John Annett has more than one article with the title "On knowing how to do things" (though to be marginally fair one of them has the postcolonic subtitle "a theory of motor imagery")—this does not seem like the most helpful way to proceed to me, but, having read only the second, I'm in no position to dispute the accuracy of the titles, and in this area it probably is a virtue of titles to reflect the contents of the items to which they're attached. In any case: from the subtitled essay I draw an interesting task. With your hands held still (it helps to have your arms before you and each hand holding the other), and trying not to move other parts of your body to the extent that that is compatible with speaking, describe how you to tie your shoes.[1] This is surprisingly difficult (or at least I found it so) compared to doing the same thing with hand movement, even if you're not allowed to accompany your movements with the instruction "go like this". Not only difficult to give the description, but difficult to suppress motion, and frustrating too.
[1] Now that I go back and check the article, I see that he was actually talking about tying a bow, not shoelaces, and that he discusses this further in the other same-named article!
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