Hi there HNers!<p>Summer break is around the corner in the UK. This year, I will have six months of holidays and I want to put the energy to learn specific skill. What skill did you learn that gave you the most ROI over the years and how did you learn it?<p>Thank you and have a good day!
Going to go slightly tangential and say cooking. It is a skill which will save you money, help you be in control of your health, and is useful on a daily basis.
The soft skills: sales, marketing, persuasion, public speaking and/or charisma in general.<p>Get a sales job. Shadow a CEO. Become a bartender. Learn about people and what makes them tick.
Meta learning. Follow Barbara Oakley and other's work to understand the process of learning. Try practising these on some new concepts you are tackling at the moment.
Reading about systems theory. I read Niklas Luhmann (e.g. Trust and Power) in undergrad and it made strong impressions on me. Throughout my PhD (sciences), I tried to view every problem I tackled, every collaboration from the lens of understanding the social system of the research scene, the problems tackled, the conversation happening within that community etc.<p>I believe systems theory can provide a real edge when competing with people who few most things at work as intellectual d*ck measurement contests, including career advancement based on naive notions of being just more clever, or just working harder to advance. Especially in academic settings, focusing on the social dynamics of your research community is key.<p>N.b.: This is under the consideration that you are already good/constantly improving your main professional skill, be it coding, writing, selling.
Not really a skill per se but sticking to an intense, daily workout/running routine. Nothing has increased my productivity more than being active for 60 minutes every morning.