What's "this"? I can't see what you're holding.
/s
What skill do you believe everyone should possess?
3 years ago by mayflower to c/asklemmy
spacedancer 36 points 3 years ago path: 0 1240888 1241638, hotness: undefined, score: 36, children: 1
u202307011927 2 points 3 years ago
Hmmm, I'm sceptic about this
mino 4 points 3 years ago
I see plenty of Empathy in the world, compassion is what we need I think. Empathy ironically makes people egotistical becaause if the feeling they emphesize with is bad they might blame the victom for transmitting them 'bad vibes' for instance. Or you might make an unfair decision because it appealed to your emotions. However with compassion you recognize someone is in need of help and try to provide that help, sidestepping all sorts of nasty pitfalls and leaving you a lot chiller.
Google 4 points 3 years ago
I feel like empathy is an umbrella term for different kinds of understanding about "the other person" at different times and different situations. It's so vague it's easy to both miss seeing it and finding it at all.
ouigol 43 points 3 years ago
People should really know how to research. Sure, almost everyone knows how to do a google search, but there are shockingly many people who can’t research, i.e view multiple sources including those that don’t align with your views.
sneezycat 7 points 3 years ago
Is chilli considered basic? Spicy food is not that common where I live. For me the basics would be to know how to:
-Peel and cut veggies
-Boil stuff
-Fry eggs
But maybe it's a cultural thing! I'm interested in knowing what you're doing with your chilli peppers ;)
intensely_human 8 points 3 years ago
Basic chili recipe (people from texas can bite their tongue for five minutes one time):
- beans
- tomatoes
- onions
- peppers
A little bit of cumin and salt to taste and you actually don’t need anything else to get something that is recognizable as chili.
I add all sorts of other stuff, but that’s the basics.
minorsecond 2 points 3 years ago
Beans?!!
/s
intensely_human 3 points 3 years ago
🫘🤠🫘
Cheradenine 7 points 3 years ago
I think they mean Chilli as a dish, often a meat stew
AceFuzzLord 1 point 3 years ago
I'll just say I am lucky enough to have been the child in my family who learned to cook from my mom, but I can certainly agree people should know at least the basics.
luthis 36 points 3 years ago
Computer comprehension. You should have a basic understanding of what your pc is doing, web certificates, passwords, how to tell when youre being scammed, and how to protect your personal info. Knowledge doesnt need to be deep, just wide.
jmp242 4 points 3 years ago
I would say way more important is how to identify scams, whether they are online, by phone, mail or in person. Just a basic heuristic on - is this too good to be true? So you can take a pause and go do research. Most of the time, a ticking clock on a "great deal" is just a sales scam, and that "for 10 minutes only price" comes back weekly or is just actually "the price".
Realize what makes "a call about your cars warranty" or "your credit card rate" spam at best. Take that and apply to more things. Is the car salesman vague about stuff? Probably going to try and screw you. Does the subscription only show the promotional rate? Know to get that ongoing rate before signing up. Just try and hone a gut feeling when things seem off somehow.
fratermus 27 points 3 years ago
"Specialization is for insects. A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly." -- Heinlein
theshatterstone54 7 points 3 years ago
Fellow fast walker?
dandroid 3 points 3 years ago
Not even. They literally just stand there at the exit of the escalator, looking around for where to go next, and I have nowhere to go but to bump into them, because the escalator doesn't exactly let me stop when they stop.
rmuk 2 points 3 years ago
Preemption.
Not just when they're walking, but waiting until they're at the front of the queue to decide what to order, or being surprised when the light turns green, or getting home to find nothing to eat in the fridge... The number of people I know who just refuse to think a couple of steps ahead.
CheshireSnake 22 points 3 years ago
As someone who almost drowned as a child, swimming is up there for me.
Weirdmusic 4 points 3 years ago
Incredibly underated skill
electronicoldman 21 points 3 years ago path: 0 1240916, hotness: undefined, score: 21, children: 0
taladar 20 points 3 years ago
Basic arithmetic to the point where you can e.g. calculate things like a budget when money is tight.
Enough understanding of statistics and probability to be able to understand what numbers reported in news stories about events and politics mean.
jmp242 2 points 3 years ago
They never tell you enough on the statistics on the news to actually get much solid info. Like sample size, error bars, did they fit a particular distribution, what was tossed as outliers and more.
I always think about the chance of rain report and the different explanations of what it might mean (I don't recall which is correct, but it illustrates how confusing it can be) :
Chance of rain today based on a predictive model
Is different from
It WILL rain today in this region and this percent of land area will get rain
Is different from
Over all the historical data for this region, we got rain on this percent of days when the conditions were "the same" in the past.
But all can be reasonably said to be 59% chance of rain today.
taladar 1 point 3 years ago
Agreed. But part of the reason why they never report the numbers is that most of the readers don't understand them anyway.
And a lot of the time it is not even just complex studies people don't understand. There are also those who can't even judge the magnitude of numbers, e.g. when it comes to spending or the magnitude of percentages (e.g. that 25000 occurrences of a minor crime in a year is not a lot if the country has dozens of millions of inhabitants)
jmp242 1 point 3 years ago
Part of the problem I think is the difference between a basic skill level skill that you imagine "everyone" could actually learn - maybe like tying your shoes - and skills like statistics where I might be slightly better than the average person, having taken one college class in statistics and doing occasional reading and podcast listening. Statistics requires at least some college level study to even begin to understand IMHO. I don't mean you have to go to college, but I mean that level of foundational skills built up, and the time and effort to reach it.
I'd prefer if news reports - a place where you can expect some ability to employ experts - to provide context around things like you're saying. Otherwise I get why people are ditching "news" beyond maybe Reuters. It would be pretty easy to say exactly what you did, but that doesn't get the clicks so... we have entertainment more than news.
charles 1 point 3 years ago
It does vary from place to place but in North America at least, most often it's that it will rain in __% of the land area.
Additionally, I would add that knowing about statistics at least allows you to understand that without that additional info, any stat is essentially meaningless, or at least easily misleading.
ChaoticEntropy 19 points 3 years ago
In this day and age, how to stay safe online and spot what are often very obvious attempts at fraud/malicious activity.
Agingtoofast 3 points 3 years ago
I wish I could upvote this more than once.
sociablefish 2 points 3 years ago
I wish responses like this would stay on Reddit.
Saigonauticon 17 points 3 years ago
Learning things quickly.
It's totally its own skill, and you can learn to learn faster. What skills are useful changes with time -- the ones used in your career now might age like milk for reasons beyond your control.
tastik 16 points 3 years ago
The ability to survive outside / without a roof over one's head.
I'm not talking surviving solely off the land type of outdoor survival, although that is an excellent set of skills to obtain.
- Learn how to set up shelter, or find shelter if a tent / tarp isn't available
- Learn how to start a fire in multiple ways
- Learn basic hunting skills
- Learn how to sanitize / store drinking water
- Learn basic first aid
- Always remember the order of operations in a survival situation: Shelter, water, fire, food
JoumanaKayrouz 6 points 3 years ago path: 0 1253762 1258088, hotness: undefined, score: 6, children: 0
AceFuzzLord 3 points 3 years ago
I remember learning most of this when I was in scouts, even though I'll admit I can't say I remember most of it.
I definitely remember at summer camp once having to take a bunch of wood found within the forest and making a makeshift shelter and for one night having to sleep in it. All for the wilderness survival badge.
The skills you listed are definitely skills people should know just in case they are ever out in an area without cell signal. Although, really, everyone should know basic first aid since even just a little bit of first aid before a first responder comes can be the difference between life and death.
Anticorp 4 points 3 years ago
Redwings are a good place to start. Still made in the USA using old standard foot lasts, still warrantied for life, and still great boots. I've been looking into some hand made custom boots lately. They're about $500, but they'll last me the rest of my life with an occasional $50 resole job and they'll be tailor-made for my exact foot.
JoeBigelow 4 points 3 years ago
God i just trash my Iron Rangers and they stand up to all the abuse i can throw at them. A little wash and a bit of oil and they're parade ready again.
Horror warning: My last pair got wet shoveling snow at work so i left them in the mud room to dry. Some thoughtful soul put them up next to the monitor heater to help them dry... Found them the next day shriveled abd unwearable. Heat kills good boots!
Anticorp 1 point 3 years ago
Some of the guys back in the Army would fill their combat boots with water and then wear them until they dried out. They'd stretch with the water and then shrink as they dried, basically giving them a custom fit. You could try that next time if it happens again.
circuitfarmer 12 points 3 years ago
A really good bullshit-o-meter.
So many issues with major media, corporate announcements, government announcements, and probably many other things can be solved with a good bullshit-o-meter.
What I really mean is critical thinking. Because there are vacuous ways to calibrate a bullshit-o-meter that lack logic entirely and tie one into some ideological goal. Then you can still claim to have a bullshit-o-meter but lack the ultimate goal of it, but it's really not a helpful tool at that point. My original meaning is a true, logic-based bullshit-o-meter.
sociablefish 1 point 3 years ago
even a mediocre bs meter would work
mwalimu 12 points 3 years ago
Basic networking skills. Most lives can be significantly improved by basic home network. WiFi deadzones, wireless printing, shared folders for basic documents and resources etc. All while being relatively secure.
ConstantMotion 11 points 3 years ago
Cooking! We eat every day and eating out adds up quick.
hairysonorth 10 points 3 years ago
Basic zipper merge
Candelestine 11 points 3 years ago
Agreed. Everyone should be able to cook themselves some good meals and unlock their door to get into their house.
Very important skills.
andy_wijaya_med 10 points 3 years ago
Common sense, or better yet, critical thinking.
intensely_human 2 points 3 years ago
One of the big benefits of meditation practice is you can take a break from thinking and it’s so restful.
intensely_human 3 points 3 years ago
That sounds like a pretty complicated skill
confetti_8tVST5 8 points 3 years ago path: 0 1250121, hotness: undefined, score: 8, children: 1
intensely_human 3 points 3 years ago
I am knot tying this rope. I’ll leave that to someone who knows what they’re doing.
speaker_hat 7 points 3 years ago
Cope with stress
capt_wolf 6 points 3 years ago
Basic plumbing skills
Know how to shut off a water line. Those knobs under your sink and behind the toilet? That's your water shut off for that line. Got a toilet that's about to overflow? Close the line in back quick enough and you won't have to mop the floor. Or ruin your neighbors ceiling.
Know how to clear a clog. Know the difference between a sink plunger and toilet plunger. Sink plungers are those short deals and terrible for just about anything, their surface coverage is awful and they're usually too shallow to push a serious clog. You want a flanged or accordion plunger for toilets. They make the best deal and do a lot do the work for you. A larger suction cup plunger, looks like the big boy version of the sink plunger, for sink drains.
For toilets, make a firm seal around the drain, push down once to clear the air out of the cup, make sure your seal is strong, then give several short, quick, full pumps like you're performing CPR. This will usually clear a paper clog. Repeat if it doesn't clear. It almost always will after a few tries. If your other drains back up when you're pumping, you have a main clog. It's time to call a plumber.
If your kitchen sink clogs, start by running hot water in the line with a little dawn soap. Most sink clogs are fat based, so hot water will help to loosen them by melting them a bit. Drain-o or other line clearer might work, but in my experience, if you don't clear the clog, you now have a caustic chemical sitting in the line. The chemical burn scars on my right hand say that's bad, and Tyler Durden agrees. If you haven't cleared the clog, let it sit a bit and then get back to it. I've fought shower clogs for an hour before, but if I don't see signs the clog is breaking up, it's time to give up and get a professional in to snake it.
Also, when clearing a clog, don't keep your mouth open! In fact, pucker your lips in. Trust me, speaking from experience.
Leaky faucet? Usually a 10¢ rubber washer, they only last about 10 years before they start to rot. Try to salvage the washer, bring it to your local hardware store, preferably plumbing supply, and ask someone to size it, otherwise bring the fixture. Toilet running nonstop? Adjust the chain or replace the flapper, again rubber parts only last about 10 years. A universal flapper will cost about $10. They usually just snap right in to place. Toilet base leaking? Replace the wax seal. They cost $5. Shower head clogged? Usually calcium or mold buildup. CLR for calcium, bleach for mold, and a scrub brush. Shower head joint leaking or spraying, remove it and apply plumbers tape, also called Teflon tape, to the threading, costs $1 a roll. In fact, apply it to any threaded plumbing joint you have to unscrew... It's necessary for making watertight seals.
That's like every basic water line in your house right there. If I could learn to do it as a teenage apprentice so many years ago, anyone can. If you're not sure, Google has guides and visual breakdowns for every fixture and how to take them apart now. Just be careful not to strip threads or screws. Knowing how to service these parts could save you hundreds or thousands of dollars over the years.
Lastly, don't flush spaghetti and meatballs down the toilet... Yes, that's a thing.
crazystuff 1 point 3 years ago
Wouldn’t it be a more honest world?
skillissuer 2 points 3 years ago path: 0 1244057 1245330 1249654 1270613, hotness: undefined, score: 2, children: 4
crazystuff 0 points 3 years ago
Funny, but my point is that if humans could’ve always had the power of telepathy, we wouldn’t need to invent languages and probably neither create most of the ideologies, tribalism, or belief systems necessary to gather a group of people together as one. If we didn’t have the capability to hide our true intentions, we might’ve evolved to follow the person / idea purely because they make most sense
skillissuer 1 point 3 years ago path: 0 1244057 1245330 1249654 1296931, hotness: undefined, score: 1, children: 0
skillissuer 0 points 3 years ago path: 0 1244057 1245330 1249654 1270614, hotness: undefined, score: 0, children: 0
Mnemnosyne 1 point 3 years ago
I think it would be a good thing in the long run, but if suddenly people could do this it would be a hell of an adjustment period that our civilization may not survive.
pewgar_seemsimandroid 6 points 3 years ago
rooting android devices and installing a custom rom on them
Lemmylefty 6 points 3 years ago
The self- and contextual-awareness and communicative ability to express consent or lack of consent for engaging in any activity.
A lot of shame, regret, and anger could be avoided if all of us knew how to do that.
DrMango 5 points 3 years ago
Cooking! You don't need to be a Michelin-star chef (or even aspire to be) but if you can make your own meals regularly you can save so much money. It's a great way to bond with your kids, too!
Also, maybe it's weird to say, but 'learning' is an incredibly valuable skill that Will see you through a lot of hardship. The ability and drive to continue learning and having curiosity late into life makes people healthier, happier, and more well-rounded persons in my opinion.
capt_wolf 1 point 3 years ago
Totally, some of my favorite memories are cooking with family. Baking Christmas cookies with my mom, with the same Time-Life Christmas tape playing every year. Learning how to bake with my grandmother, memorizing her pie crust recipe and our family's centuries old shortbread recipe. Surprising my wife with our wedding dinner for our 5 year anniversary that I cooked myself.
We all have cell phones and the internet and there's countless recipes out there to try from all over the world.
Also adding food safety to this too. Cooking temps, how to avoid cross-contamination, how to use knives, food prep... I've had an uncomfortable number of trainees who think you need to wash meat with soap to clean it, that you don't need to wash vegetables, and that cutting and cooking an onion with the skin on is totally acceptable.
Also, I highly recommend trying spices on their own. Smell them, taste them. Any time I come across a new spice, I taste a little. Knowing how things taste individually and then how they work with other parts of a meal helps build your flavor palette and will lead you to being a better cook that doesn't need a recipe for a meal.
Financially, you can save 2-3x more making a meal yourself versus getting something pre-made, ordering takeout, or eating out. I can feed 8 grown men on less than $30 a night at work. Last night I made grilled London broil, quinoa, and salads for 7 on about $25 worth of food. They all had seconds and I had enough left over for 2 more servings. You'd pay at least that much per person for beef in a restaurant. Penne and vodka sauce costs $5-7 to make from scratch, maybe around $10 if you add sausage. One box of pasta will fill half a catering tray. $20 per person in a restaurant, without meat. For that much at home, you can feed a whole party.
sic_semper_tyrannis 5 points 3 years ago
Common sense
sociablefish 1 point 3 years ago
U mean rare sense
tallwookie 5 points 3 years ago
basic computer skills (and no, not BASIC)
FinallyDebunked 4 points 3 years ago
wiping his ass
rmuk 2 points 3 years ago
Honestly it's depressing how many people I know who won't even Google things. They expect their knowledge, news and opinions to come to them on their social feeds, a place where good bellyfeel is the measure of worth.
stewie3128 2 points 3 years ago
FTP. Seriously, it's a life skill.
theshatterstone54 15 points 3 years ago
File transfer protocol?
stewie3128 1 point 3 years ago
Yes.
BobbyBandwidth -1 points 3 years ago
Programming with Python
Edit: it doesn’t have to be Python, I just think everyone should know how to program and Python is a great starting point
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asklemmy
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A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions
If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!
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- Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
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Looking for support?
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