skills no matter how non-relevant they are :D
I have a PhD in philosophy.
People make horrible assumptions about it though, so I don't ever bring it up.
I’ve only minored in philosophy, but last weekend I watched Waiting for Godot for the first time with my mother and as soon as the intermission came she turned and asked, “Jaycifer you’ve studied philosophy, what insights do you have so far?” I definitely feel that it carries an expectation that I think deeply about everything.
What kind of assumptions do you deal with? Do you mind if I ask what area you focused on?
I also work in IT security but rarely reveal it to people. There are so many misconceptions about what the job entails, it usually derails the conversation and I spend the next 20 minutes insisting my job is incredibly boring, tedious, and nothing at all like the movies.
I usually just tell people I do "customer service". It's true enough.
I'm told almost every week that I'm excellent at teaching archery to complete beginners. Young, old, missing an arm, don't care, I'm always profusely thanked.
Sorry, I'm a generalist.
Generalism is my niche.
🫡
Idk if I'd go as far as an "expert", but I listen to an obscene amount of thrash metal, and plenty of other extreme metal genres. I'm also a moderator for the [email protected] and [email protected] communities where myself and a few others used to post daily for a couple years, no repeats.
Give me your one, singular best recomendation.
Hmm, that is a tough one... There's so many amazing songs out there, I could never pick a favourite. Besides, there is a difference between my favourites and the "best" recommendations. That being said, one of the most underappreciated albums, truly an exercise in top notch quality thrash, technical, superb song writing, some of the best riffs I've heard: Dreamweaver by Sabbat. Every thrash fan should be made aware of this release. Here is my favourite song off the record: Do Dark Horses Dream of Nightmares .
subscribed, thanks for the tip!
Cheers dude, enjoy! Plenty of content to last you a while haha ;).
That's awesome, subscribed! Have you guys thought of starting a black metal community as well? It would be nice to have one in fediverse
Cheers dude! I personally haven't made one, as I'm not the most knowledgeable in that genre, so I wouldn't feel I would be the best fit for that role. There actually is already a couple lingering about, but afaik they are dead/unmoderated. You could possibly ask the admins if u wanted to take over ownership, if you are up to the task. [email protected]
EDIT: I've just realised half the posts on there were mine anyway 😅🤣.
Oh, good to know. I'm pretty fresh here so I must have missed them, but maybe at some point I'd be interested in moderating one. Glad to have an active thrash metal community though!
Thanks man! I must admit I don't post very often now, mainly due to burnout from posting too often, but I'm still the active moderator, and others have since taken the role of active poster haha.
I'm a mile wide and an inch deep, baby.
not an expert per se, but i am very good at identifying manzanita species. Manzanitas are a genus of shrubs and small trees in the blueberry family mainly found in Western North America, especially California. There are a little over 100 species and subspecies, and the visual differences are often subtle. Many botanists in California don't even bother trying to ID them.
I am not a botanist, but i can reliably ID most NorCal, Sierra Nevada, and central coast varieties from memory, and with a key handy i feel confident i could ID any manzanita plant to currently accepted species or subspecies in person or with sufficiently detailed photos and gps.
The most striking feature of manzanitas is their bright red, smooth bark. They are locally called "refrigerator bushes" or "refrigerator trees" when large because even in the heat of summer the bark is always cool to the touch
I train and deploy search and rescue dogs.
wow, that's interesting!
Have you trained dogs generally prior to this? How much of it is pretend scenarios (I'm curious how the dogs 'get it')
Yes. I trained dogs before, but only personal dogs, not professionally. I got lucky that my prior training techniques were very similar to the industry standard, so it was a relatively easy transition.
We probably run about 50 training scenarios for every 1 deployment per dog.
Ideally you'd be training from a 3 month old puppy until they are 18 months before they can test, which would include at least a couple training scenarios a week from in that window, so you'd probably have 150+ training scenarios before you even test. Additionally you would be doing daily behavioral training, similar to what you'd do if you want a very well behaved pet.
After they are certified, you'd still run 1-2 scenarios a week, 3-5 day seminars a few times a year, plus other related cross training if you want a high level dog.
Every region across the world has it's own standard of what they consider a deploy-able dog. Some are highly paid, expert dog trainers that deploy in extreme situations. Some are casual retired bored rich people that want to take fluffy to something exciting, and just show up to random emergencies saying they can help, and have no actual formal training.
Most are highly dedicated volunteers that spend an extreme amount of time and money to ensure they meet the highest standards just in case they are called on to help out with people's worst days.
that's amazing. do dogs forget things if they're not using the knowledge like we do - is that why the scenarios are still re-run each week?
It's just like any skill. If you were a professional football player, you'd still run fundamental drills every practice. Same with dogs.
You have to keep their strength and cardio up, so they can work for long periods of time. You have to keep their motivation up so they want to work, and you have to keep their skills up so they can do the work without thinking about it.
A well trained dog doesn't understand that it's a "job." A dog is just out there having fun and doing their best to get a reward at the end. If you're doing it right, your dog wants to work more than anything else in the world.
I've shit my own pants more times than anyone I know
Wow that's crazy! I also dont know anyone who has shit my pants!
Wanna set new records for each other?
Best of three?
I would expect as much from @[email protected]
Yeah, what's up with that? Does he/she take a screenshot when they fart?
Ow my storage
Data systems engineering! It started when MS pushed Windows 10 on me and my ancient laptop couldn't take it... So I downloaded a gnu/Linux distro and developed a CS hobby. That turned into a career and here we are : ) Thank you Microsoft
I am the lone expert at putting my underwear on myself as I have yet to see anyone else put my underwear on me. And if they tried, I’d wiggle so I could keep the top spot.
That sounds like a challenge! a/s/l?
Repairing espresso machines. I've reached the point where I modify them and the parts can come from whatever is laying around. I'm pretty sure I'm done with it though, it's boring after doing something for over a decade.
You ever heard of that Mr mixer guy? That could be you but espresso machines. But, not if you're bored with it lol.
I thought about doing something like that; I already give out free advice anyway. I have yet to figure out a good way to make videos though, I know a lot about it but I haven't put it in motion. That way people can fix their stuff because were going to need more of it.
Honestly fuck the monetizing of the video (unless you need that) just make step by step videos. People will find it if they need it. Hopefully.
I would but I would also need money to get equipment. Heh I should have kept my old Nikon that can record video. All I have is a go pro.
I mean, most of those tiktok people start with their phone. But idk what quality you need to show some smaller parts and stuff.
I tried it with my phone but I really need to use my macro lens to actually show anything. Otherwise it would look like a rats nest of cables in a server room.
Ahh valid
Indeed, you are. I found your YouTube channel.
I really want to tell you, but the niche is so narrow, it would be difficult to reveal it without doxing myself.
So I'll just say that I'm probably top 20-25 in the world at playing a mod for a dead video game.
Not an expert, but I used to religiously and obsessively play the niche sport of Gaelic/American handball, specifically the 4-wall variation.
It's essentially racquetball, but with a much smaller, much harder ball, played only with gloved hands (gloves do not pad hands, just used to keep the ball dry).
Technically the 1-wall variation might have been the first ball sport to ever exist and is certainly the predecessor to modern tennis.
Awesome game, insane workout, and one of the few sports that is truly ambidextrous (handball absolutely requires use of both hands/arms).
I had to step away when I got into the tech sector and needed to dedicate most of my time to studying and working, but I played like it was a job for 8 years. Loved it.
You'll have to be the judge of whether it's niche or not, but my Japanese language proficiency - both output (speaking and writing) and input (listening and reading) - is in many aspects and contexts indistinguishable from that of native speakers. I started studying Japanese at the age of 15 - some 23 years ago. My first languages are Swedish and Hungarian. While I don't practice them myself any longer, I can teach the shamisen and the koto (Japanese classical instruments). Feedback from any and all pupils in any and all subjects that I have ever taught have been great, but I was aiming for something niche here.
Swedish and Hungarian as first languages, how did that come about? :) (I'm Hungarian too.)
Király! My parents are from Nagyvárad (Oradea for the uniniciated 🤣). They fled from Ceaușescu's regime to Sweden in 88. I was born just a few months later. Thankfully, my parents only every spoke with me in Hungarian, so that's one language "for free". Outside of home, "on the streets", I got the Swedish language for free. Being exposed to both languages on a daily basis from the beginning of my life, I achieved them both as truly native languages.
It has always been "funny" when I talk to Hungarians from Hungary, because I clearly lack some everyday vocabulary. After all, what I learned was the household specific language. One time, when I was traveling in Hungary for a week or two just for fun, I was in a restaurant in Budapest and I was ordering some salad. The waitress then asked me, "Öntet?" and I panicked. I panicked HARD. "What the fuck is 'öntet'?!" I asked myself. You could probably hear the sound of my brain working to figure it out. I went through all the possible meanings, even the ridiculous ones:
In the end, I had to turn around and ask my Hungarian friend, almost crying, what it means, and when I heard her say "dressing", it all made sense. Fuck me... 🤣
I recently have been trying to relearn/polish up on Hungarian though, so during my vacation this year, I used to sit outside on sunny days reading A Pál utcai fiúk out loud. 😃
Where are you from? :)
Thanks for the background! And I love that anecdote 🤣
Pál utcai fiúk is a pretty fun historical snapshot from what I remember. I only read it in middle school, but I remember I found the kids' lifestyle and hobbies interesting :)
I grew up in Budapest, but have lived in Glasgow for 15+ years now. I couldn't bear the Hungarian heat lol.
There was a game in the early 2000s that my family and I liked to play called Scene It. It was a DVD with accompanying board game - pretty cool. We had both a Disney and a Music one. I don't know if my music trivia still holds up, but I was an absolute champ at that game. I'd beat my parents hand over fist despite them being alive for a lot more of the events the trivia asked about.
In a similar vein, I am incredible at the Jackbox game Fibbage. On both sides, the trivia and the lying and suckering people in >:B
I recently found out that the creator of Jackbox games is the brother of the creator of Grand Theft Auto
I had the Harry Potter one! I forgot about that game.
Modding Bethesda's Gamebryo engine games, especially Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas, and especially doing so using only the built-in functions, i.e. no FOSE/NVSE. Not that I'm averse to using them, but I prefer to do what I can without them before I do. Thanks to that approach I had little trouble making Fallout 4 mods that could run on console editions of the game.
Full English breakfasts.
I'm open to offers to speak at conferences. I can probably cover a full Scottish as well, but English is where my knowledge is deeper.
Foremost expert is pretty vague. Here's a couple of the more unusual and rare things I'm an expert in. I'm going to define it as less than 10 people globally know more than I do. Less than 100,000 people know anything beyond the absolute basics.
Applied plant breeding of cucurbits.
International marketing and sales of agricultural seed.
Map modding of ThinkTanks a 2004 game by Bravetree.
https://www.planetthinktanks2.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=5544
Learning from others mistakes.
I can't even learn from my own mistakes.
Im one of those people who feels I kinda suck at everything but im very accomplished academically. I am an adminral in starfleet and a dashar master in the kdf so there is that.
TF2 clip-making is considered "niche" now? Where did all the time go?
People don't make videos with SFM or Garry's Mod anymore? Really?
What about Skidbiti Toilet? Is that no longer a thing?
I specifically am talking about the automation of taking a demo file and making it into a video with a bunch of custom settings and such. SFM and tf2 animations are still popular and while I do those, I wouldnt consider myself a foremost expert.
Nuanced thought.
My personal history and achievements. Glorious deeds and some other ones that made me infamous is the narrow circle of my fans.
You think you can just call people nazi?
https://lemmy.ca/comment/24861089 Seems like you're not a fan of immigrants. Blame them for crimes even though statistics show they're less likely to commit crimes than residents.
I do not blame them.