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

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91–100 of 194 posts

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

#91

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…

I'm am really trying to determine whether or not this will be the next great depression.

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

#92

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…

love this, thank you

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

#93
post #3

develop a flare for barter and trade. learn how to provide the things people actually need. general construction trades and adhoc engineering. farming. hunting fishing. veternary skills surgical skills midwivery dentistry. localized /offgrid/on site power generation. production of fuel from raw materials.

Adding to this: learn the basics of ham radio. Not only is the theory fun if you're the math/science type, it's also a lifeline service if cellphone or satellite communications are down. You can learn enough in a weekend to get an amateur license and buy $20 radios that will let you talk across the state or further.

and right away find a local repeater and get accepted into an operators net, thats going to be crucial...

there should be some rep among operators to avoid bad apples that would try to take or make advantage with black comms

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

#94

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…

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

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

#95
post #90

> I'm afraid that in this new reality my software/management skills won't be of any use in 6 months. First skill: Patience Second skill: Adaptability Third skill: Resilience. Software will always be needed. You just might need to work a "beer money" job for a little while.

or learn how to make your own beer

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

#97

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.

> 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…

"The chief task in life is simply this: to identify and separate matters so that I can say clearly to myself which are externals not under my control, and which have to do with the choices I actually control. Where then do I look for good and evil? Not to uncontrollable externals, but within myself to the choices that are my own . . .” —EPICTETUS

Stoicism helped me get out of my own head.

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

#98
post #58

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?

Start by learning how to be a good listener.

Beyond that, remember to relax and be yourself. In my experience, people aren’t judging you nearly as much as you think they are.

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

#99
post #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...

Doctors should start making house calls again. In full protective gear

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

#100

Honestly, I don’t believe we will see a huge depression unless there is war. People are still available for work and all the equipment used for producing value is in good conditions. So long as government provides fiscal stimulus, depression shouldn’t happen. In case it happens though, you are better of farming stuff like potatoes and chicken than developing software until government steps in with fiscal stimulus, th…

In many cases, people aren't available; they're sheltering at home, social distancing. Even for those who can work remotely, the disruption to routine is going to reduce productivity. And worse, many assets are going to be destroyed- for instance, restaurants that go under while distancing is taking place are just going to be gone, and while the brute equipment can be reused later, the "organizational capital" (the habits and knowledge of how to run that particular business in that particular context most effectively) vanishes.

Various governmental interventions (stimulus, rent freezes, etc) can ameliorate this, but I'm not confident (and the financial sector isn't confident, I think) that the government is presently competent enough to get too much mileage out of implementing these; stimulus needs to be done correctly and promptly to have much effect.

If you're in (or your customers are in) an industry that can hunker down and "weather the downturn," the eventual return to normal will be priced in and you'll likely be fine. If you're in (or ditto) an industry that will suffer attrition, the uncertainty will be priced in and you're liable to suffer. Give some thought as to where you stand.

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