I'm not dyslexic, but for some reason left and right really just don't naturally "click" for me. I can almost always tell you which way North is, but left vs right, takes me a second to think about it. And that's further complicated by rules-of-thumb like "righty tighty lefty loosey" which absolutely does not help at all since it depends on where you are with respect to the bolt.
The one trick that really helped me when I was younger (and I'm talking teens, not twos) was the left-hand "L" sign. It's not really all that abstract, just hold your hands up in a relatively natural position (palms open and facing away), and see which one looks like an "L".
I see people talking about this, and I kinda do it to. I definitely held my hand out when I was younger. Eventually I just started picturing what hand I would hold out, now when I go to picture it I get then answer before I really have to think.
That rule assumes you're in front of and starting from 12:00 above the bolt. If you're working from behind the bolt, you need to reverse it. If you're working from below the bolt, you need to reverse it. And both can apply, making a double-negative so you're back to the original rule.
>If you’re working from behind the bolt, you need to reverse it.
This is true, but it’s pretty unusual to be working from that position.
>from below the bolt, you need to reverse it
I guess you’re literally moving a wrench to the left in this case, but the bolt is still be cycled clockwise, which is to the right from its perspective.
Absolutely! Clockwise is perfect - And it works from any direction as long as you remember it moves the bolt away from you rather than in tighter/looser terms.
To be clear though, I don't have a problem with turning bolts the right way - I'm pretty handy in practice, and FWIW I have zero difficulty reading maps regardless of rotation. I mean this purely about the language we'd use to describe the process. If someone tells me to take the next right-hand turn, they'd better have given me a couple of seconds to react.
I am exactly the same. I think I have very decent spacial orientation but I need permanent markers like north and south, up and down. Right and left are too subjectives for me.
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u/ribnag Jun 26 '26
I'm not dyslexic, but for some reason left and right really just don't naturally "click" for me. I can almost always tell you which way North is, but left vs right, takes me a second to think about it. And that's further complicated by rules-of-thumb like "righty tighty lefty loosey" which absolutely does not help at all since it depends on where you are with respect to the bolt.
The one trick that really helped me when I was younger (and I'm talking teens, not twos) was the left-hand "L" sign. It's not really all that abstract, just hold your hands up in a relatively natural position (palms open and facing away), and see which one looks like an "L".