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Ask HN: What are good life skills for people to learn?

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Re: Ask HN: What are good life skills for people to learn?

#161

Post by RobertKerans »

tarboreus wrote: post #75
bserge wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What? And if you force me to do your social song and dance, does that telegraph that you don't care about me? I care about the person and the work. Not about whether they hold their spoon and knife in the right hand.

Etiquette sends a strong signal that you're socially reliable. Working in groups is difficult and you can't just brute force it by waving your hands and saying you only care about the work or about being nice or whatever. Disagreements happen constantly and you can't just fight or disband the group every time you don't reach consensus, or you can but your group will be quickly outcompeted by a more functional group.…

It's quite sad that you've needed to put that much thought into an explanation.

Re: Ask HN: What are good life skills for people to learn?

#162

Post by analog31 »

chrismeller wrote: post #81
Retric wrote: post #30

Probably the most important skill people are skipping is etiquette. Which I think says a lot about HN. Communication (texting, listening, etc), maintaining and creating relationships, avoiding injury, relaxation, exercise, cooking, healthy eating, self defense, first aid, swimming, types of reading (fun, searching, learning), searching, separating truth from fiction, knowing when to seek help, a hobby, cleaning, main…

Keep in mind that etiquette is highly subjective and culture-specific. As English speakers a lot of ours is derived from traditional British customs, even if you’re not a native of a former colony. For instance, saying “excuse me” before you barge in front of someone to get something off the shelf at a shop. I’m American, so that is obvious. I live in Estonia, and here you either 1) stand awkwardly and wait for them…

Indeed, being able to quickly perceive and adapt to the prevailing etiquette of your surroundings is the graduate level of learning etiquette.

Re: Ask HN: What are good life skills for people to learn?

#163

Post by woopwoop »

dlandis wrote: post #101

Enough carpentry and building skills to be able to build decks, porches, sheds, renovate rooms in your house, etc. If you're a homeowner and can improve your home with little help from contractors, you will be able to affordably increase the value of your house immensely, as well as the quality of your home life and that of your family. The return on investment can be crazy -- imagine being able to take a couple week…

So, more generally, you could say that you can save money by doing a task yourself that you usually leave to a professional specialist. In most cases, this is clearly ridiculous. I'm not going to start sewing my own clothes, or doing maintenance on my car beyond maybe changing my own oil. What makes home repairs different?

Re: Ask HN: What are good life skills for people to learn?

#165

Post by tmsh »

Learn to control your primordial[1] mind.

The next time you have elemental cravings for food, drink, sex, and other more-short-term dopamine hints (people pleasing, superficial personal relationships, appeasing, etc.), not in line with your goals, stick to your goals.

This is a big part of military courses.[2] You're capable of a lot more than you think (at a physical level, what you think of as your max is likely 30-40% of your capacity.. be cognizant though that 70-100% borderlines on death, but it's unlikely a person not training for a long-time would have to worry about hitting those limits).[3] The same thing applies up each level of Maslow's hierarchy.

Many consumer businesses are built on you not doing so and conflating convenience and activities slowly detrimental to healthy life goals. The best thing you can do is practice slowly not doing those things. Every time you stick to your pre-frontal cortex and don't give in to your primordial mind, you become stronger at more difficult things. And it compounds. Each basis point (eating healthy v. eating unhealthy; learning how to cook something well, etc.; putting down that TikTok feed; persisting with that design or SaaS side project, etc.) compounds.

Charlie Mike.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/General-Theory-Love-Thomas-Lewis-eboo...

[2] https://bootcampmilitaryfitnessinstitute.com/media/tv-docume...

[3] https://www.forbes.com/sites/chrismyers/2017/10/06/the-40-ru...

Re: Ask HN: What are good life skills for people to learn?

#166

Post by rdudekul »

The number one life skill, based on my own experience is, Self Inquiry (Who Am I?) based Meditation. Know that you are not your body or your mind, but the Awareness or knowing that observes all your thoughts, sensations, feelings and perceptions. Search Youtube for Rupert Spira and watch some of his meditations.

Re: Ask HN: What are good life skills for people to learn?

#168

Post by codq »

falcor84 wrote: post #14

Here's Lazarus Long's list, from Heinlein's "Time Enough for Love", which I had actually just posted on another thread recently: "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 man…

Is there a wiki-how compilation for all of these?

I've got the first one down, but lose steam at "plan an invasion".

Re: Ask HN: What are good life skills for people to learn?

#169

Post by rishabhd »

kpmcc wrote: post #94

Cooking cooking cooking. You’ll eat probably until the day you die. Might as well figure out how to feed yourself in a way that sustains you and brings some joy to you and possibly to others.

In our community (garhwalis), we are taught to cook from a very young age informally. Identifying spices, combinations, tempering, different ways of cooking, different curry preparations and how to optimize/ prepare with different ingredients is a common theme of growing up. To be honest I am quite glad it is still being taught and probably I will pass it on to my kids as well. Absolutely indispensable and important.
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