Just had some random thoughts this morning about the relative importance of skills. For instance...
Is it more important to know how to bake a loaf of bread or to program a TIVO to record your favorite show?
Is it more important to know how to fix a leak in your roof or to operate the GPS in your car?
Is it more important to know how to sew your own clothing or where to find the best-priced pedicure?
Is it more important to be able to run a four minute mile or be able to earn the top score in an online video game?
Just wondering, because looking around me, I see that the majority of people seem to be "voting with their time" for the second set of skills, which makes me wonder what will happen to the first set.
I'd say the importance depends on your priorities and your lifestyle. Is it important to know how to butcher a pig? Change a spark plug? Tan hide? Spin wool? Or program in objective C? What is going to advance your lifestyle? It's awfully easy to pass judgement on everyone and feel superior to everyone around you.
chickaree wrote: It's awfully easy to pass judgement on everyone and feel superior to everyone around you.
I'm not passing judgement or "feeling superior" just because I think sometimes older skills might be more valuable in the long run than some newer ones. I can't do all of those things myself (certainly not the four minute mile!) and never claimed I could, so I'm wondering what you are even basing that on. These are just some skills I think are important that don't seem to be as important as they once were.
And I do wonder what will happen to older skills as new ones come along. It seems sad that some will probably disappear altogether. I also wonder what would happen to people if our complex society broke down. My own daughter would probably starve to death if she no longer could cook in a microwave.
It was only about 50 years ago that the majority of people grew up on farms. Yet how many middle-aged people today couldn't even raise the food they eat if they had to? A lot of knowledge has already disappeared, and somehow I don't think googling "farming" on the internet can replace growing up watching your parents practice these skills.
A lot of the relative value of those skills depend on how the economy goes. If you are a traveling salesman earning good money, it is probably better to know how to program the GPS to get you to your next call then how to fix a roof which will cost you a couple hundred dollars.
Of course, if the economy continues to stagnate and jobs are few and far between, knowing a lot of general skills will be more important than a few specialized skills in a field you no longer work in. A country boy will survive? A good shade tree mechanic will be much more useful than a guy who writes code.
Thomas Sowell: There are no solutions, just trade-offs.
SS109 wrote: A lot of the relative value of those skills depend on how the economy goes. If you are a traveling salesman earning good money, it is probably better to know how to program the GPS to get you to your next call then how to fix a roof which will cost you a couple hundred dollars.
Maybe, but my husband has to find and visit between 4-15 addresses daily in his work. I bought him a GPS. He says it takes longer than using a map. And he is no Luddite, on the contrary, he's a tech geek, a graduate of MIT.
Of course, if the economy continues to stagnate and jobs are few and far between, knowing a lot of general skills will be more important than a few specialized skills in a field you no longer work in. A country boy will survive? A good shade tree mechanic will be much more useful than a guy who writes code.
Agreed. I often worry though that are cars have gotten too complicated for the shade tree mechanics to deal with. Oh well, the way gas is going up we all may be riding in buckboard wagons pulled by mules before long.
Basically we are talking about choosing between survival and technological skills. Such a choice is obvious in my book. I'll take survival skills any day. Any fundamental skill, growing food, building a home, knowing how to cook, build a fire, hunt etc. carry far more value when push comes to shove. Even in today's world, knowing how to survive on little allows you to get through the hard times.
Rockdoc Franz wrote: Basically we are talking about choosing between survival and technological skills. Such a choice is obvious in my book. I'll take survival skills any day. Any fundamental skill, growing food, building a home, knowing how to cook, build a fire, hunt etc. carry far more value when push comes to shove. Even in today's world, knowing how to survive on little allows you to get through the hard times.
I totally agree.
People think they understand the technological world because they can work their gizmos but how many actually understand the underlying technology? I think there are an awful lot of people out there walking around with a totally false sense of competence.
And when it comes to the survival skills you mention, so few people know how to build a home or even cook from scratch these days that we've almost become like that old Star Trek episode where people were living in a world where they had totally forgotten how to provide their own basic necessities.
