
Ask HN: What skills will be useful during an upcoming recession/depression? - sideway
My economic knowledge is limited but it seems like the effects of the global domino triggered by conoravirus will echo for many years to come. As a generalist who never had an issue finding a job so far, I&#x27;m afraid that in this new reality my software&#x2F;management skills won&#x27;t be of any use in 6 months.<p>What skills would be valuable to develop now to adapt as quick as possible to the new state of things?
======
madhadron
People are acting as though we're going back to a pre-industrial economy with
this. It's not true. The power isn't going out. The water will continue to
come out of the tap.

So my suggestion short term is: learn to cook if you don't know how to. Not
fancy, haute cuisine, but how to take whatever's in the pantry and make
something tasty out of it. Learn how to grow some produce in small spaces,
even if it's just herbs.

Learn how to not spend money. How to reduce your energy and water usage. How
to do basic repairs and projects yourself. What you have to buy in a time of
logistical disruption is time. If you can increase the time you can be without
income from a month to four months or from six months to two years, that is a
remarkable difference in your resilience.

~~~
pbourke
I second learning to cook - it’s a skill valuable in good times and bad and
really helps you to eat cheaply and healthily if you are mindful of your
ingredients.

There are tons of helpful videos to get you started. I recommend Bon Appétit’s
Test Kitchen on YouTube

~~~
ethbro
Also, I've never met a partner who doesn't appreciate it!

And in terms of amortizing time spent learning, it's hard to beat getting
better at something you do every day. Sometimes multiple times!

~~~
mars4rp
My partner's cooking is so good that restaurants food taste like paper to me.
It has its downsides as well, I am eating much more and gained weight and
getting into diet is hard.

------
elmarschraml
Skills are tactics. Dealing with a recession is about strategy.

Most importantly: this is a time to focus on reducing risks, rather than
maximizing profit.

This is a crappy time to start a startup or being a freelancer. Keep your job,
build your skills, save money, and start in a few years.

Think about your job's security: Pay attention to your employers
annual/quarterly reports. Which industries does your employer sell to? Travel,
restaurants, hotel, retail, small businesses will be the worst hit, with
little money to spend.

This is also a bad time to change jobs - depending on your local laws, it
probably is much, much easier to lay off someone who just started.

Maybe broaden your skillls. In good times, it is more profitable to be a
specialist - e.g. much better to be THE leading expert on scaling wordpress,
rather than an all-purpose linux admin. In bad times, when jobs are scarce,
being less of a specialist increaes the number of jobs you are suitable for.

Save money, lower your burn-rate, extend your runway - usually meant for
start-ups, but this goes for your personal finances just as well

Become familiar with laws and benefits from the government for unemployment,
lay-offs etc - if you should happen to find yourself unemployed, know what you
have to do, how much assistance you can expect.

That being said: If you have a high risk-tolerance, and can afford to, now is
also a great time to start a business or to invest, simply because nobody else
is, so there is much less competition for everything.

~~~
polishdude20
I work for a university as a teacher. What do you think the economic
implications might be for a university in the coming months? I can see less
new people enrolling next semester, current students refusing to pay the same
tuition if it's going to continue being all online etc.

~~~
Nuzzerino
I work for a company where universities are pretty much 100% of our customers,
so I'm curious about this also.

------
tmountain
Cooking from basic ingredients. Growing a basic seasonal garden. Finding ways
to be happy with less and appreciate the simple pleasures in life. Placing
value on human relationships more than material things. The art of
conversation. Enjoying simple/affordable/accessible hobbies.

~~~
pen2l
All of these things seem learnable with available resources except the art of
conversation, something that I actually need a lot of work on. And
recommendations on how I can improve on this?

~~~
glouwbug
More emotion, less logic. People like to feel good. They don't necessarily
want to learn something new.

Crack jokes, banter, wear a smile, but don't be a clown.

Best way is to surround yourself by people who do the same. Do not feel
discouraged when they "throw a knife" (take the piss) your way, as it's a test
of your conversational and mental frame. Agree and amplify, and laughs will be
had.

Then again, don't surround yourself with bullies. A true friend stabs from the
front to test and grow your mental frame, while enemies stab from the back to
undermine your frame.

Point is, have fun. Don't be a walking talking wikipedia page of logical
facts.

~~~
pen2l
> Point is, have fun. Don't be a walking talking wikipedia page of logical
> facts.

This is sort of what I am. I think it started long ago maybe when I felt as if
this is one way I can provide value: to give you facts.

I'm aware that this is a problem, in that by doing this I'm not really engaged
in a back-and-forth conversation -- I've been aware of this for some time,
it's just that it's hard to transition away from this. I don't know how to do
this, because this is who I am now, and changing who I am, that’s a deep
change to make, it is hard, and I don’t know how I can do this.

~~~
glouwbug
Sure, but one shouldn't feel obligated to provide value. Providing
intellectual stimulation when unasked for immediately marks one (to the lay
person) as the proverbial know-it-all. Their body language will speak
magnitudes; just watch the direction of their feet. Anything more than 30
degrees away from your direction will indicate they are not interested in the
service you think you may be providing.

You must gain confidence. Have confidence in yourself, and you will find
others will do the difficult conversational parts for you. The quickest way to
gain confidence is to learn to lift compound weights and to increase the
weight over the years.

~~~
kd5bjo
An alternative view on this is to realize that being a non-judgemental
sounding board often provides much greater value to your conversation partner
than offering advice. I often find that people who are having trouble with
something already know what the best solution is and simply need to build up
enough confidence in their own reasoning to act on it.

------
DethNinja
Honestly, I don’t believe we will see a huge depression unless there is war.
People are still available for work and all the equipment used for producing
value is in good conditions. So long as government provides fiscal stimulus,
depression shouldn’t happen.

In case it happens though, you are better of farming stuff like potatoes and
chicken than developing software until government steps in with fiscal
stimulus, though it will require some existing capital.

~~~
maxander
In many cases, people _aren 't_ available; they're sheltering at home, social
distancing. Even for those who can work remotely, the disruption to routine is
going to reduce productivity. And worse, many assets _are_ going to be
destroyed- for instance, restaurants that go under while distancing is taking
place are just going to be gone, and while the brute equipment can be reused
later, the "organizational capital" (the habits and knowledge of how to run
that particular business in that particular context most effectively)
vanishes.

Various governmental interventions (stimulus, rent freezes, etc) can
ameliorate this, but I'm not confident (and the financial sector isn't
confident, I think) that the government is presently competent enough to get
too much mileage out of implementing these; stimulus needs to be done
correctly and promptly to have much effect.

If you're in (or your customers are in) an industry that can hunker down and
"weather the downturn," the eventual return to normal will be priced in and
you'll likely be fine. If you're in (or ditto) an industry that will suffer
attrition, the uncertainty will be priced in and you're liable to suffer. Give
some thought as to where you stand.

~~~
fxtentacle
Restaurants won't have to go away if you freeze the rent and pay the previous
employees a replacement income.

In other words, providing a stimulus package paid to the right people can
prevent it.

------
analog31
Math and physics carried me through two recessions so far. I never got rich,
but also never poor.

~~~
TheAdamAndChe
It's a bit of a tangent, but do you have any advice on how to self-learn math?
I'd like to complete some CLEP classes so I can meet the prerequisites for a
CS program, but it's tough to learn on my own.

~~~
tim333
Depends what level but
[https://www.khanacademy.org/math](https://www.khanacademy.org/math) has
stuff. Really to learn maths you have to work through problems to grasp it and
get it you head. Start simple and work up.

------
ohiovr
If you can learn how to repair things there will always be need of that in a
siege. Returning value from utter losses will be of great need.

edit

For a couple simple examples consider the bic lighter. The strikers are made
well enough it is possible to refill them and reuse them several times. Here
is a video I made on it:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fnnDu-
_hso](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fnnDu-_hso)

possibly not the best video but it just shows it isn't very hard.

What about a ventilator that needs a part? Not hard for someone who knows a
lot about 3d printing.

~~~
joering2
Strongly advise against making any parts of equipment for healthcare or even
more - device that sustains life. If it breaks, it will be very simple for
government to find you liable. That's also - sadly - reason why these
ventilators are so darn expensive, so that they go thru lots of scrutiny and
testing.

~~~
Wistar
Plus skyhigh product liability premiums.

------
brunojppb
while we see some industries taking a hit during this crises, we also see many
others soaring with the rise of distributed and remote work. Software products
targeting this field will get even more relevant and jobs will likely
flourish. That is why I believe having software/management skills are still
relevant in the short/long-term.

------
1121redblackgo
Mental self-care and acceptance of negative experiences. Working out in small
areas/body weight exercises. Cooking on a budget. Getting out of your own head
and own problems and into thinking about other people, is also immensely
psychologically healthy.

~~~
Trasmatta
> Getting out of your own head and own problems and into thinking about other
> people, is also immensely psychologically healthy.

Hmm, anyone have any tips about what to do if this actually just overwhelms
and depresses you? I can deal emotionally with my own problems fairly well.
But when I start thinking about the wide spread suffering among both the
people I know and care about as well as the world at large,I get immediately
overwhelmed and start to shut down.

~~~
deesep
"The chief task in life is simply this: to identify and separate matters so
that I can say clearly to myself which are externals not under my control, and
which have to do with the choices I actually control. Where then do I look for
good and evil? Not to uncontrollable externals, but within myself to the
choices that are my own . . .” —EPICTETUS

Stoicism helped me get out of my own head.

------
war1025
Communication never hurts. Being able to distill ideas down to their
actionable core and spot miscommunication before it derails things is useful
in any context.

~~~
rolph
ham radio operators builders, radio/comms engineers

------
downerending
Speaking as an also-generalist, I think it's actually a good place to be. My
whole career has been pretty much "Here's something you've never seen before,
an we need it fixed.". People who can do that will always be in demand.

Beyond that, consider the Epicurean Tetrapharmakos

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetrapharmakos](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetrapharmakos)

especially point three. If you think about it, what you _truly_ need to
survive is easier had than you might think.

------
coffeefirst
It's a recession, not an apocalypse. These are kind of old news:

1\. Budgeting. Know exactly where your money goes and what dials you can turn.

2\. It's less about skills than products and services. So it becomes a better
time to be a Costco or a cobbler (which helps people save money) than to be a
Tesla (which helps people spend money).

For software, my suspicion is infinite monthly SaaS subscriptions will come
under more scrutiny. And it might be a bad time to run a money-bleeding self-
driving car startup. But that's my only firm guess at this point.

------
superasn
I still think there is plenty of demand for web developers.

If you have time on your hands and know some basic programming then might I
suggest learning some web technologies. Even if you can't land a job quickly
you can make some income being an indie hacker too (though you may need to
learn at least a few marketing skills and SEO)

------
BurningFrog
My thought is that this virus will have passed through the world, one way or
another, in 4-8 months.

After that, the world reverts back to what it was doing.

My point is that this is no underlying weakness in the global economy. It's
more like a slow moving natural disaster.

I'll admit I don't feel super confident that this is how things work. Happy to
be corrected!

~~~
pergadad
Sorry, I don't want to be too negative but I find your sentiment very naive
and self-centred.

If you're well off now you'll be fine. If you're decently off in a wealthy
country you'll be fine too. If you're one of the precariously employed and
healthcare-less workers in a country like the US you will suffer and might
die. If you are a precariously employed person in a poor country you'll watch
many friends and family die.

Think what happens in Italy, a country with one of the best healthcare systems
in the world, hitting South Sudan. Don't confuse your reality with how it will
hit the rest of the world.

~~~
quickthrower2
This hitting Syria give me the chills.

~~~
BurningFrog
It's come to Afghanistan via Iran.

That may be the least prepared country for it.

~~~
omar_a1
I was thinking the same thing about the densely-populated Gaza Strip. They're
already severely lacking in medical needs.

------
pxue
My father lost his job in the 2008 recession at an engineering firm.

He started his own consultancy.

Dozen or so years later he's pulling in mid 6 figures by himself working
40-60h a month at home.

Do the same. Have skills, learn to sell them.

------
DrNuke
The care industry at local level is poised to do well and get funded more than
in the recent past in order to protect the vulnerable part of the population
from the disease and avoid further waves. They will need generalists and
computer-savvy operators to smoothen their peaks for sure.

------
Waterluvian
I'm learning how to refinish my decks. Needs some rotten wood replaced. A
massive clean. A repaint. And a whole bunch of gross looking misaligned cuts
replaced too. I'll then re-do the wiring for the staircase lights and outlet.

I like this project because it isn't blocking anything (like if I took the
kitchen out). And when it's all done, this will be the summer I made our back
decks beautiful rather than the summer we were stuck inside feeling anxious.

------
ericsoderstrom
> the effects of the global domino triggered by conoravirus will echo for many
> years to come.

Why? As far as I know there's no underlying systemic financial reason for a
depression or recession. The virus sucks. Some companies will no doubt have a
bad quarter or two. But viruses pass, and this one will too.

> I'm afraid that in this new reality my software/management skills won't be
> of any use in 6 months.

That seems hyperbolic.

~~~
tayo42
I think 6 months of lock downs or stay at home would show a lot of companies
are not prepared to not have income. Businesses going out of business aren't
coming back, along with the jobs they provided.

~~~
ericsoderstrom
Sure. But if there was a need for the goods and services those companies
provided before, then there will be a need for those goods and services again.
I don't think enduring financial collapse logically follows from even an
extended quarantine.

~~~
tayo42
I don't think that is necessarily true. Something like gamestop won't come
back, individuals who put everything into a small business might not recover
and try again. A lot is happening at one time.

~~~
drstewart
Something like Gamestop not coming back doesn't mean those dollars aren't
still going to flow to gaming

~~~
tayo42
It's not just gaming, there's employees, local taxes, rents, physical
distribution.

------
fxtentacle
People skills & Frustration tolerance

1-2% of society are always on the verge of depression, as that is just how
gauss distributions work. But chances are, it'll soon be 10%. Google
therapeutic shopping and you know that people are willing to spend a lot of
money to feel better.

So if you can handle hearing the whining of depressed people without it
dragging you down too much, offer to do free video chat with lonely people
now. Your goal isn't to change their situation in any way, but by telling you
about it and feeling heard, you can help them change their feelings about
their situation. So you mostly just listen, reveal related facts about
yourself, and ask caring questions.

Once the crisis is over, your newfound ability to stay cheerful in the
presence of adversity and your ability to get along well with different kinds
of people will be a very valuable asset for romance and work.

Add cooking and laundry and those 4 traits are what I believe most HN readers
will be lacking in comparison to the normal population.

------
FiberBundle
I'd recommend learning about markets and economics. My suspicion is that
states will continue to implement all steps necessary to contain the virus
over the next 18 months and bail out all businesses and consumers in order to
keep the productivity of the economy close to the level prior to the outbreak.
Depending on how difficult it will be to contain the virus, this might require
funds on an unprecedented scale in modern times. It's difficult to predict how
eager investors will be to finance these deficits. Obviously something like a
hyperinflation scenario is completely out of the question for a developed
state like the US and there will likely be more deflationary pressure over the
next few years, but at some point states will have to deleverage and I'm
inclined to say that they will probably do this using higher inflation rates,
in which case you can probably profit a lot from knowing about markets and
economics.

~~~
profchaos69
Do you have any advice on where to read up on this sort of thing? I’ve always
been interested but never acted upon it. Now seems like a good time to
understand more about how our world actually works in terms of the economy

~~~
FiberBundle
Take a look at the Economics & Finance videos on Khan Academy [1]. I have only
watched some of them, but those I watched were good.

You could read some standard macroeconomics textbooks, but I'd advise against
doing that, since they are expensive and unnecessarily formalized using
elementary math, which doesn't really add anything to the material itself.
There's however a good book on monetary economics by Mishkin called Economics
of Money, Banking and Financial Markets, which is really good, but the Khan
Academy videos on banking mostly cover the same material.

Personally I've learned a lot from reading economic history. Some books I can
recommend are: Eichengreen - Globalizing Capital: A History of the
International Monetary System

Frieden - Global Capitalism: Its Fall and Rise in the Twentieth Century

Soros - Alchemy of Finance (skip the first couple of chapters on his
reflexivity theory, but the 'diary' chapters are a gold mine)

Ferguson - The Ascent of Money (probably a good book to start, the others
might be harder to completely grasp for a beginner)

Some other good book I can recommend (not history books) are: The Secrets of
Economic Indicators: Hidden Clues to Future Economic Trends and Investment
Opportunities by Baumohl

Inside the House of Money by Drobny (mostly about global macro trading, but
you would learn a lot about economics along the way, would only recommend this
after having built up some basic knowledge though)

Most importantly you should start reading the Economist, which has really high
quality economics and finance articles, but is released only weekly and offers
a good trade off with regards to time commitment and knowledge about what's
going on in the world. Note that you will probably need to know some basics in
order to understand everything, but you can look up things along the way.
Economics really isn't hard to learn if you have a technical background.

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/user/khanacademy/playlists?view=50&s...](https://www.youtube.com/user/khanacademy/playlists?view=50&sort=dd&shelf_id=11https://www.youtube.com/user/khanacademy/playlists?view=50&sort=dd&shelf_id=11)

------
smdz
Learn to learn.

And then practice learning. Our brains have very high capacity to learn, adapt
and forget quite a lot - just believe that you can, and you will. All you need
is focused effort. You only need to prove that belief once to yourself. I know
this sounds philosophical, but it works.

Becoming an expert in an area is quite another thing. For that you need to
evaluate the benefits.

> new state of things

Nobody can predict the new state of things. We can make an educated guess. And
my guess is that software skills will be useful for many decades to come. You
may have to get better to stay ahead of the competition and that might be more
work. The economic impact of the lockdowns has already started hurting small
businesses as contracts are being cancelled/paused. They can only take 2 more
months of beating, but to clear economic uncertainty we all have to be back to
normal working within next 15 days- that is simply not possible. So get ready
for small biz to cut/die first followed by the bigger ones.

> will echo for many years to come

I think the worst is yet to show up, the next two months will show where we
stand as a world on the pandemic. Right now we only see virus as a health
issue, but the virus effect is also shaking up the geopolitical state of the
world and questioning global trade and policies. We will probably come out of
it quicker than before. The economic effects will be huge, but not necessarily
bad for every country.

~~~
igotsideas
Like this a lot. Anything that has helped you learn how to learn?

~~~
smdz
I heard that from one of the senior professors 18 years back, and that stuck
in my mind. I was doing that even before that but then had the formal phrase
"Learn to learn".

What has helped? - It was definitely not books about the topic and I had very
limited access to internet or videos.

I do not know the answer, but I will try to explain my scenario. There are
some things you can replicate and some you cannot.

Something changed in me when I was 17 years old and that motivated me to learn
a lot. Before that I was an average kid who thought studies are pointless
burden. In a way, I was right because it was directionless but wrong because I
was not getting educated in any other way either.

Unfortunately, I was a college freshman by then and with worst grades of my
life prior to that. Parents and relatives looked down on me as a failure and
my parents gave up on me. So here I was a new person, highly motivated to
learn and catch up learning from the lost years and also had a high degree of
freedom to think and learn whatever I wanted to. So few things - I had
freedom, no pressures, I knew that I didn't know, self-motivated, no fear of
failure, open-mindedness but still questioning everything, and no-ego.

Few beliefs set in quickly:

1\. Human brain can learn anything. And I meant learning, not memorization - I
hated memorizing. I also believed that if I can do it, anybody can.

2\. Knowledge is universally accessible (as if it is in a higher dimension on
a shared hard-drive) and if we focus just enough on what we want to achieve,
our brains will tune to it. I know how crazy the second one sounds. I may have
a wrong perception but it was my own (not induced by someone or a book or some
movie). It works for me whatever the underlying neurological reason might be.
Today, internet does the same thing - making knowledge universally accessible

Then, it was a top down approach starting with what I want to do or what
problem I want to solve.

Did not matter whether the effort would pay back or whether it was any useful
to me. I just needed to have some interest in that subject.

For one instance, it was music, I impulsively bought a musical keyboard. I was
foolish to think that because I was good at a computer keyboard, I will be
naturally good at the musical one too. I had lot of time after work and I
wanted to stay away from programming all day (because programming is my hobby
too). Then I selected one of the keyboard's built-in composition, Beethoven's
Fur Elise in tutorial mode. The keyboard would tell me which keys to play. I
hate memorization, so the first thing I did was to listen and hit the right
key. I was basically exploring and feeling the keyboard like a toddler does
with things. And then I would practice the song again and again and again for
many hours a day (at least 3-4 hours). I would end up optimizing my finger
movements when I used to get stuck. Then sometimes I would try to fit the
tunes of some songs on the keyboard. Few months later a musician friend of a
friend came in my room to see the keyboard. When I played Beethoven's Fur
Elise, he was amazed at how well I moved the hand and the fingers. He was
astonished to know that I had zero formal training. How did I learn that?
Trial and error and focused effort. I came to know then that what I was doing
is called "ear training". He shared more information about books, videos and
musical languages. I gathered more resources to learn about those things, got
good at playing complex musicals. But then gradually I stopped playing the
keyboard - may be because it started to feel like work or may be because
something else interested me more.

I'm not discounting the value of formal education. It saves you lots of time
and prevents lots of mistakes.

I also dig deeper into the history of concepts, because it makes me understand
and remember it. A college friend accidentally taught me that. For example
when I was reading about pharmacology and drugs - I wondered why they name the
drugs like they do. Exploring deeper is like falling down the seemingly
infinite rabbit hole - but that is what keeps learning fun for me, even if I
get off track for a while.

On the cons, every week I spend hours learning things that have no immediate
benefit or use or any visible long term benefit. But most of the times,
sometimes after many years, it turns out to be helpful in ways I could not
have imagined.

~~~
igotsideas
That was awesome. Thanks for taking the time to write that.

------
airstrike
Being a doctor is always valuable, though I'm not sure it's that easy to
retrain into one...

More importantly, knowing how to live frugally is valuable in and of itself,
assuming we do end up with a once-in-a-century-type depression.

Not impossible, according to some
([https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22655670](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22655670))
but then forecasting is very difficult, especially when it involves the
future.

~~~
ako
Freelance general practitioners are massively being laid off (contracts
terminated, no new opportunities) at the moment in the Netherlands. Almost no
one is allowed to come to a gp office, anything that is not urgent is
postponed...

~~~
danbmil99
Doctors should start making house calls again. In full protective gear

~~~
ako
They do, as little as possible.

------
arthurderoey
Cyber security maybe? I don't think that companies will seize needing sales
roles?

I know that Launch School is doing a webinar about this topic the coming days,
titled:

'How to Navigate a Recession for Software Engineers'

I am not affiliated with them, but here is the webinar link:

[https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_xarP2qpeRdKTfD-
qikbX4A](https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_xarP2qpeRdKTfD-qikbX4A)

------
rolph
develop a flare for barter and trade. learn how to provide the things people
actually need.

general construction trades and adhoc engineering.

farming. hunting fishing.

veternary skills surgical skills midwivery dentistry.

localized /offgrid/on site power generation.

production of fuel from raw materials.

~~~
ryanianian
Adding to this: learn the basics of ham radio. Not only is the theory fun if
you're the math/science type, it's also a lifeline service if cellphone or
satellite communications are down. You can learn enough in a weekend to get an
amateur license and buy $20 radios that will let you talk across the state or
further.

~~~
rolph
and right away find a local repeater and get accepted into an operators net,
thats going to be crucial...

there should be some rep among operators to avoid bad apples that would try to
take or make advantage with black comms

------
roschdal
Agriculture, hunting, fishing, carpentry and masonry.

~~~
psfollow
Einstein: "I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but
World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."

~~~
mirekrusin
Is there a war coming?

~~~
atwebb
Well, hopefully we don't follow the 1929 trajectory too closely...

------
angarg12
Work from home effectively.

------
sigmaprimus
Learn to make a budget and stick to it. People who follow and understand the
expression "Waste not want not." and act accordingly will be in a much better
position.

Start with going over your latest bank or credit card statement and really
think about where your money has gone and where it should be going.

"How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time!"

------
gwbas1c
> I'm afraid that in this new reality my software/management skills won't be
> of any use in 6 months.

First skill: Patience

Second skill: Adaptability

Third skill: Resilience. Software will always be needed. You just might need
to work a "beer money" job for a little while.

~~~
nickriebe
or learn how to make your own beer

~~~
gwbas1c
It's only cheaper to make your own if you drink a lot and get it perfect the
first time around. Otherwise, you waste a lot of money while you learn, or end
up only saving a few pennies a bottle but wasting your time.

That's why the people who get into brewing do it because they enjoy it, not
for the money!

(The last time I made beer I forgot about it and found the barrel a few months
later!)

~~~
rmcpherson
All true although it’s a great hobby for being stuck in the house and likely
safer than buying beer currently.

------
FahadUddin92
There always are a few skills that help during recession. When recession
comes, people want to switch to cheaper ways of doing things. So find a way to
making stuff less expensive always helps.

------
hourislate
There was a thread on 4chan covering possible jobs during the Apocalypse.

Scavenging, Mushroom picker, Hunter, Under Ground Bunker Specialist, Medic,
Combat/Army specialist, Tinkerer, etc.

------
danbmil99
I can say that my apparently unusual innate ability to get slack and zoom
video and screen sharing to work has been in great demand for the last few
weeks.

------
badrabbit
If this is the same level as '08 I don't think much will change in your
sector. The demand will still be there,just a lot less of it. If your employer
is not in tech either you lose a job or you don't see a pay increase for a
while. If your employer is in tech then there are plenty of non-tech places
all over that are starving for your talent which will do well in a recession.

------
dpflan
> “...I'm afraid that in this new reality my software/management skills won't
> be of any use in 6 months.”

I’m curious: What do you mean by this?

~~~
sideway
I've been following many threads on Reddit (and one on HN) about people
getting fired already. As there is no indication this trend will be reversed
any time soon, I get the feeling that a) lots of industries have already been
hit hard and b) things may get progressively worse in the following months.

It worries me that, as a huge percentage of the web runs on ads, if lots of
industries get into trouble, the ad space will inevitably suffer as well. The
cascading effect of that will most probably affect in a very obvious way every
company I've worked for, layoffs will oversaturated the market and my current
skillset will be insufficient to give me any competitive advantage.

~~~
bdcravens
There will be a lot of layoffs. The question is, what kind of jobs are they?
Are these experienced developers with multiple languages and platforms under
their belt, or one-trick ponies that came from a bootcamp?

You're right - ad-driven web properties won't do well. There is tons of code
written every day that does actual revenue-generating work, however. It's not
sexy work, it's not VC-funded work, and that's okay.

During the dot-com bust I had no problems with work. My longest contract was
for a hospital, writing software to help nurses schedule and track patient
visits. This was tangible work, with a tangible benefit. It wasn't a nebulous
business model.

~~~
heavyset_go
> _Are these experienced developers with multiple languages and platforms
> under their belt, or one-trick ponies that came from a bootcamp?_

During the last recession, many of those that were let go were the "expensive"
experienced developers that could command higher salaries than new hires.

I know several experienced developers that lost their jobs last week.

------
nsmog767
Knowing multiple languages, to maximize your options.

~~~
sideway
You mean natural languages, not programming ones, right?

~~~
nsmog767
ha, I just revealed my status as a non-engineer. Yes, languages. I am trying
to improve my Spanish during quarantine downtime.

------
saddington
the #1 thing is how to build community online... effectively, relationships.

this is actually harder to do for a lot of folks... especially the millions
who are now forced to do it.

im training a few folks a week: [http://yen.camp](http://yen.camp)

~~~
crispinb
This is a little narrower - but I'd be interested in suggestions for open
source software useful for local online communities. People in my area use
Facebook. Except that many (like me) just won't sign up for a FB account, and
even those that do around here mostly loathe it.

I'd like to set something up but as this has just occurred to me I'm vague on
specifics as yet. At a minimum I'd like easy-to-use community forums.
Discourse is obviously a possibility.

------
chvid
Knowing Chinese ...

~~~
sideway
Would you mind elaborating?

~~~
chvid
It is still too early to tell but what if the corona virus pandemic ends up
hurting the us and Europe much more than China? Pushing the shift towards
Asia/China into overdrive.

------
GRANDUNO
I believe that we should always be on the move to adapt to changing
environment and foster multi-skilling. I am actually in the same frame of
mind!

------
mirekrusin
Aim to be an expert in your field = what you love to do and you'll be fine.
High performing people are unaffected during crisis.

~~~
inglor
I'm a "high performer", a core collaborator in a big open source project and a
library maintainer of a few libraries with 10M+ weekly downloads on NPM. I
have a BSc in CS and lots of "good" industry experience in strong start ups
for long-ish ( 5 year ) durations.

I'm definitely going to be impacted by this recession. I was impacted by the
2008 recession and I was impacted by the dot-com bubble. A lot of friends went
to do enterprise Java at banks, jobs without glamour and other things to pay
the bills.

There are a lot of things I get away with right now that I won't be able to
get away with anymore.

Also don't forget that "high performers" are more expensive and a lot of times
"mid performers" do a good-enough job, so high performers had to compromise
for mid-performer salaries during recessions.

Obviously start-ups closing and less funding all around also changes the
supply-demand balance in the short term. It's likely to induce job changes and
closures for at least some of us.

~~~
atwebb
>A lot of friends went to do enterprise Java at banks

Perhaps I'm projecting but I think that cloud skills will be the enterprise
Java/.Net of this recession. There is a trough of skills and a pretty clear
line, it reminds me of desktop apps to web apps around 2008 as well.

------
tmaly
Learning what to cook to stretch your food supply. Learning not to waste food.

------
rjohnk
Honestly, right now during the pandemic, medical courier. How do you think
tests get to labs?

------
sys_64738
How to grow vegetables and fruit in the garden.

------
arthurderoey
Cyber security?

------
agumonkey
turning stress and chaos into patient and focus (and using this time to do
whatever is beneficial)

------
adultSwim
Carpentry

------
awinter-py
if the GPS goes out of business because people aren't leaving the house,
you'll need to navigate dense urban areas without assistance

------
gonational
I think the most important skill is learning how to gain access to zero-
interest loans from the Federal Reserve.

This skill allows you to lend to your buddies who can purchase distressed
businesses and properties for pennies on the dollar, which gives you and them
the opportunity to make billions in profits while everybody else is suffering.

I’m still trying to learn how to do this; if anybody has any information about
what’s required, please reply.

~~~
tmountain
_which gives you the opportunity to make billions in profits while everybody
else is suffering._

And hopefully utilize those profits to help fewer suffer.

~~~
psfollow
And write book reviews explaining why the world will suffer a lot less if only
more plebs will fall in line with your view of what is best for them.

------
teddyvangogh
making masks.

Calling All People Who Sew And Make: You Can Help Make Masks For 2020
Healthcare Worker PPE Shortage

"In settings where facemasks are not available, HCP might use homemade masks
(e.g., bandana, scarf) for care of patients with COVID-19 as a last resort."

[https://www.forbes.com/sites/tjmccue/2020/03/20/calling-
all-...](https://www.forbes.com/sites/tjmccue/2020/03/20/calling-all-people-
who-sew-and-make-you-can-help-solve-2020-n95-type-mask-shortage/)

