It is about coverage and opportunity in our lives.
The more skills one picks up, the greater the chance any one of them will make a big difference.
Here is a crazy example:
Paper tape. In the late 80's, I worked in some smaller shops using paper tape to drive their CNC machines. I learned all about it and can patch, the whole nine.
A few years ago a call for help found it's way to me and it turns out there are STILL people driving CNC machines off paper tape! I was able to fix the setup and get them running, edit a few programs and repair a damaged tape or few. Made a nice bit of extra cash.
Interesting article ... I do believe that competence, skills and being useful to others is the most important currency in today's world ... this article is worth reading ... thanks for sharing
The skills he talks about are useful, for lawyers, politicians, sales and other such professions. They are useful in STEM type subjects as well, but usually only if you have the "harder" CS / science / maths type skills as well.
To me it comes down to Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations, and specialization. We live in a market economy where you trade one form of specialized goods and services for another; this being a most extreme example so still impressive. But I hear what you’re saying for sure. The relative value of all such specializations should weighed by the time commitment and expertise required for mastery and that experience measured on its own merits.
Ideally the skills would be ones that have been stable to human thinkers and craftspeople for centuries, rather than skills associated with transient technology.
This increases the chance of said skills contributing to the pursuit of a wide range of future passions.
A freshman in college asked me what are the most useful and valuable classes that he can take that he will actually use. I told him its more about building a useful skill set. What skills have you acquired over the years that you deem most useful?
Very useful. Good notes on solving, reflecting, and actively talking.
And that point you write: "They also work with limited number of technologies, which makes them good in them. So, basically, they are good in certain tasks". An interesting observation, thank you.
They clearly led to the development of skills that produce great economic value.
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