Skill Maintenance – Which Skills Are Timeless?

Did you ever learn something, only to find out that some years later you can’t do it anymore? Or perhaps something, which even decades later feels like you’ve never stopped? Not all skills and abilities are equal!

Chapter 1: The origin

About two years ago, when trying to make a website for the first time, it hit me. Why does everything related to computers feel so weird? Why does it feel like a constant uphill battle, no matter how much you learn, how much you do, and how much time you’re spending on it? Because the field keeps changing! What you learn now could be relevant in 5 years, but it could also be completely useless. Things change because things change. One change forces others to change, resulting in a feedback loop. So which computer skill is actually timeless? Which thing hasn’t change in 20, 10, even 5 years? Programming? Coding? Okay, so where do you write the code? Many years ago I wrote some code with the atom text editor. Some years ago, when wanting to pick it up, I found that it was discontinued in 2022. Even the programs where you write the code change and come and go. The programming languages change. Safety updates, new features, outdated libraries, changes in popularity, special requirements. It’s a constant stream of change. Either you stay in the loop constantly, or you will be out of it very quickly. You of course can back in, but it’s not a seamless experience. You’ll have to relearn many things. It’s exhausting. It’s not an “on the go” skill, something to do whenever you feel like it. You do it constantly, or you’ll struggle.

And because things change internally, the operation of computers also changes. Sure, we might still open a browser to go to the internet. But the websites change constantly. You would notice a difference if you’d accidentally go to a website’s state 5 years ago. Not to mention the operating system and software itself. Always updating, always changing. It’s not timeless. And even if you want to make something that is timeless, all the software it would depend on would have to remain the same as well, with all of it’s bugs, mistakes and quirks. But I think it’s possible, and people can find creative workarounds. Limitation brings freedom.

Chapter 2: Timeless skills

So this made me think about which things are actually timeless. And what immediately came to my mind were any physical activities. Anything that’s based on muscle memory. Cycling, swimming, martial arts etc. Sure, you might need a minute to get a feel for it again, and you might be out of stamina right away, but you still know how to do it, you remember the motion. I’ll leave this as an open ended list, to which I will add things as they come to my mind.

Chapter 3: Appreciating Skills

But there’s more. There are not only skills which you keep, there are even skills which you become better at with time, even when you’re not actively doing them! There’s a lot to this, which I’ll write about in some other posts, but for now I’ll give you the general idea. Sports which require special movements or physical abilities can actually become easier, despite you not doing them, simply because you did other things which indirectly aid to your ability in this field. I call it cross-learning. If you play a ball game, and then five other ball sports, you’ll probably be better at the first one, despite not having played that specific one. There are general and overarching skills, which then bleed into other fields. Essentially, there is a hierarchy of skills, which makes some more valuable than others, because they’re more general. Things like intelligence and strength are somewhat universal. Highly specific abilities, and especially highly specialized knowledge like being able to identify silver coins from the 1800s might be useful within a certain niche, but is pretty much useless in every other field. And this is why so many computer games are so useless, from a skill perspective. What you learn is mostly only useful within that very game, or within a very niche sub-genre of games, but already useless outside of the genre, outside of games, and outside of the computer world. Even if it is a good game, mind you. Not to mention the time wasting games that exist out there nowadays.

Conslusion: If you want to maximize your freedom and your abilities, do things which are universally valuable. If you can chose between two things which you both would like to do, do the thing which is more valuable and which remains valuable. If you find yourself doing something which has no use outside of this very field, then you should avoid it, unless it is your business and you are intentionally specialized in it.

Some universal activities: Sports, especially swimming, cycling. Wood working. Writing. Nature exploration. Traveling. Survival, pushing your limits, pushing you comfort zone. Reading and watching the right books and things. Cooking.