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

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41–50 of 194 posts

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

#41

the #1 thing is how to build community online... effectively, relationships. this is actually harder to do for a lot of folks... especially the millions who are now forced to do it. im training a few folks a week: http://yen.camp

To add, self-promotion is also a very useful skill in these times.

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

#42
The care industry at local level is poised to do well and get funded more than in the recent past in order to protect the vulnerable part of the population from the disease and avoid further waves. They will need generalists and computer-savvy operators to smoothen their peaks for sure.

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

#43

I think the most important skill is learning how to gain access to zero-interest loans from the Federal Reserve. This skill allows you to lend to your buddies who can purchase distressed businesses and properties for pennies on the dollar, which gives you and them the opportunity to make billions in profits while everybody else is suffering. I’m still trying to learn how to do this; if anybody has any information abo…

which gives you the opportunity to make billions in profits while everybody else is suffering.

And hopefully utilize those profits to help fewer suffer.

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

#45
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."

when i was young there was this bully that screwed with everyone, one day someone put him down to the ground and several of his repeat victims fell upon him like animals, when he was down and vulnerable. the kid ended up in the hospital.

A tactical position requires caution when vulnerable. old festering wounds and international quarrels can quickly be escalated in a situation like this.

It is a feasible scenario that someone of less than level head thinking will:

see opportunity >take advantage >achieve an objective.

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

#46
People 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.

Learn how to not spend money. How to reduce your energy and water usage. How to do basic repairs and projects yourself. What you have to buy in a time of logistical disruption is time. If you can increase the time you can be without income from a month to four months or from six months to two years, that is a remarkable difference in your resilience.

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

#48
I'd recommend learning about markets and economics. My suspicion is that states will continue to implement all steps necessary to contain the virus over the next 18 months and bail out all businesses and consumers in order to keep the productivity of the economy close to the level prior to the outbreak. Depending on how difficult it will be to contain the virus, this might require funds on an unprecedented scale in modern times. It's difficult to predict how eager investors will be to finance these deficits. Obviously something like a hyperinflation scenario is completely out of the question for a developed state like the US and there will likely be more deflationary pressure over the next few years, but at some point states will have to deleverage and I'm inclined to say that they will probably do this using higher inflation rates, in which case you can probably profit a lot from knowing about markets and economics.

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

#49

I think the most important skill is learning how to gain access to zero-interest loans from the Federal Reserve. This skill allows you to lend to your buddies who can purchase distressed businesses and properties for pennies on the dollar, which gives you and them the opportunity to make billions in profits while everybody else is suffering. I’m still trying to learn how to do this; if anybody has any information abo…

> This skill allows you to purchase distressed businesses and properties for pennies on the dollar Banks aren’t net purchasers of assets in downturns. (If anything, they tend to shed risk-weighted assets.) Non-bank financial firms, who have access to cheap financing, but NOT to Fed funding, are the asset accumulators. They go into crises with cash or credit lines. (And tend to be net financiers to banks in crises. Ba…

Thanks; I updated the comment.

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

#50
My 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!

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