Nobody has to like everything. I like cooking, I hate doing dishes and cleaning. I know people who hate cooking and enjoy dishes. It is good to have a mix of complementary skills and preferences in a household.

It's a hell of a thing when, as a cook, you can stand up from a good dinner you made and walk away from the mess knowing that your roommate Barry wants to have a quiet hour of not talking to anyone doing the dishes and tidying the kitchen because he has actually been looking forward to it and that's what gives him peace. The same peace I got from chopping vegetables and stirring pots.

I've even met someone who likes doing laundry! They wash and iron their own dress shirts despite being perfectly able to pay an inexpensive dry cleaner and describe it as "Cheaper than seeing a shrink".

You make it sound as if washing and ironing is a massive chore.

Let's say you have 5 shirts a week. Step 1: When you do your white wash, throw in the shirts. Hang them up afterwards. Incremental cost: 2 minutes of your time... Step 2: When you do ironing, incremental cost of 5 shirts @ 3 minutes per shirt is 15 minutes... Probably less that your two trips to the dry cleaner. Plus, nil $ cost, no plastic wrapping to throw away, no use of dry cleaning chemicals.

> When you do ironing, incremental cost of 5 shirts @ 3 minutes per shirt is 15 minutes.

3 mins? I iron my shirts, five a week, and it takes me 10-15 mins per shirt, depending on the shirt.

There's something wrong with your technique or the materials.

Because your brain is thinking of other tasks or responsibilities, and you feel as if you’re wasting your time, or need to rush to finish.

Additionally, if you’re not experienced, you don’t know how long something will take, and the indeterminate estimate is off-putting.

Correct?

I recently experienced this with a specific work-related task, where I was shocked to find myself enjoying doing something that I usually hate. When I asked myself what the difference was, the only thing I could come up with was that during this particular run-through, it was the only time that I wasn't rushing through the task while thinking about what came next.

Any additional insight into what's going on here? I'd love to wield this power to help myself love other things that I hate.

For me it's because it's repetitive and can't be optimized well. Programming has spoiled me...

There are many definitions of cooking. Do you hate cooking for thanksgiving, when step-parents are coming for supper on sunday or when you slap peanut butter on loaves of bread ?