Ask HN: What practical skills do you recommend?

[leephillips]

I have in mind not things that take years to master and that you develop over a lifetime, like programming or playing the piano. But there are some practical skills that can be learned in a couple of hours and refreshed with an hour of practice every month or so, but that have a disproportionate return on investment.

Two examples of skills that I regularly find useful are classical lockpicking and knowing how to tie a variety of knots. The first has gotten me and friends out of jams when someone lost a key and got locked out, etc.; and if you don’t know knots you will never be able to tie a load tightly to the roof of your car.

What skills do you recommend that I add to my repertoire?

[namelosw]

Cooking is perfect for what you're asking:

It's relatively easy to be great at it: To make something taste great, you only need to learn sporadically over months (because restaurants cook in batches and are time/cost-sensitive). It's substantially easier to make something taste on par with professionals, compared to other skills like drawing.

You can do a lot of modifications and trade-offs to your liking - easily adjust things to your taste, lower the cost, be more healthy, or make the cooking process faster.

You can share with people you love. Invite friends to cook with you. And show off on social media though I rather not.

With that being said, just start simple, don't stockpile gadgets. It's more about skill and less about hardware. In Chinese cooking, a professional chef can cook hundreds of dishes with no more than five dirt-cheap cookwares.

[jschveibinz]

Not in any order of importance:

1. Basic mechanical drawing and perspective drawing 2. Jogging a mile without stopping 3. Using abdominal muscles when lifting heavy things 4. Stomach breathing 5. Waking a half hour early to journal, meditate, take a walk, enjoy the morning, etc. 6. Being mindful of the moment 7. Basic kinematics 8. Basic electrical concepts and skills 9. Basic plumbing skills 10. Basic photography and composition 11. How to graciously receive a gift 12. How to start a conversation with a stranger

[moneywoes]

Any suggestions for #11? I loathe receiving gifts for this reason despite giving them out often.

[flickster]

Do you have tips on how to improve or even learn #12?

[qnsi]

shouldnt lifting heavy things be done using back muscles? Like in deadlifting

[stratosgear]

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, analyse a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.

— Robert Heinlein, Time Enough for Love

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Competent_man

Sorry for not providing concrete instructions for each...

[giantg2]

I mean, I sort of agree, but the real world doesn't reward people like that. Society is all about conforming and those of us that don't fit the mold are held in high regards by a small number of friends but not rewarded by society. Those who highly specialize are the winners.

I'm a jack of all trades and new people I meet tend to be surprised by the various activities that I can perform. Yet I'm a near useless, underpaid (for the position, not performance), mid-level dev with no professional future.

[afarrell]

Can anyone name a single real person who can do all of those skills competently?

If not, this is an unhelpful response to this question.

[lelanthran]

This sort of thing is very specific to personality types. For my personality type I've found the following list to save me huge amounts of money. I'm in South Africa, though, so depending on your circumstances some of these may not make sense to you.

1. Automobile diagnosis and repair: A repair (water-pump, thermostat, cambelt and everything in that work-path) was quoted at R19k (ZAR) from the dealership, I bought the parts from them for R8k and did the work in a weekend. Generally, if you can do your own maintenance on your car, you have no need to upgrade it every time you pay it off. By my rough calculations, by making our cheap cars last 350000km or more, I've saved enough to buy a small flat[1].

2. Basic metal-working skills: You'd be surprised how many problems round the house are solvable if you can weld one piece of metal to another. A lot of the fancy tools that cost big money (like the camshafts alignment tool, which costs around R2k) can be solved by simply fashioning a piece of metal to do the job.

3. Plumbing. Learn the basics of fixing leaks. A callout from a plumber, without any work being done, is R1.8k. I recently fixed 3 major leaks with around R200 in parts (pieces of pipe, ferrules, etc).

4. Basic carpentry: This is a nice to have, but almost never saves me much money. I may save a few hundreds for shelves, cupboards, but the time investment is way more than I like considering how little I save.

[1] My house is close to being paid off. I credit this with the fact that our three cars only cost insurance and repairs, and so I could put cash into the mortgage that other people put into the purchase of a car. This means you have to be willing to own the car, not merely rent it until your next 'upgrade'.

[leephillips]

Welding is one that I never learned but always thought it would probably be useful.

[hzlatar]

Learn to listen other people talking. I am not sure that is what you intended to search for, but it is practical and it is skill. It is hard, though.

Listening skills help not only in your professional life, but also in raising kids and having a good relationship with friends and family.

[ggm]

Cooking. Embrace cucina povera as well as rich foods, you need both at different times.

Exercise more. Be agile in the original sense.

Learn to listen. Learn how not to interrupt and when to interrupt.

[sul_tasto]

Barbell training. Your body is designed to be used and needs to be used. It’s amazing how taking care of your body also nurtures your mind. This book is an excellent introduction. My only caveats are to learn proper form and to go slow. Your muscles will respond much more quickly than your joints and bones.

https://aasgaardco.com/store/books-posters-dvd/books/startin...

[sanfranciscoave]

I would add sewing to this list.

Pretty simple to learn how to use a sewing machine in an afternoon or so, and will pay dividends for the rest of your life.

I've been able to repair or alter my clothes in a pinch when needed.

[jjice]

I was surprised by how easy it was to learn how to take in a shirt, parts, or shirt sleeves. Instantly makes your clothes looks so much better on you, since most clothing you buy is meant to fit as many people as possible. Hell, making your sleeves not boxy alone makes your shirt look so much better, and it'll take you less than 30-45 minutes to both learn how to do it and actually do it on a shirt.

[tugberkk]

* Physical fitness. You need to be able to run and swim a specific distance. Lift yourself from the ground and up to someplace, etc.

I believe this website can also help you: https://www.artofmanliness.com/skills/

[thiht]

Some underrated skills if you’re a programmer:

- regular expressions (PCRE even)

- git

- bash and posix sh + basic Linux building blocks (find/xargs, sed, grep, awk, …)

Lots of people don’t ever take the time to learn these formally instead of struggling to use them sporadically. Take the time to learn your tools properly, it makes a huge difference.

3 more that are extremely useful:

- SQL

- CSS

- Makefiles

[yuppie_scum]

Home maintenance/general contractor tasks are the biggest value prop in my opinion. Generally low barrier to entry and high return on investment. Any time you can save the time, hassle and expense of calling a contractor or tradesperson it will pay off. Also if you get the knack, you can make some serious money either flipping or landlording. (IMO hard to really excel at either of these without hands on skills)

Financial literacy is also huge.. and I’m not talking about crypto. I’m talking about classic get rich slow investing, understanding how taxes work, bonds vs stocks and asset allocations. Researching John Boggle/Bogleheads wiki is a great place to start with this.

[leephillips]

A few more:

Soldering, using a multimeter, basic electrical repair;

Basic first aid;

Solvents;

Sailing small boats;

Basic cocktails (make a good martini or margarita from scratch);

[matt_s]

DIY skills are easy to pick up and can save you money while being rewarding. Especially true if you own a house or townhouse where you are responsible for maintenance.

Learning basic plumbing, carpentry, and wiring can save you from expensive contractors. Things I've learned to do over the years: re-plumb sink after new countertops were installed, install a dishwasher, a garbage disposal, deck repairs, finish a basement including wiring, etc.

DIY things I've stayed away from: gas lines, major repairs/jobs like roofing, HVAC, and flooring/tiling. Basic wiring can be intimidating but if you are doing simple stuff like adding an outlet, installing a ceiling light/fan, replacing a switch, etc. they are do-able, safety first.

Tangent: People are noticing rent costs going up a lot across the US. A naive view is "it's the same apartment why is rent 20% higher?!?" Part of this is the cost of maintenance has gone up. If an apartment complex was planning to re-roof a building next year - their costs probably have doubled.

[moneywoes]

Safe driving, driving is the leading cause of death for those under 55 I believe. Furthermore, I think a severe injury would be worse then death.

[rramadass]

* Basic Electricity and Electronics - Power socket load limits, power/current calculations etc. (using P=VI and V=IR) and learning to use a DMM/USB power meter. Given the plethora of power adapters, cords, batteries and gadgets in use today, this has become indispensable.

* Basic Cooking skills - Enables you to survive wherever you go. This is so fundamental i am not sure why more people don't learn how to cook basic stuff from their culture.

* Basic Household "Handyman" work - Do as much of your Household repair/chores as possible by yourself and save money. I have seen people unable to even change a busted light switch or tighten a leaking kitchen drain pipe.

* Basic Exercises - Whole body Stretching and Strengthening (using Body Weight ) exercises; you need no equipment whatsoever.

In general, try to be self-reliant in everything with minimum dependency on others. There is so much information available today that you can learn/repair/fix almost anything (within limits of course).

[kleer001]

Psychology: knowing yourself, knowing others.

To that end getting really comfortable with the big 5, then branching off to HEXACO if you like it.

Once you've got that down move on to Non Violent Communication.

These can help to form the basis of genius level soft skills, getting what you want from and for other people with less friction, and in the end faster.

[Gustomaximus]

I think home handyman stuff is some of the best skills. Can save you a fortune if your willing to run projects around the house vs hire people and is very satisfying.

I only started learning hands on stuff in my late 30's when I moved rural. I'm getting better but still useless compared to my more capable neighbours and will hire people, occasionally to fix something I made worse, but still recommend.

My next project is to install a septic system during my Christmas holidays but I'll labour for a guy who knows what he is doing as dont want to get this one wrong first time around.

[magarnicle]

How to deliver a baby. If been studying a few basic life saving skills just in case, and it turned out I needed this one. I just reviewed this every now and then:

"Contractions 3-5 min apart, 40 -90 secs; support head and body at birth; dry off and keep warm; clear fluid from mouth; tie cord a few inches from mother with string e.g. shoelace; don't cut unless hours from hospital, but if needed tie again closer to mother"

[ironmagma]

Learning how a car works turned out to be a seminal moment in life. Suddenly, lots of machinery, from guns to lawnmowers, seems simple and straightforward.

[ignorantguy]

do you have a good starting source?

[smackeyacky]

Learn mechanical sympathy.

That is, how much to tighten bolts without breaking stuff, knowing which tools are for what.

This can be learned by working on fragile things like bicycles, but it will help with everything from changing out a waterpump in a car or a dishwasher, to plumbing and electrical work.

Its something that does take more time than a few hours, but being inquisitive about mechanical things is helped by knowing how much force is appropriate when repairing them.

[leephillips]

Good one. I think this was the only thing I took away from Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.