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Ask HN: What are some skills you have that are worth learning?

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Re: Ask HN: What are some skills you have that are worth learning?

#91

- Learn to edit well, it's how to write well. Nothing opens doors like clear writing. For sources of quality edited writing, read The Economist, Quanta, and the first novels by authors who wrote 20th century literary fiction. Their later ones had less editing. - Negotiation + game theory. Learn the traditional methods, and then forget everything you know about them because the real world has changed and broken the as…

> - Learn confidence and humility by mastering a common physical skill like an instrument, singing, or performing monologues, etc. Not stupid tricks, but something where other people are objectively way better than you are and plan to be embarrassingly bad at it for at least a decade. I would personally recommend martial arts for this. You get a useful skill (eventually), there is no skill ceiling, and there are alwa…

I mean, whatever floats your boat really, but when exactly are martial arts useful? The average person might use them once in a lifetime. A year's worth of voice lessons and pretty much any non-trained person will love hearing you sing along to any song, and you will make them want to sing. It's a way to relate to people and make friends in nearly any social situation.

Even if you're just more into the kinesthetic work, dance will pay more dividends and be more useful for basically the same reasons. Breaking is especially fundamental and nearly always works.

Again, do whatever works for you. But martial arts are really very rarely a useful thing to have learned. (And to be fair, performing monologues per the OP's suggestion is about as un-useful as martial arts relative to singing and dancing.)

Re: Ask HN: What are some skills you have that are worth learning?

#92

One simple magic trick, no matter how cheezy, even if it uses a cheap prop from a magic shop. Be able to do it smoothly and convincingly, while saying you are rusty and out of practice. It's not going to give you a "great expansion of possibilities", more like an "occasional ability to charm your way into an improved situation". Bang for the buck, though, I tellya.

Card tricks are good for this one. My great-grandfather had one (that I've now forgotten) that he'd use to entertain all of us as kids.

Re: Ask HN: What are some skills you have that are worth learning?

#93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> learning to cook and prepare your own food. > learn to budget money and manage expenses. if you've never done this before, i very, very strongly suggest you look at how much eating out is costing you. my wife and i are saving literally thousands of dollars a month.

How do you managed budget and food?

Not who you are replying to but I recently (2.5 months ago) started using YNAB again and have fallen in love with it. The last time I tried it was when it was desktop software but their newer web-based version with transaction import/sync is a game changer for me.

As for food I can't really help there. I ended up writing my own app to manage/track expiration dates for what I have but that's barely the tip of the ice-burg. I hope to integrate with my recipe app (Paprika) to work on meal-planning and picking recipes I like while trying to use up the stuff that will go bad first.

Re: Ask HN: What are some skills you have that are worth learning?

#94

Learn how to take care of yourself first. That includes: * learning to cook and prepare your own food. * learn proper sleeping habits and make a routine that feels comfortable. * learn to exercise - pick an activity and do it consistently with some goals in mind. * learn to budget money and manage expenses. * learn to groom yourself and maintain a regular cleanliness routine * learn to entertain yourself alone - with…

> learning to cook and prepare your own food. > learn to budget money and manage expenses. if you've never done this before, i very, very strongly suggest you look at how much eating out is costing you. my wife and i are saving literally thousands of dollars a month.

Looking at my monthly eat-out cost is a real wake up for me.

If I don’t have prepared food or a snack it’s very easy to be tempted to grab something quick and overeat.

Re: Ask HN: What are some skills you have that are worth learning?

#95

One simple magic trick, no matter how cheezy, even if it uses a cheap prop from a magic shop. Be able to do it smoothly and convincingly, while saying you are rusty and out of practice. It's not going to give you a "great expansion of possibilities", more like an "occasional ability to charm your way into an improved situation". Bang for the buck, though, I tellya.

Card tricks are good for this one. My great-grandfather had one (that I've now forgotten) that he'd use to entertain all of us as kids.

Yep, my one is a card trick. Two cards. I keep them in my wallet.

See also:

How to do 2 simple magic tricks--and why you should learn them - https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/13/smarter-living/how-to-do-...

https://www.reddit.com/r/Magic/comments/6u42om/whats_in_your...

Re: Ask HN: What are some skills you have that are worth learning?

#96

- Learn to edit well, it's how to write well. Nothing opens doors like clear writing. For sources of quality edited writing, read The Economist, Quanta, and the first novels by authors who wrote 20th century literary fiction. Their later ones had less editing. - Negotiation + game theory. Learn the traditional methods, and then forget everything you know about them because the real world has changed and broken the as…

For writing and editing I recommend listening to Death of a 1000 cuts, a writing podcast by a guy called Tim Clare. He critiques the first 250 words of somebody's novel each episode in an incredibly entertaining and edifying way. I learnt a lot from him.

Re: Ask HN: What are some skills you have that are worth learning?

#97

I'm reminded of: “A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.” ~…

I would also add, "build a fire", "set an effective snare" and "catch a fish". The TV series _Alone_ is a great insight into what are the absolute minimum requirements for survival.

Re: Ask HN: What are some skills you have that are worth learning?

#98

I'm reminded of: “A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.” ~…

Hmm, I can design a wall, analyze a diaper and butcher a sonnet.

Re: Ask HN: What are some skills you have that are worth learning?

#99

I'm reminded of: “A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.” ~…

I would also add, "build a fire", "set an effective snare" and "catch a fish". The TV series _Alone_ is a great insight into what are the absolute minimum requirements for survival.

Smelting metal still is the skill that makes you the king.

Re: Ask HN: What are some skills you have that are worth learning?

#100
Learn to sew. And to repair and maintain your things more generally, but sewing seems much more overlooked than e.g. car maintenance in this thread, even though more people wear clothes than own cars. You can fix minor rips in your clothes quickly before they turn into major issues. You can do basic alterations by hand (e.g. hemming). I like to put loops in my towels so they hang better on hooks and to embroider my initials on cloth items I might lose. Recently, I repaired my roommate’s rocking chair — the seat is made of canvas, which had torn along a stress point, so I sewed it back together by hand using a thick piece of replacement canvas to add reinforcement. With a sewing machine, I was also able to make a weighted blanket (much cheaper than it would’ve been to buy) and a couple of cloth face masks. Learning a bit about garment construction and fabric properties will help you evaluate clothes, so you can tell if something won’t last just by looking at it in the store, so you can spend less time buying clothes. You can also learn enough about basic hand sewing to get started attaching fabric to other fabric in like 15 minutes.

Also, get some kind of physical hobby that doesn’t involve looking at a computer. It’s nice to spend some time on evenings and weekends not staring at a screen, and I find that doing things with my hands is grounding.

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