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Ask HN: What skills will be useful during an upcoming recession/depression?

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11–20 of 194 posts

Re: Ask HN: What skills will be useful during an upcoming recession/depression?

#12
If you can learn how to repair things there will always be need of that in a siege. Returning value from utter losses will be of great need.

edit

For a couple simple examples consider the bic lighter. The strikers are made well enough it is possible to refill them and reuse them several times. Here is a video I made on it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fnnDu-_hso

possibly not the best video but it just shows it isn't very hard.

What about a ventilator that needs a part? Not hard for someone who knows a lot about 3d printing.

Re: Ask HN: What skills will be useful during an upcoming recession/depression?

#13
post #11
post #4

Knowing multiple languages, to maximize your options.

You mean natural languages, not programming ones, right?

ha, I just revealed my status as a non-engineer. Yes, languages. I am trying to improve my Spanish during quarantine downtime.

Re: Ask HN: What skills will be useful during an upcoming recession/depression?

#14
while we see some industries taking a hit during this crises, we also see many others soaring with the rise of distributed and remote work. Software products targeting this field will get even more relevant and jobs will likely flourish. That is why I believe having software/management skills are still relevant in the short/long-term.

Re: Ask HN: What skills will be useful during an upcoming recession/depression?

#15
post #8
post #4

Knowing multiple languages, to maximize your options.

As a grandchild of a holocaust survivor, this was told to me repeatedly.

Greg Fenves, the president of UT Austin tells the story of his dad who sneaked out of Buchenwald and was recognized at a factory using prisoners for slave labor by an SS guard who knew him from the camp. Upon being asked what he was doing there (being too young for normal labor selection) he on the fly responded that that Buchenwald had thought the factory would need an interpreter

Re: Ask HN: What skills will be useful during an upcoming recession/depression?

#16
post #11
post #4

Knowing multiple languages, to maximize your options.

You mean natural languages, not programming ones, right?

i think both would be usefull espescially when its time to rebuild.

if you know old programing language and are able to port ancient applications and data structures to a recent language and platform you will be valuable for the rebuilding.

Re: Ask HN: What skills will be useful during an upcoming recession/depression?

#18

Being a doctor is always valuable, though I'm not sure it's that easy to retrain into one... More importantly, knowing how to live frugally is valuable in and of itself, assuming we do end up with a once-in-a-century-type depression. Not impossible, according to some ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22655670 ) but then forecasting is very difficult, especially when it involves the future.

Freelance general practitioners are massively being laid off (contracts terminated, no new opportunities) at the moment in the Netherlands. Almost no one is allowed to come to a gp office, anything that is not urgent is postponed...

Re: Ask HN: What skills will be useful during an upcoming recession/depression?

#19
post #2

Agriculture, hunting, fishing, carpentry and masonry.

Einstein: "I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."

Is there a war coming?
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