Ask HN: What's the last non-obvious skill that made you better at your job?

Posted by rajkumarsekar on Thursday July 03, 2025 @01:33AM
from the ask-hn dept.

We all know the usual suspects, communication, time management, technical chops. But sometimes, it’s the left-field skills that give you the biggest boost.

Maybe you picked up storytelling and suddenly your presentations hit harder. Maybe you got better at writing bug reports and your team started fixing things faster. Or maybe you learned how to explain complex tech to non-tech folks, and now you’re everyone’s favorite translator.

What’s the last skill you didn’t expect to matter, but once you had it, everything got easier?

( 8 comments | 4 points | on HN )

Re:Ask HN: What's the last non-obvious skill that made you b... by jerpint on Thursday July 03, 2025 @01:42AM (#44451978)

Not sure this really counts but “curating” social media feeds to follow high-signal ML researchers and devs to keep up with the latest trends, ideas and papers

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: What's the last non-obvious skill that made you b... by ottaborra on Thursday July 03, 2025 @01:46AM (#44452006)

Emotion management. I think this is more subtle than having a stoic front to everything. There are places/times where showing bare emotions moves the needle forward for example inspiring people, driving home a passionate point and sometimes in conflict, yes conflict, there are people who only understand emotion like anger to see the errors of their ways, for these folks reason doesn't work

And in other places/times, gulping down your emotions and being stoic is all that matters. Also no one likes a person who is inert all the time, so there's also prepping for that.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: What's the last non-obvious skill that made you b... by rajkumarsekar on Friday July 04, 2025 @01:09AM (#44461285)

That’s a really insightful take.

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Re:Ask HN: What's the last non-obvious skill that made you b... by RobinL on Thursday July 03, 2025 @02:18AM (#44452161)

Writing a blog. Many of my posts are things I've learnt at work, or arguments I've failed to make it meetings. By writing it down, I can pin down the argument better and share my thoughts in advance.

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Re:Ask HN: What's the last non-obvious skill that made you b... by rajkumarsekar on Friday July 04, 2025 @01:11AM (#44461301)

That’s such a smart approach. Thanks for sharing

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Re:Ask HN: What's the last non-obvious skill that made you b... by theGeatZhopa on Thursday July 03, 2025 @03:50AM (#44452649)

No offense .. to ask proper questions and to say no

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Re:Ask HN: What's the last non-obvious skill that made you b... by mmarian on Thursday July 03, 2025 @10:11AM (#44455269)

Patience and empathy. I was never going to be a top performer, but I understood what stakeholders were asking for.

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Re:Ask HN: What's the last non-obvious skill that made you b... by rajkumarsekar on Friday July 04, 2025 @01:12AM (#44461303)

That’s a powerful reminder that technical skill isn’t everything. Thanks for sharing.

[ Parent | on HN ]