30 Adulting Skills to Learn
You need to be an adult and this is probably something I need to teach my daughter to be self-sufficient
Random Observation/Comment #921: Adulting is hard. I wonder if the generation will just reinvent adulting so all the things I learned to do will be obsolete. *Shakes fist at kids these days*
//I love the left side because more things are broken the more you look at the details
Why this List?
With AI taking over so many things, I definitely wonder what adulting will look like for my daughter. I don’t think she’ll have a robot walking around and folding her laundry or doing her chores, but there’s probably going to be some more specialty appliances. In any case, there are core skills that I find as the basic generalist adult should learn how to do. I also worry there’s going to be some EMP that shuts down all electronics, so some of these are partial survival skills.
We really need some anti-helplessness protocols.
I wonder if the new generation will just be so helpless they use TaskRabbit or a similar service for most things (and then ultimately become a cat).
Domestic Infrastructure and Survival
Troubleshooting a Toilet - Open the back tank to see if the flapper/fill valve is on tight enough to fill water in the tank. Locate the main water shut-off if needed. Learn how to use a plunger (or whatever new tech plungers look like) if you take big poops.
Electrical flow - Just generally know where the circuit breaker is and understand the load limits of a household outlet so you prevent fires. Don’t plug in your new sauna into just a regular outlet.
Roadside help - Change a tire with a spare, know where you can lift the car (although this probably won’t be possible with electric cars being so heavy). Know what to check in terms of lights to prevent a dead battery (although electric cars are smart enough to turn everything off by itself from an app).
Just using a stove - What if the electricity goes out? Gas line means you can still safely light a pilot and boil water. It’s also helpful to be able to cook rice without a rice cooker (even though a rice cooker definitely does a better job). I do love the essence of camping for all of these bare minimum survival skills.
Structural hanging - Find a wall stud and hang a heavy mirror or shelf securely. Know the difference between a drywall screw and an anchor. This is more of a manly house thing, which can be outsourced.
Basic sewing - I’m not a great example of this, but I can sew a four-hole button with a blind stitch and probably mend a simple hole. I hear the style is to just keep the holes and wear “athle-isure” clothes all the time.
Kitchen chemistry - Especially for searing proteins, I think it’s important to know some science around the “Maillard Reaction” and then how to create a nice sauce off of it with some onion and red wine deglaze. Watch Kenji Lopez-Alt and Alton Brown.
Starch ratios - A standard pot can cook rice, pasta, cous cous, grains, etc. I think there’s a good starting point of cooking to be able to properly cook pasta or boil an egg.
Knife maintenance - Never put a knife in a dishwasher and just hone it regularly. Take care of those knives.
Basic House Maintenance - This is going to be a further catch-all of things around the house I have started learning in the past 5 years. Cleaning AC filters, sealing water-heavy grout areas, squeegee-ing glass to prevent mildew, and other simple house maintenance will save on services fees. My wife will like that I included this in the list.
Analog Navigation - Navigate with a compass and a physical map. Also learn to drive to places without using Google Maps navigation for everything. Recognize landmarks and read road signs.
Trauma Response - Know the basics of chess compressions, tourniquet, and cleaning wounds.
Ropework (The Essential Five) - Tie a Bowline, Taut-line Hitch, Sheet Bend, Butterfly Loop, and Trucker’s Hitch. Also, know which situation to use which knots.
Digital Survival
Network maintenance - Access a router gateway to update firmware or manage SSID security. Understanding how the internet works in general is a good skill to have. It’s a series of tubes!
Credential Hygiene - Use proper password managers and hardware-based 2FAs.
Digital Footprint - Conduct a personal audit to understand who’s using your data and how it is saved across multiple companies. Specifically be diligent on removing your data from major brokers.
Cyber Defense - Identify any social engineering attempts and protect yourself in as many ways as possible. Within the family, there should be verification protocols with family safe-words or a way to act if you get seemingly emergency messages.
Digital Legacy - Figure out what you want to leave behind as a legacy.
Anti-Deep Fake - I don’t know what this will look like, but there needs to be a better way for the new generation to identify and understand the impact of generative AI. Maybe all things are just considered AI-altered images and we’ll just need to pay money to post “real” images. Definitely going to be a human premium.
Financial & Legal Layer
Compound Interest - Learn the “cost of waiting” to invest and different rules for creating solid returns. Maybe the new generation will just rely on trading bots or make all their money on prediction markets and sports betting.
Tax Architecture - I’m hoping this becomes easier for the next generation, but it is important to keep track of your income, contributions, major expenses, and also how to not get audited.
Legal Basics - Understand the binding agreements and rights from common legal documents like terms of service, return policies, data retention, and rentals. I’m sure the newer generation will just feed full documents into an LLM for it to analyze, but you still need to know what question to ask.
Human Layers
Deliver a toast - Using the Past-Present-Future structure, you should be able to toast 60 seconds to a friend or say a few kind words.
Radical Candor - Deliver constructive feedback that improves the system and not just the person. Don’t deliver it as a judgment on the person’s capabilities or personality.
Small Talk - The art of small talk is probably going to be more important than ever. Ask questions and be interested. Get to the punchlines and relatable points with open ended answers. So, “where do you live?” should be answered with “Colorado - where we do weekday skis and hikes.” rather than just a statement with no ability to “yes-and.”
One Party Trick - Think of one party trick you can do. I can wiggle my ears.
Budgeting your Energy/Attention - There are activities that give you energy and activities that drain it. It’s important to know what this looks like for you. Maybe the introverted recovery requires a hot bath with listening to an interesting book. Maybe it’s drawing or making music. How to regulate your energy will be such an important part of adulting.
Doing Your Own Research (DYOR) - This can mean many things, but for me this is the process in which you are going to learn about a subject by looking at multiple sources and figuring out how this new information impacts your actions (trades) or adjusts your understandings (weights on current events or acceptance to new technology). We’re responsible for our own actions and it’s too easy to be swayed by single opinions. Also, don’t just blindly follow what the LLM tells you to do.
General situational awareness - When you an enter a room, identify exits and potential hazards. Stay observant!
Patience - Parenting is the ultimate test of patience. I usually have a very long fuse temper because I know that most arguments are about preferences (and preferences are usually no big deal - I’ll load the dishwasher your way or you’ll keep annoying me to put on lotion). The patience for the more important things is the key to enlightenment. Maybe it’s all not that important.
~See Lemons Keep Adulting
