[HN Gopher] Useful and Overlooked Skills
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Useful and Overlooked Skills
Author : gmays
Score : 57 points
Date : 2024-06-15 15:08 UTC (7 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (collabfund.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (collabfund.com)
| rednafi wrote:
| The first one can also be extended with this corollary:
|
| Quit complaining about every little thing, including the fact
| that people will always complain about every little thing.
| namaria wrote:
| Also be charitable. Maybe the seemingly insufferable person is
| just having a bad day. I know I don't want to be judged based
| on some day or week I was off and irritable due to some set of
| circumstances.
|
| I chose to believe we're all doing our best.
| WarOnPrivacy wrote:
| > I chose to believe we're all doing our best.
|
| Evidence tends to bear this out. People aren't walking around
| with gobs of unused ability; they're usually performing about
| where they're able.
|
| As far as improvement goes, the easy improvements are done.
| The ones that are left are either in progress or folks don't
| know how to proceed.
|
| So where do shortcomings fit into this? I believe faults
| happen when someone has no significant impediment to better
| behavior - but they refuse anyway.
|
| I see this happen when negative conditioning has effected
| someone; imaginary harms are so elevated that actual
| good/harm is less recognizable.
| keiferski wrote:
| _Evidence tends to bear this out. People aren 't walking
| around with gobs of unused ability; they're usually
| performing about where they're able._
|
| My experience has been the opposite. I think most people
| are underperforming to their potential, mostly because they
| lack social connections or knowledge to capitalize on it,
| or even begin to take the first steps to capitalizing on
| it. The number of intelligent people stuck in pointless
| jobs is endless.
|
| The tech startup world is a good example. There are so many
| intelligent people which simply haven't even considered the
| possibility of building a tech company, mostly because they
| aren't exposed to it, don't have any friends or family
| members doing it, etc. It's an unknown-unknown that has
| nothing to do with ability.
|
| It's more likely that those who are already successful like
| to rationalize that "everyone is exactly where they should
| be" as a way to justify their own positions.
| WarOnPrivacy wrote:
| > My experience has been the opposite.
|
| > I think most people are underperforming to their
| potential, mostly because [conditions]
|
| It sounds like your experience is identical. You've
| identified obstacles between what folks could do and what
| they're doing now. Today, folks are doing what they can
| with what they have.
|
| Potential is always a measure of things that can't be
| done now.
|
| > It's more likely that those who are already successful
| like to rationalize that "everyone is exactly where they
| should be" as a way to justify their own positions.
|
| I think this is something that gets imagined about other
| people. Reading minds isn't a thing and there is a human
| tendency to fill blanks.
| Angostura wrote:
| I like the IETF protocol maxim: Be conservative in what you
| transmit, be liberal in what you accept
| realusername wrote:
| I've historically never been complaining and it's really bad
| for carreer development, you end up in dead ends which nobody
| wants to do and not rewarded for it.
|
| While it's a useful skill for your personal life, it's not
| really working in a company.
| copperroof wrote:
| Agreed. In my experience to do well in large companies you
| need 2 properties and nothing else.
|
| 1. Constantly complaining. This is like a high-visible fake
| proxy for "high quality".
|
| 2. Highly opinionated. In order to get your 3rd rate projects
| through you need to fight tooth and nail for whatever
| arbitrary set of things you are pushing.
|
| Engineering prowess and the properties from the article are
| nowhere on the list. The vast majority of principal+
| engineers and essentially all upper management I have worked
| with have these two traits. When you run into an exception
| it's a blast of fresh air and a wonder they got past senior
| engineering roles. As a disclaimer my sample size is 2
| companies.
| WarOnPrivacy wrote:
| > Quit complaining
|
| Conversely, I have found complaining to be a symptom of under-
| utilization of natural troubleshooting skills. Redirecting them
| toward solving problems takes 2 issues off the board.
|
| I have also found complainers who were detail-oriented in a way
| that they reliably handled the kind of maintenance tasks that
| were often ignored.
|
| Mostly I'm talking about complaints that come from a place of
| powerlessness. I often find those folks are broadcasting clues
| about where the they can be useful.
| derlvative wrote:
| The author clearly needs to add to his skills the ability to give
| advice while not being condescending. In particular the bit about
| how in the good old days everyone had excellent social skills and
| calligraphy but now youngsters have done away with decency in
| favor of smartphones.
| mikewarot wrote:
| In the "good old days", I had crap social skills, and my
| handwriting was g*d-awful. The baseline has now moved so much
| lower, I have no problems with either.
|
| The set of norms is changing, some things are way easier than
| they used to be, and others are way harder, as the technology
| makes things previously impossible or impractical, the normal
| way of doing things.
|
| For example, I can reliably drive to novel places on the other
| side of Chicagoland without a map.... something those raised on
| Google maps just can't do. Once I've been somewhere, I can find
| my way back again. I learn new areas quickly.
|
| On the other hand, I'm not likely to know about some really
| cool thing that was less than a mile from my location, unless I
| drove past it at some point.
|
| We used to spend hours every day interacting outside playing
| with all the other kids on the block, exploring neighborhoods,
| etc... that's almost entirely evaporated for many kids, in
| exchange they are much more proficient in computer mediated
| communications.
|
| The thing I worry about the most is managing risks. We used to
| take risks as kids, as part of that play and exploring, doing
| stupid shit, and only getting our parents involved if things
| went bad. Now with kids protected in a bubble from anything,
| and having their lives mostly planned... reliably estimating
| danger isn't as common a skill as it used to be.
| derlvative wrote:
| Hope your archaic abilities get you ahead in life!
| WarOnPrivacy wrote:
| > For example, I can reliably drive to novel places on the
| other side of Chicagoland without a map.... something those
| raised on Google maps just can't do. Once I've been
| somewhere,
|
| The shift away from physical maps is a primary factor in my
| shift away from exploring.
| syndicatedjelly wrote:
| Rousseau's book _Emile_ was written in the mid-18th century
| and talks about educating the youth. It 's interesting to
| read about his view of education and the similarities and
| differences to today. Your last paragraph makes me think you
| would like that book.
| syndicatedjelly wrote:
| Learning from people one disagrees with, instead of finding
| offense and misunderstanding, is another useful and overlooked
| skill.
| twodave wrote:
| Also knowing when the thought doesn't actually count. Being
| "well-meaning" at the expense of another person is not love. It
| dismisses their needs as less important than your need to feel as
| if you did some kind act.
| ChrisMarshallNY wrote:
| Well, it is a fund, so it's interesting how everything is cast
| into economic/investment context.
|
| _> Respectfully interacting with people you disagree with.
|
| > Confirmation bias gets easier when people are more connected.
| But connectivity also means you'll also run into more people who
| disagree with you. Benedict Evans: "The more the Internet exposes
| people to new points of view, the angrier people get that
| different views exist." Handling that challenge without digging
| the hole deeper is one the 21st century's most important skills.
| If you're not blessed with perfect empathy, the trick to opening
| your mind to those you disagree with is to find people whose
| views on one topic you respect - that checks the box in your head
| that says "this person isn't totally crazy" - and debate them on
| the topics you disagree about. Without the first step it's too
| easy to write someone off before you've heard their full
| argument._
|
| I like that. I'd love to see more of it.
| warcher wrote:
| I am dismayed at the number of people I increasingly run into
| online who I disagree with, where I'm unable to find common
| ground with. I'm pretty sure this is a result of their online
| identity being rather narrowly tuned to exclusively present
| popular frames of mind that I reject wholesale, but I can't
| afford to discount the unsettling possibility that it's me
| who's lost the plot.
|
| In the end, I'm only consoled by the fact that I'm the only one
| of us who's asking that question. The people I'm referring to
| are quite certain I'm the villain.
| syndicatedjelly wrote:
| This comment reveals a strange level of cognitive dissonance,
| because it sounds like you're describing in others what you
| actually see in yourself. Someone who does have a list of
| things they reject wholesale, and refuses to find common
| ground with others who believe in any of those things. And
| then you conclude by assuming you're the only one who thinks
| critically about this stuff.
|
| For what it's worth, you do say some relatable things and
| appear to be figuring out your own mind. Which we can all
| relate to
| paulpauper wrote:
| A good skill is learning to specialize, or at least not being
| adverse to it. Contrary to what you see online, the vast majority
| of people who are successful on paper and who have good careers
| and decent-sized nest eggs , do not have profound insights into
| society, or are worldly or erudite people. They instead find
| something that works and then hone in and refine that. Unlike the
| generalists who dominate and seem to have all the status online,
| they specialize at something and become good enough that they can
| make a career at it.
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