Knowing multiple languages, to maximize your options.
As a grandchild of a holocaust survivor, this was told to me repeatedly.
Like by learning Spanish in addition to English, you can flee to Mexico if the UK isn't taking immigrants?
Ask HN: What skills will be useful during an upcoming recession/depression?
111–120 of 194 posts
Re: Ask HN: What skills will be useful during an upcoming recession/depression?
#112My thought is that this virus will have passed through the world, one way or another, in 4-8 months. After that, the world reverts back to what it was doing. My point is that this is no underlying weakness in the global economy. It's more like a slow moving natural disaster. I'll admit I don't feel super confident that this is how things work. Happy to be corrected!
> My point is that this is no underlying weakness in the global economy. Unfortunately, this is not at all true. There is a tremendous amount of debt in the system and we are on the precipice of a credit crisis that could wipe out a significant chunk of the global economy.
Perhaps. But it sounds like that's independent of the virus?
I only meant that the virus event doesn't add any fundamental flaw.
Re: Ask HN: What skills will be useful during an upcoming recession/depression?
#113Earlier quoted context omitted.
I hope you’re not as optimistic as that. GM lost the American taxpayers north of $10MMM. That was enough to purchase over 500,000 vehicles at the time. 500 fucking thousand vehicles. That’s just the amount of money that they lost us with their “good Bank bad Bank” style IP-related scam. Do you think this is not reason enough to be cynical during financial crises?
what is $10MMM? that doesn't exist
[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: What skills will be useful during an upcoming recession/depression?
#114People are acting as though we're going back to a pre-industrial economy with this. It's not true. The power isn't going out. The water will continue to come out of the tap. So my suggestion short term is: learn to cook if you don't know how to. Not fancy, haute cuisine, but how to take whatever's in the pantry and make something tasty out of it. Learn how to grow some produce in small spaces, even if it's just herbs…
I second learning to cook - it’s a skill valuable in good times and bad and really helps you to eat cheaply and healthily if you are mindful of your ingredients. There are tons of helpful videos to get you started. I recommend Bon Appétit’s Test Kitchen on YouTube
Also, I've never met a partner who doesn't appreciate it!
And in terms of amortizing time spent learning, it's hard to beat getting better at something you do every day. Sometimes multiple times!
Re: Ask HN: What skills will be useful during an upcoming recession/depression?
#115Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm am really trying to determine whether or not this will be the next great depression.
Yes, but perhaps not in the way that you might think. There were a number of structural factors that led to the great depression: gold standard currency and restrictive monetary policy at the Fed, overly restrictive tariff laws, simultaneous drought that destroyed a lot of farmland, rampant financial fraud, lack of deposit insurance at banks causing numerous bank runs and failures. Basically all of the above is diffe…
Without knowing as much about the topic I really feel the same way too. This pandemic might take a "long" time but it will end and we will find ourselves with the same knowhow and infrastructure that we had going in. Surely things will get shaken up but there is a strong desire to go back to life as it was before. It's mostly a question of how that happens.
Re: Ask HN: What skills will be useful during an upcoming recession/depression?
#116Earlier quoted context omitted.
So step one is "found a bank"?
Like founding a bank instead of robbing one?
"The Best Way to Rob a Bank is to Own One" - https://www.amazon.com/Best-Way-Rob-Bank-Own/dp/0292754183
Re: Ask HN: What skills will be useful during an upcoming recession/depression?
#117People are acting as though we're going back to a pre-industrial economy with this. It's not true. The power isn't going out. The water will continue to come out of the tap. So my suggestion short term is: learn to cook if you don't know how to. Not fancy, haute cuisine, but how to take whatever's in the pantry and make something tasty out of it. Learn how to grow some produce in small spaces, even if it's just herbs…
there is disproportionality in the works. senior positions that require many years of experience for entrancy due to the nature of the job may suddenly go vacant with noone to fill them. when older people, {people who understand how to retool and operate a VLSI plant for example, people who are ATCs or surgeons} die and there is only a pool of young inexperience to draw from we will have to make do without some of th…
> change laws to allow reduced qualifications
Wouldn't be the worst side effect. Nice to occasionally snap things back, then more restrictions can be put in place again if warranted.
Re: Ask HN: What skills will be useful during an upcoming recession/depression?
#118Mental self-care and acceptance of negative experiences. Working out in small areas/body weight exercises. Cooking on a budget. Getting out of your own head and own problems and into thinking about other people, is also immensely psychologically healthy.
> Getting out of your own head and own problems and into thinking about other people, is also immensely psychologically healthy. Hmm, anyone have any tips about what to do if this actually just overwhelms and depresses you? I can deal emotionally with my own problems fairly well. But when I start thinking about the wide spread suffering among both the people I know and care about as well as the world at large,I get i…
A simple exercise is to watch a movie and try to let the judgement pass as you simply try to imagine what the character is thinking about. Sometimes we do this effortlessly but sometimes judgement creeps in and we start thinking 'I would never do that' 'how could they possibly think that, I would never think that' etc.
Re: Ask HN: What skills will be useful during an upcoming recession/depression?
#119Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm am really trying to determine whether or not this will be the next great depression.
Yes, but perhaps not in the way that you might think. There were a number of structural factors that led to the great depression: gold standard currency and restrictive monetary policy at the Fed, overly restrictive tariff laws, simultaneous drought that destroyed a lot of farmland, rampant financial fraud, lack of deposit insurance at banks causing numerous bank runs and failures. Basically all of the above is diffe…
This reads like someone unleashed GPT2 on a bunch of CNBC interviews with a bunch of hedge fund managers making the case for why their portfolio deserves a "fair share" of the bailout pie.
Re: Ask HN: What skills will be useful during an upcoming recession/depression?
#120Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, but perhaps not in the way that you might think. There were a number of structural factors that led to the great depression: gold standard currency and restrictive monetary policy at the Fed, overly restrictive tariff laws, simultaneous drought that destroyed a lot of farmland, rampant financial fraud, lack of deposit insurance at banks causing numerous bank runs and failures. Basically all of the above is diffe…
Without knowing as much about the topic I really feel the same way too. This pandemic might take a "long" time but it will end and we will find ourselves with the same knowhow and infrastructure that we had going in. Surely things will get shaken up but there is a strong desire to go back to life as it was before. It's mostly a question of how that happens.
The biggest consequence will be creating two tracks of people: those who immediately lost their job, and those who could work remotely.
3+ months of earning is non-trivial, and they'll never get them back.
Hopefully any stimulus will be aimed at recently un- or under-employed folks.
If I, as a working software developer, end up getting a check... the system is seriously unfair.