What is JK Rowling "bad" at?

Question

We all have come to know that J.K. Rowling considers herself bad at maths. She has even admitted it freely;

ES: How many wizards are there?

JKR: In the world? Oh, Emerson, my maths is so bad.

Has Jo ever confessed to be being "bad" at anything else? If so, is there any evidence that this has lead to inconsistencies in her works, much like her "being bad at maths" has lead to debate on class sizes and population.

To possibly limit the "broadness"; answers would have to come as quotes directly from JKR herself.

its an open-ended list question, at least until JKR stops tweeting. we close these all the time. — KutuluMike, Jul 14 '17 at 16:48
Questions about a scifi author's personal life, especially unrestricted to her works, are definitely OFF-TOPIC here! It has correctly gathered a ton of downvotes, but with an open bounty it seems impossible to close at the moment. — Andres F., Jul 14 '17 at 20:29
@AndresF. The discussions on Meta disagree. https://scifi.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/6594/how-should-we-handle-questions-that-are-about-non-sf-f-elements-in-a-sf-f-work — Skooba, Jul 14 '17 at 20:44
@AndresF. I would also say this is related to her works, as the original quote I based the question on was asked about the class sizes and the population of the wizarding community. In addition, many of the quotes below are from HP related interviews. — Skooba, Jul 14 '17 at 20:47
@Skooba Tremendously far fewer votes in the accepted answer from meta than the sum of votes in this question; I wouldn't rely in that meta answer to represent the consensus. Furthermore, that question is about "non-SF/F elements in a SF/F work"... pray tell, which is the SF/F work in question here? — Andres F., Jul 14 '17 at 20:48
@Skooba Oh, come on! That line of reasoning wouldn't be accepted anywhere. So if Rowling had sneezed in an interview, we could discuss which brand of tissue paper she prefers here? Nah. Besides, she mentioned maths in her interview; even admitting this makes math on-topic (I don't) it still makes "things she's bad at" as a person definitely off-topic. — Andres F., Jul 14 '17 at 20:50
Due to the rollback war in progress on this post, I've locked it for the time being; please direct further dispute about its content to meta. As for debate about whether or not the question is appropriate for this site, please direct that either to this meta post or to this chatroom (where I've moved most of the comments from here). — Rand al'Thor, Jul 14 '17 at 21:21
History. MACUSA being formed 80+ years before there were any States to be united is pretty bad. — RonJohn, Oct 03 '17 at 03:03
I personally feel this can be on topic. It should merely be rephrased as "What has she expressed her lself as being bad at in writing Harry Potter?" — TheAsh, Jul 26 '21 at 12:23

Valorum · Accepted Answer · 2023-01-02T18:38:05.297

65

She is bad at returning library books

Question: Did you use the library a lot as a child?

J.K. Rowling responds: Yes, I loved the library, though I was very bad at returning books on time. I once ran up a bill at university of over fifty pounds in overdue fines, which was a lot of money to a struggling student. (It didn't stop me doing it again though!)

_{^{"About the Books: transcript of J.K. Rowling's live interview on Scholastic.com," Scholastic.com, 16 October 2000}}

She struggles with public speaking

JKR: I've never been good at speaking in public. In fact it's a borderline phobic.

_{^{"Harry Potter and Me" (BBC Christmas Special, British version), BBC, 28 December 2001}}

She can't act or take direction with a straight face

a) I can't act b) I'd just keep corpsing

_{^{via twitter}}

She's bad at geography (and maths)

Maths is not my strong suit (though it's better than my geography, as those who have found the most recent Easter Eggs might already know).

_{^{J.K.Rowling Official Site - FAQ}}

She's not good at reading in public

I do think that the people that have come tonight would rather ask questions than hear me doing a long reading. I would like to think so anyway because I’m not very comfortable doing it and I don’t think I’m particularly good at reading.

_{^{An Evening with Harry, Carrie and Garp: Press Conference}}

She considers herself to be highly disorganised

JKR: No. No, I'm embarrassingly bad at most other things, I think. Very disorganized person. I was hell in offices. I was good at teaching English as a foreign language. I loved doing that. I think I was ok at that. I'm good at keeping tropical fish. Can't think of much else, actually, I really can't.

_{^{"J.K. Rowling Interview," CBCNewsWorld: Hot Type, July 13, 2000}}

She struggles to critique her own work

Rowling: I can only speculate about this really, I'm very bad at being a critic of my own work. I'm far too close to it, I find it very difficult to say why I think things are so popular, and so on. I'm guessing it's because I write about things I find funny, as opposed to what I think eight year olds find funny. And I suppose other adults find it funny too, I'm clearly an adult.

_{^{"Rogers, Shelagh. "INTERVIEW: J.K. Rowling," Canadian Broadcasting Co., October 23, 2000}}

and

JKR: I think (but I don't really know, because I'm not good at being objective about my own work) that as I wrote primarily for myself, that probably shows in the books. The sense of humour is mine, not what I think children find funny, for instance.

_{^{"Comic Relief live chat transcript, March 2001}}

She was bad at being a secretary

After school, Jo attended the University of Exeter in Devon where she studied French. Her parents hoped that by studying languages, she would enjoy a great career as a bilingual secretary. But as Jo recalls, 'I am one of the most disorganised people in the world and, as I later proved, the worst secretary ever.' She claims that she never paid much attention in meetings because she was too busy scribbling down ideas. 'This is a problem when you are supposed to be taking the minutes of the meeting,' she says.

_{^{"21 authors: J.K. Rowling," Bloomsbury Publishing,}}

Bad at sports, clumsy and scared of heights

Kings Park Primary School: Which position would you like to play if you played quidditch?

JK Rowling: Who wouldn't want to be Seeker? But I think I'd be dreadful at Quidditch, I'm not sporty, I'm not great with heights and I'm clumsy as well. Neville would be about my standard.

_{^{JK Rowling's World Book Day Chat, March 4, 2004}}

She's bad at metalwork, woodwork (and sports again).

My least favorite subject was metalwork. I was the worst in my class-just terrible. I am not a practical person .... It seemed to me to be all about hammering stuff until I broke it. I did try, but I just could not do it. Mum always kept a ridiculous flat teaspoon I made which was useless, completely hopeless. I was terrible at woodwork too — I remember arriving home with a photograph frame composed mainly of glue. I was also dreadful at sport, although I vaguely liked gym. I especially hated hockey. But I did like swimming and dancing.

_{^{Conversations with J.K. Rowling}}

Inadequate tennis skills

My tennis game is non-existent. Feeble little arms like a T-Rex due to years of typing, typing, typing. Strong fingers though.

_{^{Via Twitter}}

Struggles with pet management

I can't say I consider myself a 'world leader' though. Maybe of worlds inside my head? In the real world I can barely lead my dog.

_{^{Via Twitter}}

She struggled to juggle being a mum and a full-time writer

How did you raise a baby and write a book?" and the answer is, I didn't do housework for four years! I'm not Superwoman, and living in squalor that was the answer.

_{^{"Harry Potter and Me" (BBC Christmas Special, British version), BBC, 28 December 2001}}

She claims to be bad at computer games

Stephen Fry: Do you ever play the computer games?

JK Rowling: I don’t but my daughter plays it - she’s very good. I can’t work Playstations. I’m no good at these things.

_{^{Fry, Stephen, interviewer: J.K. Rowling at the Royal Albert Hall, 26 June 2003.}}

However subsequent investigation reveals that she's actually quite good at Minesweeper

She struggles to operate her television

"I don’t want to programme money. I can barely work my TV."

_{^{Via Twitter}}

Cannot understand bitcoin (despite having had it explained to her, repeatedly)

God bless every single one of you now earnestly explaining bitcoin to me as though I’ll grasp it if you break it down properly. Things like this are white noise to me. I cannot and will not ever understand Bitcoin, but I love you for thinking that I can or will.

^{^{Via Twitter}}

She can't write short stories

But I didn't really need much persuasion as I have always supported Comic Relief, and I think they do fantastic work, so I wrote back and said yes but I'm not good at short stories particularly not short Harry stories I tend to ramble on, so how would it be if I wrote a couple of the titles that appear by title in the novels so that's how it all started.

_{^{Raincoast Books interview transcript, Raincoast Books (Canada), March 2001.}}

edited Jan 02 '23 at 18:38

answered Sep 12 '16 at 18:44

Valorum

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14

Has she mentioned Economics yet? Keeping track of calendars so students don't start school on a weekend? – Sep 12 '16 at 18:51
Some of these are out of date. – ibid Sep 13 '16 at 21:02
4

@ibid - She didn't say whether she was any good at it. – Valorum Sep 13 '16 at 21:05
5

You're missing bad at driving: That is why I don’t drive, I swear to God. I cannot drive. People look at me and think, ‘how can you be a woman of forty-eight and not drive a car?’ But I know myself and I know how detached I am from my physical surroundings. – ibid Sep 22 '16 at 03:43
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@ibid - There's no indication that she's actually bad at it, just incapable. I don't consider myself a bad guitarist, merely an incapable one. – Valorum Sep 22 '16 at 13:31
Her true calling was to be a NASCAR driver. She just never knew it. – Sep 22 '16 at 18:43
@Valorum - She claims to be perfectly capable of defending a village from Creepers. – ibid Oct 10 '16 at 05:54
@ibid - Like most trendy-moms, I rather suspect that she's just saying words :-) – Valorum Oct 10 '16 at 10:42
@Valorum - How about Minesweeper? – ibid Oct 10 '16 at 13:17
10

@ibid Minesweeper was not a video game, but a trick to teach people how to right click in Windows. Just Like Solitaire was added to teach people about clicking and dragging.... tutorials disguised as games!! – Skooba Oct 10 '16 at 17:00
1

@Skooba - I never thought of that. And the Internet isn't really to facilitate communication, it's just a means of looking at porno – Valorum Oct 10 '16 at 17:01
@Valorum Based on % of websites absolutely! But no seriously, I take a look at item #4 http://www.cracked.com/article_24321_5-surprisingly-clever-design-choices-you-never-noticed.html – Skooba Oct 10 '16 at 17:07
You forgot leading her dog. – ibid Oct 21 '16 at 05:08
@ibid - Cheers. It's all building a picture... :-) – Valorum Oct 21 '16 at 09:18
"Maths is not my strong suit (though it's better than my geography", so by argumentum a fortiori, Rowling is also bad at Geography. (Got this one from Steve Vandar Ark.) – ibid Dec 26 '16 at 08:01
Bad at keeping her manuscripts clean? – ibid Dec 26 '16 at 20:26
6

You can add biology! she gave a boa constrictor eyelids... – Edlothiad Jul 14 '17 at 09:51
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Perhaps we should make a new question, "What is JK actually good at?", because at this point it feels like it would be a much shorter and more manageable list. – DisturbedNeo Jul 14 '17 at 10:44
3

Valorum: not your fault, but I wonder how anything about this answer has anything to do with scifi.stackexchange :( The question and corresponding answer are unrelated to Rowlings' works, but instead about her personal life beyond her role as an author :( – Andres F. Jul 14 '17 at 20:32
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@AndresF. - Fandom questions (and the lives of notable Scifi and Fantasy authors) are fair game. All you need is notability. The question can't simply be frivolous – Valorum Jul 14 '17 at 20:47
3

@Valorum How is this question not frivolous (note that after Skooba's recent edit, your answer doesn't even answer the question!). Are JKR's political opinions on-topic here, then? (Note the question, as originally stated until a few minutes ago, didn't even require a link to her works, which is how you were able to answer things like "she's a bad secretary", "she's bad with videogames", etc). – Andres F. Jul 14 '17 at 21:12
4

@Valorum To put it another way: answer honestly, hand on heart: if this were posted by a perfect nobody, first question here, and not by Skooba, would you think it's on-topic? Think hard before answering. – Andres F. Jul 14 '17 at 21:14
4

@AndresF. - First off, I don't care who posted it. I'm not sure where you're going with that line of questioning, but I suspect that it falls short of "be nice". Secondly, if it was a question about an author who persistently excuses mistakes in their works by claiming to be bad at something then yes, it would be absolutely fine to ask a question about other things that they claim to be bad at. – Valorum Jul 14 '17 at 21:18
1

@AndresF. - For fandom questions to be on-topic, they need to be notable in some fashion. Asking about JKR's hairstyle in school would be off-topic. Asking whether her hairstyle in school was similar to Hermione's would be fine, etc etc – Valorum Jul 14 '17 at 21:20
You forgot gardening: "Laughing again... if you could see my garden!" – ibid Oct 09 '17 at 01:46
From Conversations with J.K. Rowling pgs 21-22: My least favorite subject was metalwork. I was the worst in my class-just terrible. I am not a practical person .... It seemed to me to be all about hammering stuff until I broke it. I did try, but I just could not do it. Mum always kept a ridiculous flat teaspoon I made which was useless, completely hopeless. I was terrible at woodwork too — I remember arriving home with a photograph frame composed mainly of glue. I was also dreadful at sport, although I vaguely liked gym. I especially hated hockey. But I did like swimming and dancing. – ibid Feb 25 '18 at 22:30
She's "uncoordinated". – ibid May 11 '18 at 06:34
@Ibid - duplicate of clumsy. – Valorum May 11 '18 at 08:23
She is bad at Tennis and has "feeble little arms". – ibid Jun 14 '19 at 02:41
1

@ibid - I've chucked it on the pile. – Valorum Jun 14 '19 at 06:10

What is JK Rowling "bad" at?

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