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

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

#51

Post by inglor »

mirekrusin wrote: post #31

Aim to be an expert in your field = what you love to do and you'll be fine. High performing people are unaffected during crisis.

I'm a "high performer", a core collaborator in a big open source project and a library maintainer of a few libraries with 10M+ weekly downloads on NPM. I have a BSc in CS and lots of "good" industry experience in strong start ups for long-ish ( 5 year ) durations.

I'm definitely going to be impacted by this recession. I was impacted by the 2008 recession and I was impacted by the dot-com bubble. A lot of friends went to do enterprise Java at banks, jobs without glamour and other things to pay the bills.

There are a lot of things I get away with right now that I won't be able to get away with anymore.

Also don't forget that "high performers" are more expensive and a lot of times "mid performers" do a good-enough job, so high performers had to compromise for mid-performer salaries during recessions.

Obviously start-ups closing and less funding all around also changes the supply-demand balance in the short term. It's likely to induce job changes and closures for at least some of us.

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

#52

Post by soumyadeb »

gonational wrote: post #23

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…

Or get a loan from an Indian bank. The interest rate doesn't matter since you don't have to pay the loan back :)

There were some high profile cases of people taking millions of dollars of loans and running away (search for Neerav Modi, Mehul Choksi) so I am not making this up.

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

#53

Post by mraudiobook_com »

criddell wrote: post #35
1123581321 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should be looking at borrowing from a bank. The Fed does not lend to individuals.

So step one is "found a bank"?

Cheaper to buy used. I was looking a few years ago and found a small credit union for sale for $150k.

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

#55

Post by 1121redblackgo »

Mental 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.

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

#56

Post by Wistar »

joering2 wrote: post #29
ohiovr wrote: post #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 is…

Strongly advise against making any parts of equipment for healthcare or even more - device that sustains life. If it breaks, it will be very simple for government to find you liable. That's also - sadly - reason why these ventilators are so darn expensive, so that they go thru lots of scrutiny and testing.

Plus skyhigh product liability premiums.

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

#57

Post by enumjorge »

roschdal wrote: post #2

Agriculture, hunting, fishing, carpentry and masonry.

The implication here being that the virus will disrupt society in such a way that people will need to hunt for their own food or hire people who will do it for them?

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

#58

Post by pen2l »

tmountain wrote: post #32

Cooking from basic ingredients. Growing a basic seasonal garden. Finding ways to be happy with less and appreciate the simple pleasures in life. Placing value on human relationships more than material things. The art of conversation. Enjoying simple/affordable/accessible hobbies.

All of these things seem learnable with available resources except the art of conversation, something that I actually need a lot of work on. And recommendations on how I can improve on this?

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

#59

Post by mraudiobook_com »

BurningFrog wrote: post #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!

How do things go back to the way they were with twice the amount of money in the system and half the small businesses gone?

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

#60

Post by ryanianian »

nsmog767 wrote: post #4

Knowing multiple languages, to maximize your options.

Many native speakers of Spanish and other languages are also confined to their homes right now. This means there are a lot of multilingual professionals eager to help native English speakers learn. There are a number of sites that facilitate remote, 1-on-1 lessons for many languages. You can get 1:1 teaching for under $10/hour (a bit more if you want somebody with teaching experience - imho not that necessary if you're motivated). Plus it's a great way to socialize. I'm currently using Verbling but there are others. Highly recommended if you're into learning languages but have hit a plateau.
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