
Ask HN: What's a “rare and valuable” skill that is not programming? - gamechangr
My kids (10,14,15) are all learning programming in school, which is good. It kind of makes me think in the future programming will not be as rare or as valuable as it was 20 years ago.<p>I want to create a list of tangible skills (with your help) I could help them develop, so they have a good future.
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jppope
Sales. 2X more important that the rest of this list. As long as there are
people and products, sales will be a valuable skill.

The "Trades": Carpentry, Plumbing, Electrical. NOT just as a job... most
Americans own houses... knowing these skills can save you tens of thousands,
and potentially add massive value to your property. Its a great fallback in
case you lose your job.

Contract Negotiation/ Drafting. In the future much of our drafting work will
be normal people using templates from the internet. Knowing the basics of
drafting will save you a bunch of money and keep your risk levels down.

A Foreign Language. If you are based in the US your top choices should be
Chinese (Mandarin , Cantonese) or Spanish.

Bartending/ Cooking The single fastest way to get decent income in case you
lose your full time employment. PLUS I would argue culinary skills are
valuable in business.

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gamechangr
What is 'drafting" exactly? (like a Lawyer or more like an Architect?)

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jppope
Legal Drafting

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oldsklgdfth
The ability to explain the same thing differently to accommodate different
people.

I have found that tutoring really helped me develop this skill. It also forces
you to figure out what doesn't make sense to the other person and clear that
up as well, even if it's not part of the question. Also, sometimes people
aren't even sure what they need to ask.

I have worked with lots of people that know exactly what they were talking
about, but couldn't convey it to the rest of the team. It can be crippling.

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zygotic12
I'm a dad who has been struggling with this. I've come to the conclusion that
'helping' just re-enforces the 'wot do you know old person'. I've had great
results from emailing things that I find fun - most of which is ignored - but
every so often it sparks an interest. Fan those flames - not your own. BUT
remember. EVERY child is different and YMMV on any approach. Be very
adaptable. Horrid answer for us prog types I know, sorry.

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EliRivers
Diplomat level negotiation and mediation. The level of skill that supports
work that takes years sometimes. Some of those people can work magic.

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gitgud
Cooking, everyone needs to eat and a good cook is popular with friends, at
dinners and in the dating scene.

Drawing and Writing. The ability to communicate your thoughts and ideas
through sketching or typing is valuable skill of communication that most
people neglect. Conveying an abstract idea effectively could get them the job
or win a contract.

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jgamman
Be good-ish at 2 or 3 different things - one of which is programming which has
a leveraging effect on anything else you learn (just trust the default
libraries). Being good-ish at 2-3 different things (as a strategy) is rare and
if you're actively looking you can translate that into valuable.

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ElijahLynn
This is good advice, programming should underlay the other skills, then
learning any specialty/domain on top of that will translate into very unique,
valuable skills in that new domain. The more I learn the more I see how sooooo
many things are in uncharted territory, so many ideas yet to be had.

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sloaken
1) Public speaking

2) Body language

3) Basic finance - for which I recommend a no chore allowance. Make them buy
all non essentials with allowance. Oh we are at a fair, you want a lemonade?
Sure, with your money. Water I will give (buy) for free. Total cost is less
than the cost of your 23 year old child calling and saying they need rent
money or they are being thrown out. Make the amount age based, and pay them
once a month. We do ours on the last Friday of the month.

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omosubi
What's the best way to go about improving your body language?

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jppope
Practice! (With video or a mirror) Additionally, if you want to see some of
the fundamentals there is a book called "what every body is saying"... pretty
good read

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mettamage
Deep concentration is a rare and valuable skill IMO, especially the ability to
do that at will.

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DoreenMichele
Panning for gold.

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itronitron
lots of youtube videos available for self-study as I have recently discovered

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auganov
Outside of the last and current tech bubble programming was never that
valuable. And even then and now it's constrained to a few places and a few
kinds of "programmers".

Nowadays crypto seems like the a space that could produce hypergrowth while
being obvious and underappreciated at the same time.

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gnulinux
How is programming not that valuable when average programmer makes $150k in US
and university students from top colleges with programming can find $100k jobs
straight outta college? Being good at programming is almost a for-sure way to
mid to high wealth nowadays.

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auganov
What's your source for the average of $150k? According to the Bureau of Labor
Statistics the median is $82k [0]. Glassdoor seems to agree [1]. Plenty of
jobs in the legal and medical profession command higher salaries and provide
better job security.

[0] [https://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-
technology/...](https://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-
technology/mobile/computer-programmers.htm) [1]
[https://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/programmer-salary-
SRCH_KO...](https://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/programmer-salary-
SRCH_KO0,10.htm)

~~~
gnulinux
It's tricky. You'll see different titles like "software engineer", "backend
engineer", "fullstack developer", "systems engineer" etc... who are mostly
just programmers, so it's not an objective classification.

