
Ask HN: What skills should a 13 year old be learning right now? - kidsnow
What the most important skills a 13 year old should be working on right now?
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O_H_E
As a 17yo high school senior, I would say self-disciple, time-management, how
to prioritise and sacrifice.

One of the things that I really think more people should teach their kids is
how to look back at history of science, politics, or economics and evaluate
how we came to the point where we are today. That change takes time, but
someone have to have the guts to start. All radical ideas were unpopular at
first.

Most of these new generations are soft and spoiled, yes I am talking about my
peers and partly myself, Hardwork is an incredible skill that everyone have to
acquire by himself.

PS: you can't teach them everything, sometimes you just gotta prepare the way

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HiroshiSan
Great answer, these are all things I wish were instilled in me when I was
younger. I'm paying the price now having to learn them on my own and to say
the least it's a very frustrating and bitter existence.

I'd also add try to really get good at math regardless of what you do in life.
I think Math ability is one of the most useful skills to have in this day and
age. Check out artofproblemsolving.com and get involved in the community.

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jerf
Assuming you mean in the computer realm, write code. Make it do things. Figure
out how to debug it. Have fun.

I'm not being sarcastic. There's no particular point in trying to pick up
particular skills. The _specifics_ you pick aren't going to be marketable no
matter what; what matters is the general skills you pick up and how quickly
you can leverage them to learn later.

I'd recommend avoiding hyperspecialization; it's kinda easy for a 13-year-old
to become something like a master expert with RPG Maker or something, but
unless that's your end goal, that can kinda be a bit of a trap. (You end up
with an understanding of computing too bent around local considerations and
get too much time into learning hacks around them, and mistaking them for
fundamentals. When Dijkstra was complaining about BASIC [1] this is the sort
of thing he meant. If you spent too much time learning how to deal with the
limitations of 1970s/1980s BASIC you came away with some really bent ideas of
how to do good programming.)

Oh, and try to avoid putting any sort of dynamic website up on the internet if
you can avoid it. Web security has gotten quite hard. If you want to build a
website I recommend static site generators; you learn a lot of good stuff
applicable to web development, but security is a near non-issue.

(And for the love of all you consider holy, stay away from cryptocurrency.)

[1]:
[https://programmingisterrible.com/post/40132515169/dijkstra-...](https://programmingisterrible.com/post/40132515169/dijkstra-
basic)

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ed_at_work
How to be a kid. You've have plenty of time to study CS stuff. Enjoy your
youth and do dumb shit.

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atlasunshrugged
Interpersonal skills and things that can't easily be automated, I also second
networking, playing with friends, and trying new activities. Play and
socializing are essential parts of human development

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segmondy
How to make friends. Great reading & comprehension skills. As much math skills
as you can learn.

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arandr0x
* Figure out what is necessary, vs merely convenient

* Evaluate the money/time tradeoffs in your immediate environment

* Know when someone is trying to help you, is just living their life, or is actively trying to harm you

* Say no to anybody

* Make decisions (lots of decisions on things of varying consequences), and then actively look back and evaluate them, and being OK with them being wrong in retrospect

Right now or at any other time 13 year olds need to start learning how to
become adults, because they are starting to look like adults in enough ways
that they will progressively be less and less protected by the people around
them. This takes a decade or so for most people, but it's mostly okay. Some
things take time.

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uptownfunk
Having fun. Making friends. Play sports.

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kleer001
It's not as much a skill as a task from which skills will flow from... Finding
a mentor that does what you want to do with the spirit you want to copy will
leapfrog you past your peers by light-years.

How? Writing letters.

Whom? That's up to you? Someone well established in their field even near
retirement age. No less than 25 years of experience in their field.

When? Now.

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anoncoward111
How to persistently do valuable and enjoyable things without burning out.

Whether that's fixing cars or writing code, if they enjoy it and can do it
long term, they'll probably be successful.

It's just that writing code is usually lest dangerous than saws and welders
and brake dust, so, choose wisely.

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dasmoth
How to be alone.

Not all the time, of course. But solo reading, solo building-stuff, and solo
walking/cycling are my fondest childhood memories and on the whole I think
they've stood me in pretty good stead. It's worth making some space and time
for solitude.

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eb0la
Beign curious about how stuff works, listen what others have to say, be able
to explain stuff to other people, and having his/her own opinion about stuff
and explaining why.

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is_true
Networking. Playing with friends and trying new activities.

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vinayms
Though not "skills", skepticism and empathy.

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RandomGuyDTB
I'd recommend as a 14-year-old that you try learning the fundamentals of a
language, make a project in it, learn another language, make a project in
that, repeat. Have fun. Don't torture yourself. If it's too hard put your best
in it, but don't be your own jailer. At the end of the day we're all just
using carefully arranged sand (this sentence stolen from xkcd).

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slipwalker
my list would be:

    
    
      - (foreign) language[s]
      - time management
      - self discipline ( some martial art is great for this )
      - financial education

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ryanmercer
Or a 33 year old. Don't forget us 33 year old types.

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matt_the_bass
Learn how to learn but don’t forget to have fun.

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cryptozeus
writing

