peed Skills

While we as writers and formulators of policy and captains of  industry value originality, we are also beholden to the co-option and  adaptation of others' ideas. To that end, my passing the link to Quora where the question was posed as to what the most useful skills were, did no good. LinkedIn reference this in their article and proceed to reproduce an edited list. I don't feel so bad now - actually the reason I do it is for the links and connections that result, differing in form.

Paul Petrone, writer of the LinkedIn article, has a less frivolous or flippant regard for the list, seeing it as embracing good generally applicable skill sets. Although note that I have just in turn editorialised his piece.

On the Quora page itself,

Wojtek Skalski, Managing Partner / Growth Hacker at Rising Panda

mounts a good argument for what could constitute most useful skills but does so with the authority of  learning scientist and cognitive psychologist, Roger Schank in his book "Teaching minds"

The real Reader's Digest condensed version of all this editing, quoting and paraphrasing of a list of skills that are most useful overall is that they are core people skills. Although writing is mentioned as a key skill in one of those lists, the introvert in his or her garret is at a disadvantage here. Is it only (to hark back to a previous post) the outgoing scribes who have an income of a hundred thousand dollars per annum? At one turn writers possess one of the most valuable saleable skills, communication; at another they are hampered by their lack of upfront close and personal attributes that seal deals.

Games still feature at the top end of the skill base, highlighting those skills must useful in playing Mass Effect: Andromeda and Runescape but most are suited to a shared work environment such as an office. Schank's list, however, is meant to apply across professions

Conceptual Processes
1. Prediction
2. Modelling
3. Experimentation
4. Evaluation

Analytic Processes
5. Diagnosis
6. Planning
7. Causation
8. Judgement

Social Processes
9. Influence
10. Teamwork
11. Negotiation
12. Describing