Do you have a unique skill?
What is your secret skill? These 11 weird abilities were very useful once
Published on April 12, 2025
Image: Cookie the Pom
A peculiar skill is something that many of us have. It can be a special ability to recognize lookalikes, make pets fall asleep quickly, or guess names, among a million other things. However, some people manage to make a career out of their unusual skills, and this has happened over and over again throughout history. Take a look at the following 11 examples. Did you know any of these?
Barber surgeons
Image: Allef Vinicius
Although it requires a good measure of specific knowledge, being a barber does not seem like a spectacularly complicated job these days. But, back in Medieval times, before the advent of modern medicine, barbers often performed minor surgical procedures, such as bloodletting and tooth extraction.
This odd combination of haircutting and basic surgery was a peculiar skill set that eventually evolved into separate professions.
Food tasters
Image: Stefan Johnson
It may sound like the job for a food critic, but it really wasn’t. In ancient and medieval times, rulers and wealthy individuals employed food tasters to protect themselves from poisoning.
This very dangerous job required a keen sense of taste and the ability to detect subtle signs of toxins in food and drink.
Rat catchers to the Crown
Image: Taton Moïse
Catching rats was such a valued skill in past times that it was even a specific royal appointment in Great Britain, where the rat catcher was responsible for keeping the royal palaces and grounds free of rats.
It required specialized knowledge of rat behavior and effective trapping methods.
Portrait miniaturists
Image: Alice Dietrich
These days, anybody can create a decent portrait using her or his smartphone, but back when photography wasn’t yet invented, limners created miniature portraits, often on ivory or vellum. As one can imagine, these tiny works of art required exceptional skill and attention to detail.
Pigeon trainers
Image: Tim Mossholder
In a time when communication was mostly carried out by people on their own two legs, horses, or ships, being able to establish successful communication at the speed of a flying bird was nothing short of a miracle.
Pigeon trainers were highly sought after and required due to their ability to train these humble birds to fly to particular places with tiny messages attached to them, and then go back.
Flag signalers
Image: Philippe Oursel
In the days of sailing ships, sailors used flags to communicate. Knowing how to interpret and send flag signals was crucial for coordinating naval maneuvers, and very few people knew how to perform these tasks correctly.
Dowsing
Image: Amritanshu Sikdar
While its scientific basis is obviously debated, dowsing (using a forked stick or other instrument to locate underground water or minerals) has been a skill used in various cultures for centuries.
Those who were believed to have this ability were often sought after in communities where water was scarce.
Navajo code talkers
Image: Christian Kapeller
Unbreakable code has always been a much-appreciated commodity during wartime. During WWII, Marine Corps leadership selected 29 Navajo men, the Navajo Code Talkers, who created a code based on the complex, unwritten Navajo language.
This system allowed the Code Talkers to translate three lines of English in 20 seconds, not 30 minutes as was common with existing code-breaking machines.
Code breakers
Image: Mauro Sbicego
Just like code talkers were a necessity, so were code breakers. Also during WWII, British mathematician Alan Turing cracked the "Enigma" code, which was a type of enciphering machine used by the German armed forces to send messages securely.
Codebreaking was a highly complex ability, involving a large set of skills ranging from mathematics to linguistics, mastered by very few individuals.
Silent film lip readers
Image: Austrian National Library
Aside from the occasional title cards, silent films were a visual, rather than a verbal expression. But, as you must have seen, silent film actresses and actors did move their lips in those movies, even if you could not hear them.
Lip reading became a useful ability in those days, allowing filmgoers to understand what the performers were actually saying during the film. While most of the time, the uttered words had some relation to the scene itself, sometimes, actresses and actors said very different things, to the surprise of lip readers.
Human computers
Image: Diego Fernandez
During the mid-20th century, complex mathematical calculations were performed by hand to be used in astronomy, engineering, ballistics, and other developing fields. Many of these "human computers" who were able to perform incredibly complex calculations were women, like Katherine G. Johnson, Mary W. Jackson, or Dorothy Vaughan, to name a few.
