Asklemmy @lemmy.ml

1y ago

What skill do you believe everyone should possess?

127 comments

Critical thinking. Consider the intent of the source.
- This, and reading comprehension.
  
  What's "this"? I can't see what you're holding.
  /s
- Hmmm, I'm sceptic about this

It's a big ask, but Empathy.
- I see plenty of Empathy in the world, compassion is what we need I think. Empathy ironically makes people egotistical becaause if the feeling they emphesize with is bad they might blame the victom for transmitting them 'bad vibes' for instance. Or you might make an unfair decision because it appealed to your emotions. However with compassion you recognize someone is in need of help and try to provide that help, sidestepping all sorts of nasty pitfalls and leaving you a lot chiller.
- I feel like empathy is an umbrella term for different kinds of understanding about "the other person" at different times and different situations. It's so vague it's easy to both miss seeing it and finding it at all.

People should really know how to research. Sure, almost everyone knows how to do a google search, but there are shockingly many people who can’t research, i.e view multiple sources including those that don’t align with your views.
- You'd be surprised how many people don't even know how to do a Google search.
  
  Yes! It's all Facebook, Twitter, tiktok etc "content discoverable" platforms and WhatsApp.

Basic cooking.
You don't need to be Gordon Ramsey, but in a pinch, know how to make pasta, chilli and a few other things.
- Is chilli considered basic? Spicy food is not that common where I live. For me the basics would be to know how to:
  -Peel and cut veggies
  -Boil stuff
  -Fry eggs
  But maybe it's a cultural thing! I'm interested in knowing what you're doing with your chilli peppers ;)
  
  Basic chili recipe (people from texas can bite their tongue for five minutes one time):
  beans
  tomatoes
  onions
  peppers
  A little bit of cumin and salt to taste and you actually don’t need anything else to get something that is recognizable as chili.
  I add all sorts of other stuff, but that’s the basics.
  
  I think they mean Chilli as a dish, often a meat stew
  
  Oh i meant chili as in American chili. Beans and ground beef.
  Basically, just knowing how to make something easy for a quick meal if you need to.
- I'll just say I am lucky enough to have been the child in my family who learned to cook from my mom, but I can certainly agree people should know at least the basics.

Computer comprehension. You should have a basic understanding of what your pc is doing, web certificates, passwords, how to tell when youre being scammed, and how to protect your personal info. Knowledge doesnt need to be deep, just wide.
- I would say way more important is how to identify scams, whether they are online, by phone, mail or in person. Just a basic heuristic on - is this too good to be true? So you can take a pause and go do research. Most of the time, a ticking clock on a "great deal" is just a sales scam, and that "for 10 minutes only price" comes back weekly or is just actually "the price".
  Realize what makes "a call about your cars warranty" or "your credit card rate" spam at best. Take that and apply to more things. Is the car salesman vague about stuff? Probably going to try and screw you. Does the subscription only show the promotional rate? Know to get that ongoing rate before signing up. Just try and hone a gut feeling when things seem off somehow.
  
  Maybw scams should be its own subject
- Despite what the term "digital natives," I really feel this skill is slipping. Many of my peers woud probably get lapped by a boomer if they had to use an actual PC again

"Specialization is for insects. 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." -- Heinlein
- This explains why I'm tired all the time.
- God yes one of my favorite quotes! <3

A skill is too much to ask. I just want people to move out of the way when they get off the escalator so I don't bump into their asses.
- Fellow fast walker?
  
  Not even. They literally just stand there at the exit of the escalator, looking around for where to go next, and I have nowhere to go but to bump into them, because the escalator doesn't exactly let me stop when they stop.

How to write clearly in their native language.

As someone who almost drowned as a child, swimming is up there for me.
- Incredibly underated skill

Basic arithmetic to the point where you can e.g. calculate things like a budget when money is tight.
Enough understanding of statistics and probability to be able to understand what numbers reported in news stories about events and politics mean.
- They never tell you enough on the statistics on the news to actually get much solid info. Like sample size, error bars, did they fit a particular distribution, what was tossed as outliers and more.
  I always think about the chance of rain report and the different explanations of what it might mean (I don't recall which is correct, but it illustrates how confusing it can be) :
  Chance of rain today based on a predictive model
  Is different from
  It WILL rain today in this region and this percent of land area will get rain
  Is different from
  Over all the historical data for this region, we got rain on this percent of days when the conditions were "the same" in the past.
  But all can be reasonably said to be 59% chance of rain today.
  
  It does vary from place to place but in North America at least, most often it's that it will rain in __% of the land area.
  Additionally, I would add that knowing about statistics at least allows you to understand that without that additional info, any stat is essentially meaningless, or at least easily misleading.
  
  Agreed. But part of the reason why they never report the numbers is that most of the readers don't understand them anyway.
  And a lot of the time it is not even just complex studies people don't understand. There are also those who can't even judge the magnitude of numbers, e.g. when it comes to spending or the magnitude of percentages (e.g. that 25000 occurrences of a minor crime in a year is not a lot if the country has dozens of millions of inhabitants)

Self awareness
- I wish I could upvote this more than once.
  
  I wish responses like this would stay on Reddit.

In this day and age, how to stay safe online and spot what are often very obvious attempts at fraud/malicious activity.
- this, plus education about the dangers of online platforms and how they are used to spread misinformation and try to suck their users into an endless content stream via algorithm.

Learning things quickly.
It's totally its own skill, and you can learn to learn faster. What skills are useful changes with time -- the ones used in your career now might age like milk for reasons beyond your control.

The ability to survive outside / without a roof over one's head.
I'm not talking surviving solely off the land type of outdoor survival, although that is an excellent set of skills to obtain.
Learn how to set up shelter, or find shelter if a tent / tarp isn't available
Learn how to start a fire in multiple ways
Learn basic hunting skills
Learn how to sanitize / store drinking water
Learn basic first aid
Always remember the order of operations in a survival situation: Shelter, water, fire, food
- I'll just use my phone and call someone.
- I remember learning most of this when I was in scouts, even though I'll admit I can't say I remember most of it.
  I definitely remember at summer camp once having to take a bunch of wood found within the forest and making a makeshift shelter and for one night having to sleep in it. All for the wilderness survival badge.
  The skills you listed are definitely skills people should know just in case they are ever out in an area without cell signal. Although, really, everyone should know basic first aid since even just a little bit of first aid before a first responder comes can be the difference between life and death.

Insatiable curiosity

knowing boundaries of their own knowledge, so both knowing when to shut up and knowing when to say "know your place, trash" in discussion

How to polish and maintain your boots. On that subject, an awareness of why old school leather boots are an outstanding lifelong investment.
- Where does one find the proper old school leather boots?
  
  Redwings are a good place to start. Still made in the USA using old standard foot lasts, still warrantied for life, and still great boots. I've been looking into some hand made custom boots lately. They're about $500, but they'll last me the rest of my life with an occasional $50 resole job and they'll be tailor-made for my exact foot.

Basic networking skills. Most lives can be significantly improved by basic home network. WiFi deadzones, wireless printing, shared folders for basic documents and resources etc. All while being relatively secure.

A really good bullshit-o-meter.
So many issues with major media, corporate announcements, government announcements, and probably many other things can be solved with a good bullshit-o-meter.
What I really mean is critical thinking. Because there are vacuous ways to calibrate a bullshit-o-meter that lack logic entirely and tie one into some ideological goal. Then you can still claim to have a bullshit-o-meter but lack the ultimate goal of it, but it's really not a helpful tool at that point. My original meaning is a true, logic-based bullshit-o-meter.
- even a mediocre bs meter would work

Reading. Being able to quickly skim and comprehend text will give you an edge in basically every field.

Ability to take breaks.
So many people burn out from stuff they enjoy. If you take frequent breaks, it helps your mental and health overall.
- One of the big benefits of meditation practice is you can take a break from thinking and it’s so restful.

Food and shelter
- Agreed. Everyone should be able to cook themselves some good meals and unlock their door to get into their house.
  Very important skills.
- Mmm Lemmy comment deletion is weird as it stays there with my username. Anyway I misread the question and responded food and shelter if anyone’s wondering.

Basic zipper merge

Common sense, or better yet, critical thinking.

Swimming, martial art, basic cooking skills and probably some other things too
- That sounds like a pretty complicated skill

Cooking! We eat every day and eating out adds up quick.

Basic social skills. Let everyone talk and try not to disturb while they're at it. Hear others point of view. I think that would solve a lot of problems.

The ability to set and enforce personal boundaries.

Cope with stress

Cooking skills. It's so great to be able to make yourself a nice plate of food.

rooting android devices and installing a custom rom on them
- serious question, why?
- Hehe, I used to do this back with my galaxy ace duos. It had some 4 barely usable roms and I used to flash them regularly. I lost atleast 2 devices due to bricking, good old days.

Being able to maintain their own car.
- Otherwise, is it really their car?
  
  Exactly

The self- and contextual-awareness and communicative ability to express consent or lack of consent for engaging in any activity.
A lot of shame, regret, and anger could be avoided if all of us knew how to do that.

Mind reading, telekinesis and flying.
- You really want a world where everyone can read everyone else's mind?
  
  I think it would be a good thing in the long run, but if suddenly people could do this it would be a hell of an adjustment period that our civilization may not survive.
  
  Wouldn’t it be a more honest world?

Sharpening things
- And not with those god awful built in blunteners in the knife block! With a proper stone and oil is the only way

Basic plumbing skills
Know how to shut off a water line. Those knobs under your sink and behind the toilet? That's your water shut off for that line. Got a toilet that's about to overflow? Close the line in back quick enough and you won't have to mop the floor. Or ruin your neighbors ceiling.
Know how to clear a clog. Know the difference between a sink plunger and toilet plunger. Sink plungers are those short deals and terrible for just about anything, their surface coverage is awful and they're usually too shallow to push a serious clog. You want a flanged or accordion plunger for toilets. They make the best deal and do a lot do the work for you. A larger suction cup plunger, looks like the big boy version of the sink plunger, for sink drains.
For toilets, make a firm seal around the drain, push down once to clear the air out of the cup, make sure your seal is strong, then give several short, quick, full pumps like you're performing CPR. This will usually clear a paper clog. Repeat if it doesn't clear. It almost always will after a few tries. If your other drains back up when you're pumping, you have a main clog. It's time to call a plumber.
If your kitchen sink clogs, start by running hot water in the line with a little dawn soap. Most sink clogs are fat based, so hot water will help to loosen them by melting them a bit. Drain-o or other line clearer might work, but in my experience, if you don't clear the clog, you now have a caustic chemical sitting in the line. The chemical burn scars on my right hand say that's bad, and Tyler Durden agrees. If you haven't cleared the clog, let it sit a bit and then get back to it. I've fought shower clogs for an hour before, but if I don't see signs the clog is breaking up, it's time to give up and get a professional in to snake it.
Also, when clearing a clog, don't keep your mouth open! In fact, pucker your lips in. Trust me, speaking from experience.
Leaky faucet? Usually a 10¢ rubber washer, they only last about 10 years before they start to rot. Try to salvage the washer, bring it to your local hardware store, preferably plumbing supply, and ask someone to size it, otherwise bring the fixture. Toilet running nonstop? Adjust the chain or replace the flapper, again rubber parts only last about 10 years. A universal flapper will cost about $10. They usually just snap right in to place. Toilet base leaking? Replace the wax seal. They cost $5. Shower head clogged? Usually calcium or mold buildup. CLR for calcium, bleach for mold, and a scrub brush. Shower head joint leaking or spraying, remove it and apply plumbers tape, also called Teflon tape, to the threading, costs $1 a roll. In fact, apply it to any threaded plumbing joint you have to unscrew... It's necessary for making watertight seals.
That's like every basic water line in your house right there. If I could learn to do it as a teenage apprentice so many years ago, anyone can. If you're not sure, Google has guides and visual breakdowns for every fixture and how to take them apart now. Just be careful not to strip threads or screws. Knowing how to service these parts could save you hundreds or thousands of dollars over the years.
Lastly, don't flush spaghetti and meatballs down the toilet... Yes, that's a thing.

Common sense
- Amen to that. So many people these days lack it.
- U mean rare sense

Cooking! You don't need to be a Michelin-star chef (or even aspire to be) but if you can make your own meals regularly you can save so much money. It's a great way to bond with your kids, too!
Also, maybe it's weird to say, but 'learning' is an incredibly valuable skill that Will see you through a lot of hardship. The ability and drive to continue learning and having curiosity late into life makes people healthier, happier, and more well-rounded persons in my opinion.

wiping his ass
- level 2 of this is knowing how to install a bidet

People should really know how to research. Sure, almost everyone knows how to do a google search, but there are shockingly many people who can’t research, i.e view multiple sources including those that don’t align with your views.
- Honestly it's depressing how many people I know who won't even Google things. They expect their knowledge, news and opinions to come to them on their social feeds, a place where good bellyfeel is the measure of worth.