Ask HN: What's the most valuable skill to pair with programming?

I'm a full stack dev (mostly Python/React)/software consultant. When I think about skills growth, usually that means new technical skills.

I was reading a blog post by patio11 in which he talks about his work assisting with A/B testing and email campaigns. It made me wonder, purely as a intellectual exercise, if my goal was to maximize my weekly pay as a consultant, what skills would I be wise to pair with fullstack programming (other than sales)? Design? Copywriting? Marketing? More programming?

More focused programming. Become an expert at a more narrow niche than "full stack programming".

Trying to do two completely different jobs is going to lead to poor performance in both.

"Pair Programming" lol

I would disagree with the second part of your statement where trying to do completely different jobs will lead to poor performance. It is indeed a double edged sword, however the real world (languages, frameworks, libraries, technologies, trends) change extremely quickly. Having the ability to react and adapt by understanding programming abstractions and fundamentals will help you rather than lead to poor performance. On the other hand, being focused would make you a niche specialist, which in these days is a thing hard to find. One must be careful not to learn something that might be gone tomorrow. I doubt there is a big need for lua or erlang developers these days. You can be the best, but if you are not needed, this could be simply depressing rather than useful.

As a consultant (as opposed to a pair-of-hands freelancer) you want to be providing solutions to businesses that solve their problems, at a higher level than "work on this software solution the client designed and just needs me to implement".

From that perspective, I'd argue that adding more technical skills on top of your existing ones will have diminishing returns past a reasonable level of competency.

Instead, focus on being able to provide business value. Learn how to take general problems a business has and find solutions for them. Not just code solutions, but new processes and procedures.

If you can solve an expensive problem for a business, you can command a far higher price than if you're just a pair of hands writing code. Those are a dime a dozen on Upwork, and clients have trouble seeing any difference in skillset.

From a technical skills perspective, machine learning and "big data" processing are in-demand skills with large enterprises, where you can make the most money solving problems.

I'd be glad to continue this discussion if you have questions about my answers. My email is in my profile.