Ask HN: What practical skills do you recommend?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29535592

by leephillips • 5 years ago

43 63 5 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

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?

smackeyacky• 5 years ago

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.

leephillips6• 5 years ago

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

thesuperbigfrog• 5 years ago

Several practical life skills to learn / try out:

Cooking

Fishing

Camping

Marksmenship: archery or firearms

leephillips6• 5 years ago

With marksmanship I feel there is a mysterious talent factor at work. I could drive nails with a pistol after very little practice, but have never been able to hit anything with a bow. My daughter, however, was hitting bullseyes with a bow and arrow in no time.

byoung2• 5 years ago

Learn how to back up a trailer. Comes in handy at the boat ramp or at hardware stores.

ggm• 5 years ago

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.

jschveibinz2• 5 years ago

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

moneywoes2• 5 years ago

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

itisit• 5 years ago

1. Smile.

2. Make a positive remark on how you'll use or enjoy the gift.

3. Say "thank you".

scollet• 5 years ago

More important than the gift itself is that someone made the effort.

flickster• 5 years ago

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

tugberkk2• 5 years ago

Dale Carnegie has a beautiful book about this matter: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4865.How_to_Win_Friends_...

jschveibinz2• 5 years ago

First, the best way to start a conversation is to inquire about the other person. Make them feel good by asking about them. In English, there is an acronym you can use (H-E-L-P) that has been around for a long time. Start a conversation with words that start with “H” first, like “health,” “home,” etc. And then move on to “E” words, etc. Have fun!!

qnsi• 5 years ago

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

wbsss4412• 5 years ago

A better way to state it is to say you should learn how to brace properly with your abdominals when lifting heavy.

As for the muscles involved, a deadlift isn’t just back or legs or core, it’s all of those. Your Glutes and hamstrings are the “prime movers” that perform the actual movement, while you back and “core” musculature are bracing and stabilizing, allowing the movement to be translated into Bar movement.

leephillips6• 5 years ago

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);

moneywoes2• 5 years ago

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.

whalesalad2• 5 years ago

Myofascial release. Being able to be your own physical therapist / chiropractor is very empowering.

Growing your own outdoor crops. This will give you a stronger intuition for weather, the timing of the seasons, mindfulness around humidity (or lack thereof) etc.

semireg• 5 years ago

Where do you learn advanced techniques?

whalesalad2• 5 years ago

YouTube, Reddit, I own all of Kelly Starrett's books. The basics are pretty simple - but I think it takes time to form a mind-body connection. Over time you get a sixth sense about your body and can pin-point exactly what area, tendon, etc... is stuck and causing you to be out of alignment.

yuppie_scum• 5 years ago

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.

namelosw• 5 years ago

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.

4887d30omd8• 5 years ago

Learning how to get around by bicycle, skateboard, scooter, boat, and other non-car forms of travel.

sanfranciscoave• 5 years ago

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• 5 years ago

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.

e19293001• 5 years ago

Soiless planting. Hydroponics

Plant lettuce, figure out why it died. Learn from mistakes, and improve. Plant again. Harvest.

Repeat.

Gustomaximus• 5 years ago

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.

xupybd• 5 years ago

Starting conversations with strangers. Learning to be comfortable doing the uncomfortable can take you a long way.

tmaly• 5 years ago

Growing plants outdoors and indoors.

If you want to have a garden or grow blueberry bushes, it is super helpful to have these basic skills.

hellelujah• 5 years ago

touch typing

ironmagma2• 5 years ago

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.

ignorantguy2• 5 years ago

do you have a good starting source?

ironmagma2• 5 years ago

I would maybe start with the individual components.

How a differential works: https://youtu.be/yYAw79386WI

There are a number of videos of transparent engines: https://youtu.be/nvMcFQqhbpM But if that doesn’t work, searching YouTube for “how an engine works” should give lots of content. Once you’ve figured out how the engine turns the flywheel, you can investigate how the flywheel applies different speeds to the wheels via a transmission. Manual transmissions are simpler, so I would start there: https://youtu.be/wCu9W9xNwtI then figure out how the clutch fits in. After that, you can move on to torque converters (coolest component imo, basically a fluid coupling) and automatic transmissions, which can be a mind-bender.

Feel free to reach out to me at pc.peterso at Mail of g dot common TLD, happy to share what I learned and save you some time.

Lastly, there is a wealth of tidbits on Engineering Explained and howacarworks.com, although the latter goes into far more detail than you probably need.

hzlatar• 5 years ago

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.

thiht• 5 years ago

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

tugberkk2• 5 years ago

* 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/

magarnicle• 5 years ago

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"

raptorraver• 5 years ago

Making bread.

https://breadpunk.club/docs/manifesto/

stratosgear• 5 years ago

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...

giantg22• 5 years ago

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.

codingdave• 5 years ago

Heinlein was a bit odd in that many of his writings, especially his lesser-read short novels, were written about these idealistic characters, living in idealistic environments that were full of equality, self-empowerment, and ignoring societal norms... yet at the same time, was often led by a man who could do everything, had everything, and everyone served him. It was like he saw the potential for change, but still fell back on a strong patriachical paradigm. An odd mix. And that quote is written from the perspective of one of his patriarchs. It is a good example of the variety of tasks that a self-sufficient person may learn. But I would not take that specific list as a correct guide for our time or society.

afarrell2• 5 years ago

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• 5 years ago

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'.

leephillips6• 5 years ago

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

rramadass• 5 years ago

* 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).

helpfulmandrill• 5 years ago

How about knitting?

sul_tasto• 5 years ago

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...

poormystic• 5 years ago

Get a good understanding of division.

thorin• 5 years ago

- Looking after you physical and mental health

- Starting and cultivating friendships

- DIY, I used to be a bit confident with that stuff, but had a dip, now starting to try and get more confident in my 40s. Simple stuff like basic wiring, plumbing, woodwork, painting, car maintenance. My dad is awesome with this stuff which always put me off

- being bored, and finding enjoyable things to do in your spare time

mattbrewsbytes• 5 years ago

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.

manx• 5 years ago

Sharpening knives

leephillips6• 5 years ago

This one is super useful. So many people buy ridiculous gadgets because they never learned how to use a sharpening stone, and their kitchens are full of dull knives. I hate cooking unless my knife is really sharp.

p0d• 5 years ago

Being able to use a hand saw to cut wood. I keep one in the boot of my car now :-)

Sunrider• 5 years ago

Learning a foreign languge

leephillips6• 5 years ago

Obviously worthwhile, but if you claim to be able to do this in a couple of hours I’d like to know your secret.

clircle• 5 years ago

How to make small talk!

kleer0012• 5 years ago

I felt like a an adult once I embraced small talk. As a kid it seemed stupid. But it's fundamental to real life social discourse.

kleer0012• 5 years ago

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.

afarrell2• 5 years ago

A human being should be able to

1. Change a diaper

2. Plan a party

3. Buy groceries

4. Change a tire

5. Redesign a room

6. Write a thank-you letter

7. Balance accounts

8. Assemble Furniture

9. Clean and dress a wound

10. Comfort the grieving

11. Delegate clearly

12. Listen attentively

13. Cooperate

14. Act alone

15. Solve equations

16. Analyze a new problem

17. Declog a toilet

18. Program a spreadsheet

19. Cook a tasty meal

20. Argue persuasively

21. Practice their profession so they can be trusted to deliver results by someone who needs specialized skills.

slipwalker• 5 years ago

improvisation ( like, improv classes ) or role playing ( kinda improvisation with a fantasy background ).

It's quite useful on the daily interactions with other people... ( specially when you have to lie through your teeth ).

ollran• 5 years ago

Sicilian Defence (1. e4 c5) and how to develop it further by using different variations. It is easy to learn, it has hundreds of years of history and it is very popular in grandmaster tournaments.

Ask HN: What practical skills do you recommend?

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