Critical thinking. Consider the intent of the source.
This, and reading comprehension.
What’s “this”? I can’t see what you’re holding.
/s
Hmmm, I’m sceptic about this
It’s a big ask, but Empathy.
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.
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.
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.
You’d be surprised how many people don’t even know how to do a Google search.
Basic cooking.
You don’t need to be Gordon Ramsey, but in a pinch, know how to make pasta, chilli and a few other things.
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 ;)
I think they mean Chilli as a dish, often a meat stew
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.
Beans?!!
/s
🫘🤠🫘
Oh i meant chili as in American chili. Beans and ground beef.
Basically, just knowing how to make something easy for a quick meal if you need to.
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.
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.
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.
Maybw scams should be its own subject
Despite what the term “digital natives,” I really feel this skill is slipping. Many of my peers woud probably get lapped by a boomer if they had to use an actual PC again
A skill is too much to ask. I just want people to move out of the way when they get off the escalator so I don’t bump into their asses.
Fellow fast walker?
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.
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.
“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
This explains why I’m tired all the time.
God yes one of my favorite quotes! <3
How to write clearly in their native language.
a
As someone who almost drowned as a child, swimming is up there for me.
Incredibly underated skill
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.
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.
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.
That is true, I just think it might be hard for many people to understand.
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)
In this day and age, how to stay safe online and spot what are often very obvious attempts at fraud/malicious activity.
this, plus education about the dangers of online platforms and how they are used to spread misinformation and try to suck their users into an endless content stream via algorithm.
Self awareness
I wish I could upvote this more than once.
I wish responses like this would stay on Reddit.
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
I’ll just use my phone and call someone.
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.
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.
