Top 10 skills

[ls99]

The one that beats all previous skills of mine: Figure Skating.
Doubt I will ever master it. Sure is fun getting better at it.

 

[Nemo2]

Now you are claiming to be Newman?

Posting unattributed quotes from movies is, I believe, (rather than being a spurious claim to ownership), an oblique, albeit acceptable, method of (perhaps not so subtle), audience memory triggering relative to an ongoing discourse.

 

[FI by 2024]

Research skills. It's keeping me sane amidst the ridiculousness being spouted by many in America right now.

 

[eytonxav]

I certainly was never the smartest, but I could offset that deficit by out working those who were (work ethic).

 

[NW-Bound]

Posting unattributed quotes from movies is, I believe, (rather than being a spurious claim to ownership), an oblique, albeit acceptable, method of (perhaps not so subtle), audience memory triggering relative to an ongoing discourse.

I missed the quotation marks around your original post, which were right in my face.

 

[Nemo2]

I missed the quotation marks around your original post, which were right in my face.

"The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook."

William James...(The first educator to offer a psychology course in the United States)

 

[HFWR]

I can be used as a bad example...

 

[H2ODude]

OK. I'll bite.

I was an engineer but did little design work as I tended to not be interested in details. I liked operating stuff instead, and ended up managing public sector utilities. Although I do recall clearly being told my first year of that direction "if someone asks you what time it is don't tell them how to build a _____ clock!" After that I honed the ability to explain fairly technical issues at a level a politician (think eighth grade level or less) could grasp, and describe the consequences of doing nothing. That and remembering the lesson that if asked any question on TV interviews to ALWAYS include your "message" in every answer you gave no matter what the question, because news never shows the reporter asking the question! At least not on local news levels.

 

[NW-Bound]

... I honed the ability to explain fairly technical issues at a level a politician (think eighth grade level or less) could grasp...

I believe that if I can articulate something technical to a layman in simple terms, then I have truly understood the problem myself.

 

[NW-Bound]

...remembering the lesson that if asked any question on TV interviews to ALWAYS include your "message" in every answer you gave no matter what the question, because news never shows the reporter asking the question!

Hey, that's what politicians do all the time, even if people can hear the reporter's question.

 

[H2ODude]

Hey, that's what politicians do all the time, even if people can hear the reporter's question.

Oh God, I've been identified as a politician. I'm out onto the deck to slit my throat now with this rusty old knife.

 

[Meadbh]

After that I honed the ability to explain fairly technical issues at a level a politician (think eighth grade level or less) could grasp.....

I think you are overestimating some politicians, unfortunately.

 

[MRG]

I believe that if I can articulate something technical to a layman in simple terms, then I have truly understood the problem myself.

+1
I knew a guy who could break down the most complex issues into the simplest explanations. I remember asking how he learned to do that so wonderfully. He claimed it was from teaching kindergarten.

 

[NW-Bound]

Most things are conceptually simple. The devil is of course in the details. And people pay me good money to work out those details.

 

[Nemo2]

After that I honed the ability to explain fairly technical issues at a level a politician (think eighth grade level or less) could grasp

Back, waaaay back, when I was a Telco major communications systems sales rep, I had a request from one company for clarification of a user manual, (written by engineers); I rewrote/simplified it, gave it to them, (and then worried over the weekend that I might have been too 'basic').......the following Monday their office manager told me it was 'perfect'.

 

[kcowan]

Speaking to impart knowledge rather than impress (requires active listening),
Taking any opportunity to improve my lot in life.

 

[panacea]

Video Opportunity! One of my favorites from Napoleon Dynamite:

 

[NW-Bound]

... I honed the ability to explain fairly technical issues at a level a politician (think eighth grade level or less) could grasp, and describe the consequences of doing nothing...

I believe that if I can articulate something technical to a layman in simple terms, then I have truly understood the problem myself.

+1
I knew a guy who could break down the most complex issues into the simplest explanations. I remember asking how he learned to do that so wonderfully. He claimed it was from teaching kindergarten.

Most things are conceptually simple. The devil is of course in the details. And people pay me good money to work out those details.

Simplified explanations can sometimes be bad, because unsophisticated people may think that there is nothing else to it. Here's an example.

I participated in an R&D project. They needed some ideas, so I volunteered some. It was written up in a proposal, and the customer bought it. They proceeded to steal my idea, and tried to implement it on their own without involving me. Disaster!

The bozos had me back to look at the data. My gosh, these guys did not heed any of the warnings that I told them. It was always my habit to save all the email correspondence to back up what my recommendation was. I pulled those emails out as proof that I did not hide things from them to sabotage the project. The dummies had no respect for the technicalities of this highly specialized field that I spent 20 years to develop an expertise on. I was mad as hell. Lots of money wasted for nothing!

Writing the above brings back bad memories, and raises my blood pressure already. You can't win dealing with ignoramuses who don't know that they don't know.

 

[socca]

• C-language software development (not C++ - I've never climbed aboard the OO bandwagon )

• book design using LaTeX typesetting (my 2nd book should be out the door by the end of the year)

• small business bookkeeping using QuickBooks

• making a woman feel beautiful (I haven't used this skill in quite a few years, but it was fun while it lasted )

I don't have much respect for the 'soft' skills that senior execs are likely to list on their resumes, such as 'facilitate communication'. That's probably why I never made it to the C suite.

 

[NW-Bound]

Ah, TeX! I wonder if it is still used in schools for doctoral dissertations. But I used it for all of my engineering reports and documentation until I retired.

I even looked into Metafont, but did not get very far with it. It takes some artistic skills, which I sorely lack, to design one's own font. But TeX typesets so beautiful equations that can bring tears to your eyes. Makes you want to put more equations into your documents just to see them on paper. Donald Knuth is my hero.

 

[socca]

Ah, TeX! I wonder if it is still used in schools for doctoral dissertations. But I used it for all of my engineering reports and documentation until I retired.

I was able to use LaTeX to get exactly what I wanted for my first book, but it was a helluva struggle. I anticipate the same for my second book. This is a burden that I've willingly taken on - sitting on the porch watching the world go by just isn't my style. Eventually, I may not be capable of much else, but I try to avoid thinking about that ...

 

[NW-Bound]

It is a lot easier now when you have a fast computer to typeset and show you the preview nearly instantaneously on the screen. Imagine doing this on a PC XT! However, I was so pleased with the results that I would swear and curse at something produced by MS Word or even Adobe when doing equations.

Once I learned LaTeX, I read the TeXbook by the master, Donald Knuth, and it got me deeper into the intricacies of the engine. It is a beautiful work by a brilliant mind. There's computer science, but this is higher, it's programming art! Of course his numerous unknown students who helped should get some credit too.


PS. A bit of more info is in order here. LaTeX, first developed by Leslie Lamport, is a set of macros that runs on the TeX program written by Professor Donald Knuth. One is like a higher programming language, such as C or Pascal or Fortran, while the other is like Assembly Language. If you want to do something that the higher level language does not provide, you drop lower to the machine level language. And that's TeX.

 

[FIREmenow]

....drop the wrong nut at the worst time in the worst position .....

Reminded me of a quote I heard a long time ago:

Murphy's First Law of Auto Repair: "Any tool dropped while repairing an automobile will roll under the car to the exact geographical center of the vehicle."

 

[Car-Guy]

Simplified explanations can sometimes be bad, because unsophisticated people may think that there is nothing else to it. Here's an example.

I participated in an R&D project. They needed some ideas, so I volunteered some. It was written up in a proposal, and the customer bought it. They proceeded to steal my idea, and tried to implement it on their own without involving me. Disaster!

The bozos had me back to look at the data. My gosh, these guys did not heed any of the warnings that I told them. It was always my habit to save all the email correspondence to back up what my recommendation was. I pulled those emails out as proof that I did not hide things from them to sabotage the project. The dummies had no respect for the technicalities of this highly specialized field that I spent 20 years to develop an expertise on. I was mad as hell. Lots of money wasted for nothing!

Writing the above brings back bad memories, and raises my blood pressure already. You can't win dealing with ignoramuses who don't know that they don't know.

Been there done that too. It took me a few years early in my career to appreciate the value of an "executive summary". Mine were typically 2 pages or less, written at a summary/high level, and at times would have "1" diagram/picture to represent the proposal. (one picture is worth a thousand words, sometimes). Backing that up, in the same package, would be the complete/detailed proposal with all the details and CYA's for those who cared to read and/or might understand the details. Worked really well for me.

 

[MRG]

Simplified explanations can sometimes be bad, because unsophisticated people may think that there is nothing else to it. Here's an example.

I participated in an R&D project. They needed some ideas, so I volunteered some. It was written up in a proposal, and the customer bought it. They proceeded to steal my idea, and tried to implement it on their own without involving me. Disaster!

The bozos had me back to look at the data. My gosh, these guys did not heed any of the warnings that I told them. It was always my habit to save all the email correspondence to back up what my recommendation was. I pulled those emails out as proof that I did not hide things from them to sabotage the project. The dummies had no respect for the technicalities of this highly specialized field that I spent 20 years to develop an expertise on. I was mad as hell. Lots of money wasted for nothing!

Writing the above brings back bad memories, and raises my blood pressure already. You can't win dealing with ignoramuses who don't know that they don't know.

Oh yeah.
I remember being forced to implement a solution to save developers time. I kept telling the management they didn't want me to do this as their developers wouldn't be able to maintain the resulting code, long term.
I finally shut up, worked with the team so they understood what could go wrong. I also documented the issues I could foresee.

Fast forward four years and I'm doing something completely different and this areas online production system won't stay up. I'm pulled in to listen to what they've done by the CIO. Halfway through the discussion I turned to the guy who is on the hook to fix the problem, and tell him the answer is in the document I'd written years ago. Sure enough, they got creative and did what I was told "nobody's going to do anything that stupid".