
Ask HN: What Skills to Acquire in 2020? - xcoding
What are some skills (technical or not) you think someone should consider acquiring in 2020?
======
chrissnell
Some suggestions:

\- Build something. A new workbench for your office. Fix up an old car. Build
a pull-up bar in your garage. Use your hands, cut some wood and metal, and
treat yourself to a new tool or two. Do this with every project and you will
have a nice tool collection before you know it.

\- Learn to take pictures on a manual camera. You can do this with a modern
automatic camera if it has a manual mode. Learn about ISO, f-stop, and shutter
speed and the interplay of those three variables. There's a fantastic multi-
part tutorial on Reddit that can help you learn these things. I don't have the
link handy but you can Google for it.

\- Set a goal of cooking for yourself at least two nights a week and eating
leftovers two nights a week. Buy a binder and some clear inserts and start to
put together your own book of favorite recipes.

\- Take a nightly walk.

\- Listen to classical music. This one didn't come to me until my 40s but I
finally realized: there's a reason that this music has been popular for 300
years. Opera is great, too. Listen to Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro".
Download the KUSC app and listen to the amazing Metropolitan Opera broadcast
every Saturday morning at 10 AM Pacific.

~~~
tnel77
What blows my mind is how much I took my ability to cook for granted. So many
people my age (millennial) can barely cook anything. I have friends who eat
out every single meal of every single day. People give me weird looks when
every single workday I have the same answer to “you wanna go out and get some
lunch?” “Nope. I have leftovers!”

~~~
neuroticfish
I've been trying to learn to cook off and on for years now and I get so
discouraged all the time because I'm still either overcooking or undercooking
something, still not getting the flavors right, not using the right amount of
oil despite the recipe's prescription. I can't be alone in feeling that way.

~~~
marcofiset
It took me years of cooking every day to get to a level where I'm confident in
my cooking skills. It's a lot of trial and error. Look up a recipe that looks
good, and try to follow it _exactly_. There's no eyeballing when you are
learning. There's a reason those ingredients are added in that particular
order and quantity.

I've come to a point where I can whip up a recipe and improvise some, but
that's after years of following recipes, experimenting and eating a fair share
of disappointing meals.

Learn the fundamentals. Binging With Babish on YouTube is an excellent show to
learn with its Basics With Babish series.

~~~
Spellman
Want to re-emphasize, cooking is a skill that's learned by repetition.

There are methods to help. Over cooking vs undercooking is because of
guesswork. Remove that by buying an Instant Read thermometer. Over and under
season? Taste as you go, add more seasoning if it needs it.

Also, make sure you find a consistently good recipe. Allrecipes is a crapshoot
even though it's consistently a top Google search. Another poster mentioned
Kenji Lopez who tests the crap out of his recipes. I'd also recommend Alton
Brown having solid but accessible recipes. America's Test Kitchen/Cook's
Illustrated and Bon Apetit for when you're getting more advanced. More
beginner friendly stuff like Budget Bytes tends to be less flavorful, but
typically simple enough and cheap enough you don't feel bad screwing up.

Basics with Babish is decent, at least the early episodes, for helping explain
and visualize some of the basic skills.

But again, it's a skill that requires practice. I've been cooking consistently
for years and I still can't spin up a recipe from memory or by feel. I mostly
rely on trusted recipes and maybe do my own riff if I've done something
similar before.

------
localhost
I would say focus on building a solid, functional body vs. say focusing on
goals like "how much can I lift?" or "how much do I weigh?" or "how fast can I
go?". Those goals, while laudable, can also cause you to break down your body
in your quest to achieve them.

An example from literally yesterday. Over the past few months, I struggled
with medial knee pain that was limiting my ability to walk up stairs and do
other activities (see other list of goals from above). I had a bunch of
observations (pain only when going up stairs, pain goes away oddly enough when
_running_ up stairs, clicking noise in knee before onset of pain) but I hadn't
spent time trying to root cause it.

I had done a bunch of Google searches but to no avail (with scary things like
surgery showing up on the list). But then of all things the YouTube algorithm
came to the rescue and recommended this: [1]. Turns out it was a weak Gluteus
Medius that allowed my femur to rotate medially which in turn caused the
kneecap to track in an unnatural way. Once I knew this, I "fixed" it in a day.
But it won't stay "fixed" unless I focus on strengthening that muscle.

Figure out what you need to do to provide you with sufficient functional
strength, focus on root causing pain and then addressing it. Don't ignore the
foundations of your body.

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbe_DqMJfzg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbe_DqMJfzg)

~~~
relativeadv
There is beauty to the simple goal of "I want to lift x amount one day."
Instead of worrying yourself to death over whether you are "functional" or
not. I've seen so many regulars at my gym over the years still doing the same
stuff, still looking the same, still lifting the same, still doing kettlebell
goblet squats and farmers walks and step-ups and whatever else have you.

I realize what an elitist knob this makes me sound like but I decry all of
this because I've been there before and made the same mistakes. I like your
example because you mention a specific issue you had that you then went on to
fix. I know of many who train this way when they have no ailments whatsoever.

~~~
y-c-o-m-b
"I want to lift x amount one day" is not for everyone, it's what lead me to
destroy my spine. I went years without any problems and I was in the best
shape of my life, but I never thought about the level of compression my spine
was taking on.

I ended up having multiple bulging discs from C5-C7, a severe disc herniation
in T8-T9 (which happened mid workout, very painful), L4-S1 herniations and
L4-L5 breaking away chunks of my vertebrae. I eventually had to get emergency
surgery on C5-C7 due to the narrowing of spinal cord.

I still "work out" with resistance bands, but I'm never allowed to properly
lift weights again thanks to my foolishness. It's horribly depressing and I
don't wish this on anybody.

Moral of the story is you might be just fine and have the skeletal structure
to support lifting, or it could be a ticking time bomb like in my case.
Lifting goals should carry disclaimers about the possible dangers.

~~~
Infinitesimus
That sucks. What lift did you in? Was it gradual or a sudden injury?

I hope the recovery is going smoothly now at least :/

~~~
y-c-o-m-b
Gradual. When my T8-T9 popped, I was doing pull-ups of all things, so there
was no compression which means it could have been anything preceding that, but
I suspect years of military/shoulder press or squats contributed.

I did dead-lifts several years prior to the injuries and stopped those when I
had a funny "clammy skin" sensation in one of my arms; it freaked me out a
little and I hated deadlifts anyway so I always thought it was just my excuse
not to do them, but in retrospect I think that was probably a wise decision.

------
stakkur
Marcus Aurelius' Stoic idea of winning the morning.

This means doing your best to make the most of the first part of the day:
arise early and jump into doing the most important tasks of the day. Practice
good habits. Then, as the day expands and becomes less in your control, you've
'won' the morning.

I use 'win the morning!' almost as a mantra, and just that single, simple idea
been life-changing.

~~~
cactus2093
I like the sound of this but what does it look like in practice? By "arise
early" are we talking like 4 or 5am, or just early enough to get to the office
slightly before 9am and be the first one there by a few minutes? By "jump into
the most important tasks of the day", would you consider working out to be one
of those? It's important in the long run to do consistently, but on a given
day it's not usually what I would list as my most important task.

I guess what I'm saying is, I feel like if you put the right spin on almost
any series of morning activities you can call it winning the morning. So it's
not very prescriptive advice that I can use to be more productive. It's almost
a tautology - to be more productive, start your day by being productive.

~~~
asdff
For a lot of people, being 'productive' to them means burning the midnight oil
which is hardly actually productive. If you do things when you are alert it
makes them more effective. It also gives you the rest of the day to just
breath and not be hard on yourself for getting tired and your performance
faltering throughout the day; after all you got all that stuff done earlier.
Ever have a weekend when you got everything you needed to do done by noon? The
day becomes yours and you feel like a superhuman.

~~~
mackrevinack
for me it depends on what I'm doing. if its something creative then i find I
get better results late at night. if its more technical then early in the
morning.

the quote from hemmingway "write drunk, edit sober" comes to mind, if you
replace drunk with tired

------
kerkeslager
Starting conversations with strangers.

Squat and deadlift.

Eating healthier.

Doing something kind for someone else every day.

Honesty.

Listening to people you disagree with.

Driving safer (this is the most dangerous thing we do on a regular basis).

Meditation.

~~~
heinrichhartman
deadlift's are quite dangerous for the untrained.

Start with "Fix Rounded Shoulders" and "Fix Anterior Pelvic Tilt" if you have
not already done so. Plenty of great advice on YouTube on those topics.

~~~
texasbigdata
Even then not necessarily sufficient. Source: worked with a trainer on this
for months after pulling my back at a crossfit years earlier and still having
lingering effects. Sitting a ton creates, or can create, large hip
inflexibility, tight hamstrings, etc. If budget and space isn't a material
constraint, get a hexbar... it will lessen some of the impact on your back.

Deadlifting (and squatting) is arguably the most important full body exercise
you can do, and the staple of every single marvel super hero body
transformation, but the risk threshold is fairly high for a beginner.

If you want to stretch, try ROMWOD. A bit intense but likely the most
impactful in terms of results.

~~~
ramblerman
To be fair, crossfit for the uninitiated is always a bad idea.

Doing movements like deadlifts for reps (when fatigued!!) is a recipe for
disaster.

~~~
brodouevencode
Not to mention most boxes do a piss-poor job of teaching form to begin with.

------
bitexploder
I will share one that has served me well for over 20 years: learn RDBMS and
SQL. Learn normal forms, good schema design, and how to write complex queries.
NoSQL adopters often avoided schemas like the plague and ended up with
unmaintainable messes after a few years. I have seen more than a few NoSQL ->
SQL conversions by now. Data is the most important thing in your app. Give it
a great design.

Plus databases like Postgres have key/value and JSON data types. Once you are
sure that is what you need it’s still there.

Rob Pikes 5th rule of programming: Data dominates.

~~~
ngsx
Do you have any recommendations on how to learn RDBMS/SQL? I'm currently using
NoSQL at my day job (and agree with your points on it), but have struggled to
find a good side project to really dig into RDBMS/SQL. I have used SQL briefly
in the past (side projects/class projects) but I'm looking to really cement
the skill in my mind.

~~~
MehdiHK
Tutorial format: [https://mode.com/sql-tutorial/](https://mode.com/sql-
tutorial/)

Books: 1) SQL Antipatterns [https://pragprog.com/book/bksqla/sql-
antipatterns](https://pragprog.com/book/bksqla/sql-antipatterns)

2) Effective SQL [https://learning.oreilly.com/library/view/effective-
sql-61/9...](https://learning.oreilly.com/library/view/effective-
sql-61/9780134579078/)

------
kruasan
Learn how to make more friends. Communicate. Learn how to talk with people,
how to be adaptive and contextual.

Learn about yourself as much as you can, either via introspection or from
other people. Learn what your values are, and what makes them satisfied. "You
are your own ally, when you make yourself an enemy even though you should
trust yourself, you become the victim hit the hardest".

Learn agency. Remember that you are a person, and you can take initiative.

Learn that another person's behavior toward you is just a reflection of their
relationship with themselves rather than a statement about your value as a
person.

Learn to genuinely tell people that you love them. People are precious.

Last of all, actually learn how to use knowledge of all of the above in your
situation.

~~~
snarf21
I've come to believe that introspection is the one true _real_ superpower.

Here is an exercise for the reader. Every year on your birthday, write down
what you "know" to be true about life, work, love, politics, money, meaning,
happiness, environment, etc. and then seal it. Now read what you wrote last
year and see how dumb you used to be.

~~~
bryanmgreen
Right now I’m completing an “In My 20’s” document tracking numbers of big
things (is: how many countries visited, music festivals attended, pieces of
furniture built, jobs had, dollars saved, etc), feelings, observations,
lessons and questions.

It’s pretty powerful. I can track my progress, see the speedbumps, but I think
the biggest thing is that despite having all this data, it is not predictive.

I have zero idea what my thirties will look like. Will my goals and priorities
change? If so, in what direction and how much?

The biggest takeaway for me in this process is really wrapping my head around
how I have no control over tomorrow, only the actions I take today, and that
whatever happens, that too shall pass.

~~~
38932ur98u
I'm interested in this. Do you have a template?

~~~
bryanmgreen
I made this myself, feel free to provide any feedback or suggestions!

[https://drive.google.com/open?id=13IHeFemwCxMYvpbadUM5d_8fLV...](https://drive.google.com/open?id=13IHeFemwCxMYvpbadUM5d_8fLVoY7jaWT-N6VA1ucKQ)

------
vasco
Some less usual things people do that I think are very high value but boring
(hence why they're not usually done):

\- Understanding taxes, the importance of savings and baseline personal
finance literacy.

\- Reading the political programs of a few parties running for elections in
you country

\- Reading a few yearly report / financial statements for a public company, an
NGO/non-profit/state agency/local government and trying to understand them

\- Reading a few top research papers in a field you're interested in and work
through them

~~~
balfirevic
> Reading the political programs of a few parties running for elections in you
> country

I too recommend reading more fiction in 2020! (Sorry, I was just a little bit
struck with how little this would matter in some countries, mine included).

~~~
brlewis
Political parties are highly skilled at telling people what they want to hear.
Reading their programs will keep you current on what people want to hear.

------
alasano
No matter what you choose to learn, it's good to learn how to learn.

You have the free "Learning how to learn" course on coursera :
[https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-
learn](https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn)

And I'm currently reading a book called "Ultralearning" by a guy called Scott
H Young who I imagine is the type of person to be on hacker news and be like
"Hey, thanks for recommending my book!"

[https://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/ultralearning/](https://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/ultralearning/)

The book so far is great, there are certainly some principles which may seem
obvious but in reality they need to be acknowledged and used effectively.
Overall it's a clear read and gives a pretty clear way to get started on
learning a ton of things in a short amount of time.

No shortcuts though, still a ton of effort involved.

~~~
tlapinsk
Highly recommend the "Learning How to Learn" Coursera course. I took it late
last year and believe it is a must for anyone interested in continual
learning. It can be cheesy at times and seem like common sense, but the
material is highly applicable to your daily life.

------
james_impliu
\- First-principles based reading. I fell into the easy trap of just reading
business books that cover tactics. Read biographies of people who've
accomplished a lot. Read how computers and electronics work at a more
fundamental level, not just how to code. Basically, just apply some conscious
thought to the kinds of books you read, and don't think of books as an
instruction manual for right now. They're part of your general education.

\- If you're a developer, become friends with the sales team at your work.
Seeing things through a less technical lens will make you much more effective.

\- Learn the mental skill of endurance. If you can walk 2 miles, try 20. Once
you can cycle 20, you can do 100. The difference is mental more than physical.

~~~
sanderjd
I have a lot of trouble finding first principles resources. For instance, I'm
trying to build up my expertise in business intelligence / analytics. I have
found it basically impossible to find anything that isn't at the "for dummies"
and / or temporarily dominant technology level. Do you have strategies for
finding these kinds of books?

~~~
beckingz
Mining your Own Business is a great book about delivering business value for
analytics programs.

~~~
sanderjd
Thanks for the tip!

------
cushychicken
I'm trying to write more! I forget where I originally read it, but I think Ben
Horowitz said something to the effect of "Clear thinking is best expressed in
writing, so you can refer back to it later and see if your logic was correct."
Been blowing up Confluence at work like a fuckin' fiend, and been blogging a
_lot_ more on my personal site.

I don't have any objective measures for this, but I think it's helped me a
_lot_ \- it gets my head straight about the "why" of actions I've taken.
That's valuable, if not terribly measureable!

~~~
ryanstorm
There's this blog post:

Writing is Thinking: Learning to Write with Confidence

[https://blog.stephsmith.io/learning-to-write-with-
confidence...](https://blog.stephsmith.io/learning-to-write-with-confidence/)

~~~
imaginaryturtle
I wrote a reaction piece to that one!
[https://kishorbhat.com/writing/2019/10/14/the-words-dont-
flo...](https://kishorbhat.com/writing/2019/10/14/the-words-dont-flow.html)

------
yaman12
Learn a another human language. You don’t have to be good at it or even able
to converse. Languages are systems of thinking as much as they are systems of
communication. Some thoughts only make sense in a given language! The process
of learning a language builds cognitive skills and perhaps fights cognitive
decline. If you have absolutely no “ear” for human language start with
Esperanto and work your way to additional languages from there.

~~~
Dumblydorr
I was thinking of learning French, can anyone recommend which tool to use?

~~~
mechhacker
I learned with a really inexpensive (30 bucks) boxed set called Living
Language

Then once I knew the basics I went to conversation hours

About 3-4 months to low conversational if you practice 30min-hr every day

~~~
misiti3780
this
[https://www.livinglanguage.com/faq/downloads/french/complete](https://www.livinglanguage.com/faq/downloads/french/complete)

?

~~~
mechhacker
Yep that's it

The boxed set has 3 booklets (Essential/Intermediate/Advanced) that cover all
the grammar. Libraries usually have it.

I recommend them for the main romance languages and possibly German but for
Slavic or Asian languages I would recommend other sources (I am barely
intermediate in Russian and Czech and was trying Mandarin for a while).

------
songzme
1\. Lasting mindset.

Recently I've looked around me and realized, everything around me is new.
There are no memories around me, I have chased marketed products until my
whole apartment is lined up with useful products.

Some of the people I admire the most carried around the same water bottle for
more than 10 years, wore the same watch for more than 20 years, used a phone
for more than 3 years. They can point to anything they owned and talk about
the rich emotional history behind each item.

I think more people should acquire the skill to use a product and maximize its
life rather than to throw and buy the next cool thing.

------
iansowinski
\- First Aid - if you don't know it, you should learn it ASAP.

\- History and theory of modern and contemporary art - then it's easier to
understand everything in the museum and you won't ever say "I don't get modern
art" and "Modern art is a shit".

\- New language - I believe trying and learning only few words is worth it!

\- How to dress (including how to buy clothes).

I still have a lot of misfitting shirts in my wardrobe and this old masculine
perfume my grandma gave me when I was 16.

I see why I wasn't comfortable with these. It takes some time, especially if
you don't want to spend a lot of cash at once. But when you know how to dress,
you feel more confident look good and feel better with yourself.

By "how to dress" I mean finding your style, not having suit 7 days a week.

Here is a nice article about fabrics:
[https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/climate/sustainable...](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/climate/sustainable-
clothing.html)

------
rapfaria
Watching threads like this makes my anxiety go trough the roof with all the
exciting new things I could possibly learn, but probably never will.

So one skill to acquire in 2020 can be let go of FOMO.

------
gumby
In parallel to chrissnell’s suggestion on classical music: read some classical
literature. I mean the Greek and Roman greats. As with “classical” music,
theres’s a valuable survivorship bias — nobody bothered to preserve the crap.

As with the music, there’s a lot to choose from (I put “classical” in quotes
because in both cases the term spans centuries of work and innumerable styles
and themes). And don’t worry about what other people like: enjoy what you do.
Personally I don’t really listen to Mozart as he mostly wrote pop music and
spectacle (were he alive today he’d be onstage with lady Gaga). Some fun to
listen to but for me doesn’t “stick to the ribs”. Other’s think he’s fantastic
— and we’re both right! (Do love his Requiem, though as my then 17yo said,
“should come with a warning label”). In the case of the greats I love
Plutarch, don’t care for Thucydides, think Plato is a jerk but do read him,
Aristotle was kinda a jerk too, but so was Cicero. Sophocles: fantastic!

Speaking of survivorship bias I read little fiction by living authors. If it’s
still in print, or discussed, after a gap it’s more likely to be interesting.
As with music, open a book and if you don’t like it read something else! It’s
not a duty. But there’s also a lot of meta commentary on the older work and
that can change your view and taste for what you read.

Have fun!

------
thedayisntgray
Marketing is a big one for me. Building a great product means nothing if you
can’t reach your target audience.

And I don’t mean learning how to used Facebook or Google to run ads, I mean
the theory behind marketing.

I would like to read more books similar to the 22 immutable laws of marketing
by Al Ries and Jack Trout

~~~
zentropia
I recommend watching thefutur (Chris Do) youtube channel. A lot of useful
info.

------
throwawa66
Having less stuff both phisically as in stuff at home and mentally as in
single down on fewer things to pursue.

~~~
bloogsy
I want to second this. Decluttering is definitely a huge way to improve your
life, and physically removing things from your home also helps to removes
mental distractions.

I made a conscious effort to really consider what I need before purchasing
things over the last 6 months, as too often over the years it felt like I was
drowning in a sea of crap! Sell your old unwanted items on
ebay/gumtree/wherever and save that money.

'Tidy desk, tidy mind' isn't just an old wives tale.

------
tekkk
Singing, improv and performing in general. It will pay dividends in everything
you do, not only just relationships and holding powerpoint presentations. Once
you do it long enough your personality starts to shift more towards your
"performer personality" and your manner of speech, way of making up
conversations becomes a natural part of you. I recommend this _especially_ to
those who suffer from social anxiety. It is the ultimate treatment that no
psychologist, no drugs can offer

~~~
samelawrence
+1 for improv as some of the most excellent social training of my life. Really
changed a lot about how I feel in front of groups, meeting new teams, and even
in 1:1 conversations.

------
simplify
Prolog. You'll discover what it feels like to have a language that _actually
does hard work_ for you (except string manipulation...), instead of having to
guide it through every little detail.

Logic programming isn't actually that hard, and more people learning it will
help move the state of programming forward.

~~~
chatmasta
I took a class that used prolog in college. It was so confusing at first. Then
one day, I was doing an assignment with definite clause grammar, and
everything clicked. It wasn’t just my understanding of prolog that benefitted,
either. Suddenly I also internalized how regular expressions work.

I remember it distinctly because it was such a good, almost euphoric feeling
that seemed to drop randomly on top of me.

When people say that learning a new, different language will give you benefits
that carry over to the rest of your abilities, I remember that moment.

There is definitely a lot to be said for stretching your programming brain in
new ways.

------
arexxbifs
If you don't already know how to, learn to cook. Start slow with the basics
and work your way up. Try new things and combinations. Nothing is quite as
satisfying as being able to create something delicious from the remnants in a
friend's pantry, or preparing a delicious meal for someone you love, or a
date, or just yourself.

------
geocrasher
Learn how to provide proper customer service. It mostly comes down to having a
form of empathy that isn't really empathy: Understanding perspective and
motivation. If you understand anyone's perspective and motivation, you're in a
much better position to help them.

Also learn who your customer is (It's _everyone_ ) and learn how to listen to
them. It doesn't matter if you're a dev who spends 2/3 of the day behind 10
screens with earbuds-a-blasting. Whoever is commissioning you or motivating
you to sit there and code is your customer. Treat them like it, and do it _for
them_.

On the other hand if you have a job where you deal with the public, it's more
direct- but the same principals apply.

With technical skills becoming easier to come by, set yourself apart by being
a customer service pro. It makes all the difference in the world.

------
johnmorrison
This one's a bit niche but if you're between the ages of 13-21 and not sure
what to specialize in but you care about important issues and like
engineering, _please_ consider learning and specializing in an area related to
molten salt reactors, chemical separation of fission products, or anything in
the intersection of chemical eng, nuclear eng, and electrical.

The world needs clean, reliable, scalable energy more now than ever before,
and we have a serious shortage of talented folk who have previous experience
in the skills necessary to develop liquid fueled fission reactors.

So, if you're in highschool or entering university soon, consider this. By the
latter half of this decade, there's going to be a lot of demand for these
skills.

------
langitbiru
Here are what I am learning in 2020. I try to be a holistic person. So I am
learning technical skills, business skills, and social skills.

Technical: Blockchain programming (mostly on Ethereum). I believe Ethereum is
the future. Programmable money. How cool is that?

However if you think blockchain is fad, you could replace it with
cybersecurity.

Business: Corporate finance (stocks, bonds, future contracts, options, etc).
This is related with blockchain because I believe a lot of financial
applications will move to blockchain platform.

However if you think blockchain is fad, corporate finance itself is a useful
skill for investment and analyzing company's finance. Just now, I learned that
you could make two bonds with different risks and yields into one security
which you can divide into senior tranches and junior tranches. It's very
interesting.

Social: Negotiation. I am reading Chris Voss' book (Never Split The
Difference). He has a class in MasterClass as well. Coursera has a couple of
negotiation courses. In the past, I received the shorter end of the stick
because I'm not good at negotiation. So I'll try to change that.

Happy acquiring skills!

~~~
sjapkee
>I believe Ethereum is the future

Bro, you failed at the very beginning.

~~~
mehh
I really really doubt it, the theory is reasonable, the implementation
(Ethereum) is flawed.

------
vijucat
Sleeping. Your health, your immune system, acuity, your very sanity, depend on
it. This often means uncomfortable decisions such as saying "No" more often.
Deep Sleep of Your Neural Network, not Deep Learning of Artificial Neural
Networks, is the new craze, hopefully :-)

------
ptero
Interpersonal skills. Those are usually in very short supply at tech
companies.

This wide spectrum with many sweet spots. For example, if you can learn what a
developer is doing without pissing them off or boring them out of their minds
_and_ translate from techno-babble to humanspeak and back you can quickly make
yourself appreciated in many tech companies.

Time management skills. Learn to rest, _really_ rest so that you _feel_ good,
curious and re-energized after it (probably means turning your phone off as a
first step). My 2c.

~~~
posedge
Curious, what else would you recommend to _really_ rest?

~~~
ShteiLoups
Relax with intent. Relax with the sole purpose of relaxing. Meditation would
be the extreme case, I think.

No scrolling, no consuming media. Do something that involves little mental or
physical capacity, but provides some holisitic benefit. Things that make you
feel good on the whole.

In summary, do something where the point is to do it in order to relax, and
not for any other point at all. Remove all mental load of stress about
outcomes and instead immerse yourself in the present moment of relaxation.

Some methods that seem to work for myself and others are a good walk or a
journaling session. A physical notebook to write in can be a bit more holistic
than typing an entry into a keyboard. It can be hard to start, I just start
with "captains log", then a date, and then my stream of thoughts.

Playing with small manipulatives can be good fun as well. Lego, K'nex, etc. I
hear some people like painting models. Playing an instrument is also
fantastic. Guitar is absurdly simple to learn the basics of (a servicable one
can be had at a pawn shop or amazon for reasonably cheap), and then it's just
a matter of grabbing some sheet music and practicing. If you let go of how
good you actually sound, and instead assign value to the act of practicing, it
is a great way to refresh.

Another great way is to read. A good book and a cup of tea is a very relaxing
experience. I'll note that this should be pleasure reading, and not technical
reading.

------
smabie
Learn an array language like APL, J, or k/q. I’d personally recommend k/q.
It’s not as strange as APL or J and pretty easy to learn. Writing in q is the
most fun I’ve had in a long-time. And the code and language is beautiful, I
love everything about it.

------
ArtWomb
"eBPF is the New Linux"

[http://www.brendangregg.com/bpf-performance-tools-
book.html](http://www.brendangregg.com/bpf-performance-tools-book.html)

------
Uptrenda
Work on your math skills. Math is at the heart of everything, and the more
techniques you know- the more tools you'll have in your arsenal to build and
invent cool things.

Practically there are many business reasons why you would want to develop
mathematical knowledge, but I'll list only one: most of the ground-breaking
research requires high level math knowledge to understand and so much of the
knowledge in academic papers would work as a viable startup business.

There is actually a staggering amount of knowledge locked away in papers that
is just waiting for entrepreneurs to take the next steps and bring it to
industry. But this tends to happen very slowly! Part of the reason is a lack
of qualified and motivated people willing to execute. Since the researchers
themselves are more focused on research and tend to move on after experiments
and PoCs.

It's up to us to take that work and build products that solve real problems!

------
hijinks
Kubernetes.. almost all the companies are on it or looking at it in one way or
another.

~~~
yawgmoth
I like Docker, I like microservices, but I feel like I'm just not excited
about Kubernetes itself. There seems to be a "bullshit complexity" that people
add to it that I really don't think is going to stick. But, I really do like
the "GitOps" experience. A merge to a master branch is a deploy. Should I just
get over this perception and learn Kubernetes, or could I find joy and
professional usefulness out of another tool?

~~~
vpEfljFL
Don't get why you got downvoted.

Kubernetes is the right tool for some type of issues. If you want to host low
complexity infrastructure like a simple website but still want to use
containers go with nomad / docker swarm.

~~~
collyw
Its over used right now. Probably why the downvotes were given.

------
have_faith
The question is very board and most responses seem overly specific and only
useful by chance (not to dig at anyone trying to be helpful).

Spend more time doing what makes you happy. Learn some things that make you
useful to others and learn to identify what both of those things are. It is
unlikely that global technical trends, fads and HN users preferences will be
the answer to your local problems.

If pushed for something specific that is broad enough to apply to most
technical people I would say learn how big picture pieces fit together in your
niche. I'm a front-end dev so this means for me to learn networking, dns,
packets, tcp, etc. Get a broad understanding of the big picture stuff in your
niche. It often pays off.

------
sr3d
You should invest your time to learn how to invest and trade stocks. I spent 8
months learning trading and it has been a very challenging but rewarding
process.

Learning Options trading is another thing you can do once you become more
familiar with the stock markets, and hopefully you can start trading options
using your profits from your wise investments.

These 2 skills, stock trading and option trading, in my opinion, are the most
critical skills for someone, especially software engineers to generate more
incomes and become financially independent as an alternative path to
founding/working at a startup.

You can start small to learn but invest 1 good year and you'll be amazed at
the knowledge and freedom you have gained.

~~~
f0rfun
Care to share the online resources that helped you the most? I'm also trying
to trade stocks but am fearful of the current market outlook esp with the
possibility of an impending pandemic.

~~~
mygo
3M sells face masks. Purnell sells hand sanitizers. Would be interesting to
see how their stock does during a pandemic.

Note: I’m not saying buy 3M and Purell stock. I’m just saying, if there’s an
impending pandemic, there are probably businesses who will see a rise in
demand due to the pandemic. What’s going on in the parts of China right now
where there are quarantines? How has that shifted demand for goods and
services?

------
eranation
Taking a risk of being boring and staying technical... I would say - cloud,
distributed systems, security, security, security and then some more security.
Then AI/ML on the "how to use it" level (the math can be fun, but unless you
plan to be a data scientist, knowing it from a developer perspective is great
too)

In the cloud technologies, I would focus on serverless. I see serverless as
basically just another abstraction layer beyond containers. You shift the
burden of managing all that to the cloud provider. Even if you are fluent in
k8s, using managed services / databases and letting someone else do the heavy
lifting while you focus on just code is very rewarding.

------
agentultra
Keep a journal.

If you are in a technical role and you lead or design systems consider
learning a model checker like TLA+ or Alloy; or a proof checker like Agda,
Coq, or Lean. The extra clarity is worth it on its own and you might end up
finding and fixing vulnerabilities or performance problems that save people a
bunch of money and headaches.

Learn strategies for improving your emotional intelligence.

------
nojvek
Be a decent human being. Don’t be an asshole. Make a tiny part of the world a
better place than you had found it.

------
Balgair
HN specific: How to write a good comment on an internet message board.

[https://smartblogger.com/blog-comments/](https://smartblogger.com/blog-
comments/)

------
shaggie76
When I read the latest "who is hiring" post I was overwhelmed by the amount of
Python listed; I've always used PERL but I seem to be the only one at the
office left who can.

~~~
unnouinceput
So you're becoming a niche developer. Congrats, now is time to shine and rack
in the big dough. While everybody flocks to Python, go search jobs for Perl
and ask for big buck. I bet there are plenty of legacy projects for Perl.

~~~
NiceUsername
There are at least 3 somewhat big companies that have huge Perl codebases and
a lot of Perl developers (>2k each) - Booking.com, Ebay, PayPal. Source:
worked in one of the companies above myself till this year.

I am pretty sure Perl developers cannot ask for big bucks just yet, perhaps in
10 years?

------
roland35
Here is my personal list as an embedded developer:

Embedded Linux: seems to be a growing field in embedded engineering as single
board Linux computers are getting smaller and cheeper

Amazon IoT core: there are a lot of capabilities to understand! Luckily Amazon
does seem to have some training available.

Advanced C debugging and building: with embedded c it is pretty easy to let
the IDE hold your hand when building and debugging, but I would like to learn
more about makefiles, linker scripts, and scripting gdb for advanced
debugging.

~~~
ryneandal
I'm fascinated with how many embedded linux emails I've received lately.
Definitely seems like the field is growing like mad.

------
Kiro
This thread reads like something straight out of a lifestyle magazine, with
the first technical advice being on page two.

I miss the days when true hackers were proud to sit in their dark basements
and drink Jolt Cola, at most caring about their Unix beards.

------
gordon_freeman
One of the goals I've set for myself in 2020 is to adopt a philosophy of
minimalism and use budgeting tools (can be as simple as a spreadsheet) to be
mindful of where my spending goes and try to rein in the excess spend.

------
brlewis
I'm surprised at all these great non-technical suggestions and few coding
suggestions. I'll supply some web-focused ones for the next 3 years.

In 2020 learn TypeScript really well. Learn all the ways to compose types.
It's earned its popularity.

In 2021 learn deno. It's going to be big.

In 2022 learn the best way to structure a CSS project. I think we will have
figured out what it is by then.

~~~
jjcm
++ to typescript and deno. Deno might not end up being the runtime, but at
some point we're likely to see a dedicated typescript runtime. Getting on top
of it now and understanding the implications is worth being aware of.

One other thing I'd add to this is learn webcomponents. Likely we'll see
things like React/Vue/etc use them under the hood in the future, but it's
worth learning what they're good at and what they aren't.

------
IgorPartola
Learn to ride a motorcycle. It will change your life and make you happier.
It’s not cheaper than therapy but definitely more fun.

------
sequoia
Improve your ability to participate in the democratic process!! Our
(Americans') democratic "muscles" have atrophied so much in recent decades.
People can hardly disagree without thinking the other is evil. I've found that
even in small groups (such as school-parent coop), people struggle to do
things like negotiate different priorities, listen to one another, and come to
a compromise. This is a very dire condition for a democratically-led society,
as these skills are essential for such a system to function.

No one is going to fix this for us, but we can all contribute to fixing it
together! To quote a recent New Yorker article on democracy in crisis[0],
"Don’t ask whether you need an umbrella [if you need to prepare for failure of
democracy]. Go outside and stop the rain [fix it!]."

How? Make an effort to reach out to people with different views. Commit to
_listen_ to them and be willing to agree to disagree in a friendly manner.
You'd be surprised how quickly the name-calling can stop and the shared
humanity can be found when you really listen! For inspiration & guidance, read
one or more of the following:

    
    
        * Don't Label Me by Irshad Manji (lots of practical democratic advice, if you pick only one pick this one)
        * The Coddling of the American Mind by Haidt & Lukianoff
        * How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
    

The second book has an overly-confrontational title–rest assured the book
itself is level headed and thoughtful. The third book will help you in
business & your personal life, and may improve democracy as well!

Let's (Americans) roll up our sleeves and take on The Big Challenge in 2020:
improving our own democratic skills to get our society back on track.

0: [https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/02/03/the-last-
time-...](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/02/03/the-last-time-
democracy-almost-died)

------
schnevets
Learn how to engage with your local community, especially in a way that you
believe improves a "greater good". Tech people are too preoccupied in the
global community that they don't think about neighbors and the community
around them.

I used to think someone else was thinking in my best interest with local
politics, culture, and social issues, but I have recently learned about to be
more assertive and engaged. I wish I started a lot sooner, and I wish more
Millennials/Gen-Xers (especially those in tech) would push for something they
believe in.

------
miganga
Learn to accept death and read the myth of sysphus if you haven't read.

~~~
wry_discontent
read more philosophy in general

------
Jahak
\- Learn C

\- Learn Reactive Programming

\- Learn Linux Kernel
[https://elixir.bootlin.com/linux/latest/source](https://elixir.bootlin.com/linux/latest/source)

\- Learn DevOps

\- Learn Distributed systems

------
komali2
I pirated Ableton a while back and turns out after actually learning how to
use it through the in software tutorials and a couple YouTube videos, I really
enjoy producing music. Starting out can be as simple as laying out beats which
is very entertaining.

They do a 30 day trial but I don't think that's enough time to figure out if
you wanna drop 800$ on it. They have some 100$ package that in hindsight
probably had everything you need if you buy serum as well (another 100$ iirc).

------
nonseobeliever
I challenge you to build a model RC airplane. You'll use your intelligence,
hands and learn from material resistance to aerodynamics, airfoil design and
power management.

------
vekker
Learn to dream again. Nightly dreaming that is, not the wishing-kind.
Specifically, lucid dreaming, i.e. being conscious and awake while physically
asleep in the REM state.

~~~
Blaiz0r
How do you get started?

~~~
akeck
In my personal experience, a good place to start is knowing your personal
sleep length need (long, medium, short - note this may change over time). I
found that I don't dream when I sleep under 7h or so. So to get substantial
dreams I need 7.5-9+ hours. Also, bedroom air quality can be a factor. A HEPA
filter next to your bed with a new filter can improve dreaming and sleep
quality in general.

------
bbody
I think improving communication skills, particularly technical topics to non-
technical people will always be advantageous regardless of where your career
takes you in tech.

~~~
JJseiko
"How to Win Friends and Influence People" by Dale Carnegie is very good. The
title is absolutely terrible, but the content is as good as the title is
terrible (in my opinion at least)

------
throwawa66
Learn some scheme and go through SICP. Real eye opener!

------
whalesalad
Hardware. Start playing with hardware and sensors and i2c, spi, uart, etc...
because that space is going to rapidly accelerate.

------
haidrali
not sure about others but I am looking forward to invest time and energy in
video editing

~~~
1337biz
Thought about doing the same. What's your plan to learn it?

~~~
alasano
I'm helping my girlfriend produce videos, usually for social media and such.
In the process I'm learning a ton about my camera, lighting and also software.
Currently using DaVinci resolve which is amazing and free.

I think as in other things, just trying a project and learning as you go is
the quickest way to get started.

~~~
1337biz
Ah yes, played around with DaVinci resolve a while ago as well. Guess I have
to work through a few more tutorials. I sill don't get the lut concept and
find it much fast to just upload them on my phone and run the video through
Vsco.

------
ctrager
I try to choose activities that also will increase my social circle. So, like,
with learning an instrument, avoid piano, which tends to be more solitary, and
go with viola, which, if you get decent, will put you in demand. Or if
studying a language, pick one that people actually speak (I studied ancient
Greek in college).

------
darkjedi_emacs
Could people suggest something from technical aspect as well? Something which
is a bit more specific than being abstract like the below points:

Picking up somethings from what's the buzzwords these days: 1\. Rust
(ownership concept and immutability) 2\. Haskell Functor, Monads, Monoids and
applicatives 3\. AI ML (Not sure about this field)

------
themodelplumber
Professional communication skills are worth a look from time to time.
Understanding how to keep your personal fears out of your next message or
email, and yet keeping after your concerns with appropriate management of both
technology and emotion. Learning how to be assertive without inadvertently
raising the stakes. And keeping a project on track without causing a blame-
fest.

Another one is learning to set boundaries for your personal growth. Do you
have a learning and skills-updating standard which helps prevent FOMO, unfair
feedback from your inner critic's voice, and related career anxieties? This is
one example of a boundary that can be designed to help you stay on track
without becoming bitter about your past experiences and future prospects.

It's impressive that you asked. Best of luck to you.

~~~
kamaal
Can you recommend a good book to learn this?

------
softwaredoug
\- Speaking and writing skills

\- Listening and soft skills

\- how your business operates so you can have a bigger contribution

\- learn to get to know your colleagues as people

\- learn how to present technical topics to decision makers

\- learn to let go (and empathize with the other POV) if a decision doesn’t go
your way

------
oklol123
Find ways to sustain and improve your mental health. The future will get only
more stressful and the thing between your ears will largely determine if your
life is well lived or not. So far I have seen three areas that you should
really look into. Sleep, meditation and exercise. In that order. They all do
one thing well and that is to reduce stress and increase your resistance to
stress. All other areas in your life will improve, but it’s a slow process
which results are only visible after roughly two months of consistent effort.

------
friedman23
Machine learning. I used to think it wasn't worth learning but I was recently
convinced otherwise. ML is one of the few skills that can enable an individual
to make a 10x change to a business.

~~~
dajo
What convinced you? I'm also in the skeptical bracket.

~~~
friedman23
Someone at my company drove a 10% increase in revenue by coming up with a new
way to apply a model. There is nothing I can do short of creating a new
product in my free time (which at that point I should be doing that for
myself) that could drive that kind of revenue increase.

------
adamnemecek
Rust. WebGPU (the WGPU implementation is nice [https://github.com/gfx-rs/wgpu-
rs](https://github.com/gfx-rs/wgpu-rs)). Also ECS.

------
valw
What I would call "quantitative environmental consciousness" \- things like
estimating energy consumption and carbon footprints.

Topics like energy policy and CO2 emissions will become increasingly critical
in our lives, and yet you don't find many people reasoning about them in a
lucid and informed way.

A great place to start is the SEWTHA book by MacKay:
[https://www.withouthotair.com/](https://www.withouthotair.com/)

------
mkettn
Understanding statistics (and how to cheat with them).

~~~
atyppo
Can you elaborate what you mean by this? Are you referring to something
ethical?

~~~
mkettn
I see a lot phrases like "studies show that" these days. Somehow in our
science-based, sophisticated society everybody likes to throw studies at each
other to prove their own narrative. But I don't understand them. I am not that
statistical illiterate, I know the difference of mean, mode and median and
stdev (and when to use what). When I dig deeper into one study I'll find
hypothesis testing methods like p-values, r^2 and whatever ("our hypothesis
was proven because p > 0.9"). But here my knowledge ends. If p>0.9 is that
good? or did they just tune the data to get that high p-values? or is the
whole method garbage and the study could not get replicated with the same p
value? And I want to know how to cheat with statistics, because since these
studies are made by people, whom might get paid to prove a certain point (e.g.
"My institute gets paid by Mars, hence I'll downplay the effects on health of
sugar in daily nutrition and amplify the positives effects of <some chemical
found in chocolate>"). or they just want to show significance for their
research, because they worked the last 10 years on it and it's "their baby".

------
amai
Learn how you can lower your CO2 foot print: Get used to using a train instead
of a plane. Use public transportation instead of your car. Use a bike more
often. Stay in home office and do more remote meetings. Eat less meat. Learn
about and use solar and wind power energy generation for your house. Learn
about the thermal insulation of your house and how to improve it.

------
mcv
Graph Databases. Most companies have problems where graph DBs are a great
solution, but people who have experience with them are rare.

~~~
maayank
Do they though? Haven’t seen many companies with graph problems at such scale
that require a new solution integrated, leaving aside the social network trope

~~~
mcv
You don't need scale to make graph databases useful. As soon as relationships
between items are more important than the data within a table, graph databases
make your data easier to navigate than joins upon joins.

~~~
maayank
I feel like I’m taking imagination-b-gone pills. The only potential uses off
the top of my head that I’ve witnessed are credentials management and
financial instruments arbitrage, and in both cases it was solved well by other
measures.

I’m sure there are projects where it’s useful, but not “every company” useful
like SQL or even a server supervisor framework. I would be happy to be proven
wrong.

~~~
mcv
I've got a friend who claims that nearly everything you can do with SQL, you
can do easier with a graph database. I'm not sure that's true; as long as you
need only one or two tables at a time, and/or automatic validation against the
database schema is vitally important for you (that's probably the big one),
then SQL databases are probably still better. But as soon as relations start
to matter, and the number of joins in your queries starts to grow, a graph
database becomes much nicer to use.

------
bluGill
There are more good answers to this question than there is time. Since
prophecy doesn't seem to be a skill you can learn you will need to make some
educated guesses. Dead skills are still in demand for someone, but if
everybody learns them it was a waste of time for most - unless they did it
purely from interest in the subject and not usefulness.

------
fma
Guess this is about non-tech skills :)

I've wanted to learn basic sewing. I even bought a sewing machine from Costco
that's gathering dusk. I'm a slender guy and the only thing that fits me well
are "slim fit" shirts.

Not everyone sells slim fit shirts or well fitting pants. Knowing basic sewing
I can make adjustments and have clothes that fit well.

------
jotjotzzz
Learn a foreign language such as Spanish or Mandarin, or whichever language
you fancy and stick with it until you're conversational. Learning a new
language opens you up to other ideas and cultures. Being bilingual should be a
prerequisite -- our culture would be more accepting of other cultures instead
of becoming a xenophobe.

------
aynyc
Skiing: learn to carve like a racer and ski mogul like a pro.

Technology: build stuff instead of reading about stuff.

Personal: be a better husband and father.

------
webdva
Skills to acquire in 2020, ye Hacker News reader? A wee bit of abstract
mathematics knowledge, so that you can better think in abstract terms when
solving problems. The hardest of problems require the usage of and familiarity
with advanced abstractions. Abstract mathematics knowledge provides that
great—and profound!—capability.

~~~
smegma2
What kind of abstract mathematics?

~~~
webdva
> What kind of abstract mathematics?

Ah, a curious intellect has approached! Know that every “What kind?” is the
desire for a common ground of understanding. So the student must first ask
themself which understanding would they like to pursue. What be your choice? A
choice that only your heart’s love can ultimately know.

~~~
danaur
I think the op was asking because you had their interest and they wanted to
know directions they could go in.

Your post seems to assume people know of the different directions they could
study

~~~
webdva
> I think the op was asking because you had their interest and they wanted to
> know directions they could go in.

> Your post seems to assume people know of the different directions they could
> study

Ah, forgive me as I am blind to my appearance, especially blind to my
appearance’s appearance to the sight or eyes of others. I too do not know what
directions there may be in the pursuit of truth, as a master or sage must not
claim to know. Only thus then does the master know true knowledge. ...For doth
not truth be vast in size?—oh! but I do not know of truth’s size!

~~~
abacyu
Is this what they call gatekeeping in a different world?

~~~
webdva
> Is this what they call gatekeeping in a different world?

Ah! Your name is greenly colored like the fresh and newly grass that dews in
the start of the morning—as though your name appeared but hours ago! Ye be a
strange traveller. I cautiously ask thee, It be true that I keep to the gates?
But how can that be! when the gateway to true knowledge is open to all? Does
some sort of strife exist? And my way be the way of non-action, a way of
harmony. Whatever is, I allow. So you may be whatever you choose, you strange
dear traveller! I welcome your force of argumentation.

------
davidajackson
Learn to play an instrument and improvise on it if you enjoy it. It's a talent
you can share with other people.

------
AchieveLife
Self awareness

\- Identify your values

\- Measure your behaviors and thoughts against your values

\- Build a network of people who will give you genuine feedback

------
jnericks
Learn and adopt a flexibility routine, perform all or some of it before doing
a workout or just at night before bed... I suggest the Limbar 11 as a starting
point [https://youtu.be/FSSDLDhbacc](https://youtu.be/FSSDLDhbacc)

------
allie1
Pick up a non-fiction book on a subject completely unrelated to anything you
know but find appealing.

------
DrNuke
At professional level, liberal arts intros to be able to combine technical
proficiency with historical savviness and social awareness; at personal level
and if relevant: drop stinginess, the most alienating attitude when dealing
with acquaintances and friends in public.

------
jccalhoun
Critical thinking. Media literacy. Healthy skepticism. The ability to admit
you were wrong.

------
m3kw9
Learn some time management, track where you use your time the most.

Learn finance management, track all your finance and learn where your money
goes.

Learn to cook a meal that you would always eat and easy to cook.

Learn about How to be a good listener.

But all the above must be done in practice to be learnt

------
tgauda
Microcontrollers. Pick an interesting project (google Arduino for beginners)
and try making it work on an Arduino Uno. Once you get a full understanding of
how hardware works it makes you a much better software engineer by far.

------
diehunde
How to build habits. We have a lot of resources today to learn how to create
good or remove bad habits in a consistent manner.

If you learn this, you can easily acquire other skills such as reading,
exercising, less procrastination, etc.

~~~
Rzor
I just want to second this and endorse how important it has been for me since
I heard[0] about it in the beginning of this year. I'm still finishing the
book, but so far so good. I was well aware of the importance of giving myself
some sort of prize or award, but the whole framework has been working wonders,
especially the idea of celebration and arriving at change by feeling good, not
by feeling bad; I didn't expect a change in mood to reflect so much in my
objectives and the tiny successes definitely helping add fuel to my well being
and overall positive attitude, which invigorates the habits even more.

[0]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21920556](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21920556)

------
ShteiLoups
"Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one."

\- Marcus Aurelius

------
lwhalen
Take a cue from Uncle Bob (Heinlein) and start working on his list:

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

Specialization is for insects.

~~~
mehh
Specialization is for insects...nice!

------
ravenstine
Here are my suggestions:

\- Learn to fast. I'm not talking about intermittent fasting, one meal a day,
or fake fasting like juice fasting. I'm talking not eating for 48 hours, 72
hours, or more. With electrolytes, it becomes a lot easier than you think.
Once you can comfortably achieve 72 hours of no eating, it will seriously
change your perspective on food. You'll realize that you've been throwing your
money away every few hours on food you didn't need to eat, and that everyone
around you is wasting resources. You'll lose weight better than any diet there
is. Trust me. When you do choose to eat, because you've saved your money, you
can eat better food. You will become healthier in general because fasting
actually gives your organs a rest and heal. Once you've done a few fasts, you
may find that you're able to sleep a lot better. Fasting is a skill because it
takes discipline.

\- Get to know your neighbors. This is really not that difficult at all, but
we avoid it because we see new social connections as "work" to maintain,
whereas it's just easier to go home and watch Netflix alone. I've realized
that having a small social network wherever you live is nice and makes you
feel connected with your community. One of my best friends used to be my
neighbor, whom I wouldn't have had lots of great experiences with had I not
talked to him, like most people.

\- Learn to cook sous vide style. You can do this the poor man's way using hot
water and a thermometer, even with your dishwasher. But I suggest just getting
an automated sous vide circulator and using that. You can make steak, pork
chops, eggs, etc., that taste like they're made at a restaurant, or better!
It's clean, which is good if you live in an apartment, and very difficult to
screw up. Unlike barbecue, you don't have to pay close attention to it. You
can pan sear your meat afterwards, or even sear using a George Foreman grill
for even easier cleanup. Because sous vide will help you cook tasty food, you
will find yourself cooking at home more. People will be blown away by how good
your steaks are.

\- Learn about emergency planning. Most people(Americans, anyway) are woefully
unprepared for emergencies and disasters, and even a lot of those who think
they're prepared are mistaken in thinking that a few granola bars and a
flashlight will save them. Learn what it takes to get yourself and your family
prepared, and you will feel a sense of security when the day comes that a
violent storm comes, or an earthquake hits, or your home is in the way of a
wildfire, or there's civil unrest, or _worse_. This is not a fringe idea or
"doomsday prepping". President Obama told everyone to prepare for these
possibilities, and the Department of Homeland Security encourages us to
prepare. The website ready.gov is a good place to get started. Same with the
LDS Preparedness Manual.

~~~
Anon84
Any recommended resources on learning how to fast?

~~~
ravenstine
I wouldn't say there's any one good resource. Most people preach intermittent
fasting, which I've found is okay for maintenance and health but it's not
nearly as beneficial nor will it lose you as much weight as fasting for days
on end. But here's some material I went over to educate myself and convinced
me that it's perfectly safe:

Fasting vs. Eating Less: What's the Difference? (Science of Fasting)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APZCfmgzoS0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APZCfmgzoS0)

Dr. Jason Fung - 'Therapeutic Fasting - Solving the Two-Compartment Problem'

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIuj-oMN-
Fk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIuj-oMN-Fk)

Beginners Guide to Prolonged Fasting | 24-72 Hour Fasting Instructions

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5W1XBf8d-I](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5W1XBf8d-I)

^^ Not exactly a fan of Thomas DeLauer but there's some good information
there.

If you aren't faint of heart, check out some videos on the "Snake Diet"
channel on YouTube. Cole is kind of a lunatic, constantly swears, and holds
nothing back. He does this to be motivational. He's wrong about a few
things(he thinks fasting cures everything and also thinks vaccines are bad),
but when it comes to fasting properly he's pretty spot on. I just took from
him what I thought made sense and left the rest behind. The best idea I got
from him was the "snake juice", which is really just an electrolyte mixture
you can make at home. It really makes all the difference.

Overall, I wish there was someone who could preach this stuff without the
Cole's level of insanity, but there you have it.

------
billfruit
Watercolour painting, the paints, brushes, etc can be quite inexpensive, and
it is an activity that allows one to get lost in it entirely, that you forget
all other things during that time.

------
maayank
Would personally be happy to see more skills of which the importance has
rapidly risen in 2020 or expected to rise.

Exercise has always been important. So has connecting with people or
marketing.

------
teraku
In the light of this comment:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVGuFdX5guE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVGuFdX5guE)

------
rozularen
DevOps trend is only going up with new tools emerging everyday...

------
jerome-jh
Well cooking and woodworking definitely won. May I suggest: keep a tidy desk,
cupboard, storeroom, backyard? I can achieve the first one, definitively not
the others.

------
croo
Learn how to make bread. It was one year of fumbling until I got it right
consistently but nowdays I can make better bread than any commercial bakery
around me.

------
starpilot
Is anyone trying to give skills specific to 2020? This thread so far sounds
like standard self-improvement advice (get in shape, eat healthy, manage
stress).

------
gautamdivgi
My skill to acquire for 2020 is to learn to delegate well. It will free up a
lot of time for you and give others a chance to bring up their skill set.

------
raj140889
Learn,understand and appreciate Art build something from wood learn a new
programming language improve my maths do a backflip a foreign language

------
dkersten
Learn to get a decent and consistent amount of sleep.

------
jackkinsella
Learn how to break information addiction. Just because you _can_ Google it,
doesn't mean you should. Embracing ignorance is liberating.

------
robertlf
Boy, did this conversation veer off-track or what?

------
saadalem
Sense-making. Social intelligence. Novel and adaptive thinking. Cross-cultural
competency. Design mindset. Virtual collaboration.

------
DrAwdeOccarim
Learn molecular biology and how biotech uses it. The 20's are going to be a
huge inflection point in biotechnology.

------
himynameisdom
Emotional intelligence. Specifically: self awareness, self management, social
awareness, and relationship management.

~~~
shouldimove2
Any recommendations for material to read on those topics?

------
nikanj
Introspection, communication, soft skills

------
noncoml
If you are a software guy, get a breadboard and a few micro-controllers and
start tinkering. So much fun!

------
forgotmypw
Meditation and emotional control

How to cultivate empathy

------
jldugger
Here's what I'm considering for the year:

\- typing with Colemak (-dh?)

\- Statistics 102 (calculating sample sizes, t-tests, etc.)

\- Tensorflow

------
thrownaway954
learn that it is OK to ask for help and admit that you have a problem. it
doesn't make you weak to admit that need help in what ever area of your life
and you will have more support than you will ever know. the first step is on
you to ask though.

------
kd22
1\. Being a good listener. 2\. Patience. 3\. Agreeing to disagree, and not
taking it personally.

------
jkgoldst
\- Japanese (< 15 min Duolingo over morning coffee) \- Computer Networking
(Bradfield CS)

------
grouchoboy
For non English speakers, English. For English speakers, learn at least a
second language.

------
eralps
Using search engines efficiently not just Google.

Tracking your online privacy and personal information.

~~~
Jenz
> Using search engines efficiently not just Google

For this I suggest taking a look at Gwerns Internet Search Tips:
www.gwern.net/Search

------
aaronbrethorst
Become a better communicator: spend time polishing your ability to speak and
write.

------
taherchhabra
I am learning Autodesk fusion 360 so that I can create 3d designs for 3d
printing

------
jjohansson
Build your personal brand through blogging (on a domain name you own).

------
esch89
Meditation! So many mental, emotional, and physical health benefits!

------
ed_balls
I want to build an electric go-cart. Any good books on that? :)

------
whatitdobooboo
Journaling every night - journal about anything - just write

------
stevefan1999
learn how to use kubernetes :) or get involved in the container orchestration
scene to make it better

------
ivanche
1\. Investing 2\. Sales/marketing

------
Gonzih
Empathy, patience, understanding.

------
bayareabronco
Survival skills. Global warming, unprecedented fires, coronavirus, rise of
fascism, and on and on we go.

~~~
unnouinceput
you'll die within a month if modern society collapses. Just focus on making a
difference on current society instead of becoming a fatalist.

~~~
jeromegv
There's "modern society collapse" and there's "a 5 day blackout in a city",
most people are not even prepared for #2, it doesn't hurt to plan for that.

------
master_yoda_1
C++ for quantum computing ;)

------
ada1981
Learn to feel your emotions.

Holotropic Breathwork

Learn how to hold space for someone.

Non violent communication

Tribal Leadership

How to grow magic mushrooms

How to have a challenging conversation

~~~
yewenjie
What are some best ways to feel your emotions (and not run away from them)?

~~~
ada1981
Somatic inquiry / therapy; Gestalt practice with a men’s group; Noticing where
you have an impulse towards dopamine triggers (blame / criticism / drugs / sex
/ food / work ) and take pause to see what might be beneath it.

------
RocketSyntax
\- Statistics

\- Spiking neural nets

\- Convolutional neural nets

\- Paragliding

\- Mountain biking

------
fbrncci
Sales and marketing.

------
loriverkutya
play the bagpipe

------
87zuhjkas
Category theory

~~~
collyw
Answers like this might be useful if you explained where it is useful and how
it might benefit people.

------
garysieling
AWS

------
fnord77
learn to write poetry

------
burfog
nunchuck skills, bowhunting skills, computer hacking skills

------
rubenabergel
The ability to be true to yourself in social situations!

-> [https://www.youtube.com/c/socialanimal](https://www.youtube.com/c/socialanimal)

We are surrounded by opportunities for real human connections

Every day, we go through dozens of situations that encourage light, authentic
interactions with the people around us.

All these moments when someone is next to you, and YOU feel like you want to
interact… but you don’t

…you are working at coffee shop and there someone next to you. You share a
smile, you look at each other a few times, you want to say something… but
instead you convince yourself that you are too busy and leave wondering what
if…

…you are standing in line, someone in front of you looks cool, you like their
vibe, you could give them a compliment but you are not sure, what are they
gonna think, whats the point anyway… whatever…

…you go out to a bar to meet people. They are people all around you, you feel
tonight could be fun but instead you order a drink and talk to you friends all
night…

Opportunities are all around us, but instead of diving into the moment, we
hesitate…

We second guess ourselves and overthink our intentions until before we know
it, the moment passes us by.

Maybe we make up an excuse why it didn’t happen, or maybe we just accept the
fact that we are just not “that kind of person”

Either way, we censor ourselves, a moment here, a moment there, constantly
moving further away from the connections we so desperately crave and building
comfort on the sidelines of the life we could have.

These interactions could lead to our next friendship, job or romantic
encounter but the most important realization is that its not about the
outcome, it’s about you.

The real question is who would you be today if you had gone for it even half
the time in the last few years? What you lose is not only the moment and the
potential connection, but the personal evolution that this moment would have
brought you.

We are so focused on the outcome that we forget the initial intent of
expression, the desire to say something, we forget about the process…

I used to judge my interaction on the outcome, I made a friends, I got her
number, I went on a date etc… until I realized all this is irrelevant.

The only question that matter is: “Did I express myself or did I censor
myself”

Why?

Because overtime, being committed to expressing yourself will simply give you
more experience.

You’ll be more comfortable expressing your truth, you’ll meet more people,
you’ll just have so much more experience which will impact how you relate to
people, how you express yourself… which in turn impact your new interactions.

I realized that I should be able to talk to anyone with the same ease and
presence I have when I am with my best friends.

All the frictions you can experience are just opportunities to better
understand yourself and your perception.

Interacting with people is first and foremost about you. It’s about expressing
yourself, the rest takes care of itself.

The only thing you need is to let your true self shine through. That’s what
people want to see, and it’s the only way find real people to share your life
with.

-> [https://www.youtube.com/c/socialanimal](https://www.youtube.com/c/socialanimal)

~~~
temporama1
Dude...just, put Netflix on or something.

------
SirHound
Attention

------
temporama1
Porn

------
franze
No-Code Automation.

------
rubenabergel
The ability to be true to yourself in social interactions!
youtube.com/c/socialanimal

~~~
probably_wrong
Is this your channel, or are you affiliated with it in some way?

------
yters
Learn about intelligent design theory and how it impacts biology and computer
science. Google papers by Dembski for the mathematical underpinning. I
recommend his papers 'search for a search' and 'specification: the pattern
that signifies intelligence'. Read Winston Ewert's paper 'Dependency Graph of
Life' for an amazing application of CS to bioinformatics, and 'algorithmic
specified complexity in the game of life' for a fun application to artificial
life. Read 'Evolutionary Informatics' for a very accessible overview of their
work.

~~~
iron0013
You’re suggesting that OP devote his or her time to learning pseudo-science.
Hard to think of anything that could possibly have less value than that.

~~~
yters
Have you read these papers, or are you just repeating something you read
online?

~~~
iron0013
I mean, I haven’t watched every 9-hour-long flat earther video on YouTube
either, but I’m still pretty certain that the world’s not flat.

~~~
yters
Is flat earth promoted by mathematicians and scientists with PhDs from
Princeton and Cambridge, and published in mainstream IEEE journals?

At any rate, you seem to be saying you have not read any of the relevant
papers. I encourage you to look at least at one of the papers I mention (not
just the criticisms others have written), and make up your own mind as to its
validity. Most are free PDFs hosted online, and are not very long reads. The
game of life paper is the most accessible, IMO. You can even reproduce the
results yourself if you become interested enough. At that point, you'll be in
a better position to dismiss the work.

Even though I agree with you on flat earth being a pseudoscience, I have at
least read some of their arguments to see what they are claiming. Same with
9/11 truthers and holocaust denialists. I at least read their arguments, so I
can debunk their arguments myself. There is always the possibility that some
position I vehemently disagree with might be correct.

