My mom is, it didn’t pass down to me or my brother. I suspect she was born left handed (that did pass down to me), and it was "corrected"out of her, now she’s equally klutzy (read not at all a klutz) with either hand.
One of my recent work places actually had 1:1 left to right handed people, in a group of 12, there was even one guy who insisted on using the mouse with his left hand (we shared a couple different terminals and you could tell when he was the most recent one to use it). That man was a monster.
Not equally myself, but you get used to doing things with the non-dominant hand surprisingly fast. Started using lefty mouse due to arm pain and maybe a week or two gets you to non-awkward basic usage.
I mean, give me a knife or screwdriver and it’s equal, but anything that requires extensive practice for basic competence is naturally going to be become focused on one hand (e.g. handwriting) or a specific combination of hands (e.g. you need two hands to play guitar, but people will generally learn to play it either righthanded or lefthanded and suck at the other one regardless of how ambidexterous they are).
As a former BMX flatland rider, I’m almost ambidextrous. Almost.
But if you ask me to write my name with my left hand, you’ll get jibberish.
This was something I developed when I first started learning the drums. I struggled with my left hand so my instructor told me to switch everyday tasks to my left hand. Simple things like putting change in your left pocket, pouring with your left hand, etc. I never stopped doing this and now, I’m not fully ambidextrous, but ambi-useful.
In soil science, we hand texture, where you rub the soil between two fingers and see how it responds to physical manipulation. There are a few tests: can you roll it into a worm? Does that worm break? How long of a ribbon can you make with it? You do this for each layer (horizon) and pits have a minimum of 3 horizons usually
Anyway, on large scale soil surveys, we can have hundreds to thousands of pits to do. The largest ones I’ve ever done were 1900 pits or so, thus a LOT of hand texturing, and pushing to get them all done.
To speed up this process I started texturing with both hands at the same time; each with a different horizon. Turns out I’m abi-texterous (seriously)
I think ambidextrous is the appropriate term, no? Cross-dominance is more significant, while OP only said equally capable. Cross dominance is favoring each one for different applications.
The term is ambidextrous.
gob smacked There’s a word for that.
Me! I am ambidextrous.
I berieve you.
I’m left handed for writing and eating, and archery but right handed for throwing and a couple of other things. I still say I’m left handed tho. I can sorta write with my right hand but its even more messy than my normal handwriting.
You never thought to ask this question before? Makes sense. Probably because “are you ambidextrous?” Isn’t a terribly discussion-provoking question.
