Map reading/Orienteering - Most people are literally lost without GPS
I might as well go first: Basic troubleshooting and reasoning.
I mean, we’re not talking debugging assembly language here. But at least you should be able to reply correctly to the question “is it dead or faulty?” when it comes to a computer. And when a your car has a weird noise, at least try to locate it for an obvious cause such as something rolling around under your seat.
EDIT: And one important aspect of troubleshooting many people don’t get is how to narrow down the problem. Let’s say your wifi isn’t working - have you checked on any other device whether it’s working there? Someone else mentioned binary search which has a lot of overlap with this.
“I don’t know what the error said, I clicked ok and it went away. Now fix it”.
Bingo.
I used to work with internet on trains, and the system was relatively simple by today’s standards. Not so much back then, but:
- One carriage had UMTS/LTE and CDMA modems and a router that load balanced between the uplinks. Usually in the restaurant carriage, because there would only be one per train. It also had a short range wireless link in each end for other carriages to connect.
- Each carriage that could potentially be in the same train had wireless clients in each end for connecting “upstream” towards the router.
- All carriages had a wifi radio
On other words, many potential points of failure. And sometimes we’d get tickets such as this sent our way: “Internet doesn’t work”
- No info about which carriage
- No info about when
- No info about where
- No info about which train
I mean, that’s really a software design issue. Like, the system should be set up to have a system log of those.
Most visual novel video game systems provide a history to review messages, if one accidentally skipped through something important.
Many traditional roguelikes have a message log to review for the same reason.
Many systems have a “show a modal alert dialog” API call, but don’t send it to a log, which frankly is a little bit bonkers; instead, they have separate alert and logging systems. I guess maybe you could make a privacy argument for that, not spreading state all over even the local system, but I’d think that it wouldn’t be that hard to make it more-obvious to the user how to clear the log.
Well, it might be a ‘software design issue’, but it’s really more of a branching point that was made long ago and reflects the world we live in. It could be fixed, but the point is that error messages are often not logged but people tend to act like they must be, and that their vague description of an issue should be enough to track it down like ‘something flashed on my screen last week’.
Hell people can’t even describe useful parts of an error that’s correctly happening…‘it’s not doing ANYTHING!’ can often mean anything from not booting, to the mouse not moving, to ‘it’s working perfectly but icons are snapping into place instead of staying exactly where I’m dragging them’.
This is usually coupled with the expectation that I’m going to use some special knowledge to do it rather than just pasting the contents of the error message into a web search and following the simple instructions contained in the first link.
This grinds my gears super hard. I’ve had a few new hires come through and they can’t do anything unless someone tells them to do something or if its written out step by step. Absolutely no critical thinking, curiosity or even basic understanding of why we’re doing what we’re doing, the job might as well be severance lol. I have no idea whats going on, they interviewed well, had relevant experience and can do the basics but as soon as we have to troubleshoot or use our brains they just go dear in the headlights. Its something thats difficult to train.
Maybe they prefer the work to be mysterious (and important)
Maybe they got in trouble too many times for not doing it exactly as instructed, even if the instruction is obviously bullshit in some ways?
I’m trying to work things out but I swear its a generational “kids these days” thing. Its a science field with lots of interpretation, judgement, problem solving and troubleshooting too so critical thinking is really important.
I used to work as a refrigeration technician and when I first started I was working with an old Russian dude who had no filter. We’d walk into a store and he’d ask the owner “ok so what’s the problem?” and if they ever said “the machine isn’t working.” he’d immediately reply with “no shit man, I wouldn’t be here if it was working…” Lol
I had that stuck to my desk at work for years. And I haven’t even opened the link yet to see if it’s the one I think it is.
Yep, it was 😁
It missed ‘Have you checked the software’s help files or manual?’ but yeah. I guess a Google search mostly covers that, although I’d check the manual before resorting to Google. I remember when telling people to RTFM was a thing.
Basic troubleshooting and reasoning.
That drives me nuts sometimes. Like even professionals sometimes seem unable to do basic troubleshooting. I work in live music, I am not a tech/engineer but have done a lot of tech work on and around stages.
Simple stuff like - one speaker is not giving a signal, two techs are unable to identify the fault for over 20 min. I observe for a bit, they check the console, they check the speaker, they check the power supply.
And I, half joking, ask - have you switched sides already? Both look at me like they don’t understand my question, I walk over to the signal line for the PA, unplug them both, plug the left side into the right signal and vice versa on the other side - the problem moves from one speaker to the other, so it has to be a faulty cable. I was so baffled by that.
WHY IS THAT NOT THE FIRST THING YOU DO??? It takes seconds!
Or a wireless in-ear system has weird noises in the signal, I suggest to switch the frequency, the old tech grunts at me that he has already done that, I check and he moved the frequency like 10mhz. I suggest to move to a totally different frequency range and he gets rude so I go somewhere else. Half an hour later it turns out I was right. Why do you fuck around with firmware and shit before you do something simpler and quicker?
Number 1 by far is knowing how to separate your opinions from your identity.
I’ve been thinking about this for years and I can’t shake the thought that identity politics is the root of most major problems in western society (esp. US). It means people interpret criticism of their opinions as personal attacks instead. This overblown defensive reaction leads to turning around and conflating the opinions of others with their worth as human beings.
Yes, there some truth to that. If you hold hateful & bigoted opinions, I would say that makes you a shit person. But you’re not necessarily condemned to that forever, because opinions can potentially change. This is tied in with Karl Popper’s “Paradox of Tolerance”, i.e. ideas should be tolerated unless they themselves are so intolerant as to undermine the wider marketplace of ideas.
When we equate (potentially temporary) opinions of others with immutable value, that’s what leads to dehumanizing them and taking away their fundamental rights. And as has always been the case throughout history, the burden falls primarily on vulnerable groups (immigrants, ethnic or social minorities, children and the elderly, etc).
People need to understand that YOU ARE NOT YOUR OPINION. Others can and should criticize your opinions, but that doesn’t mean they are attacking you personally. Defend the opinions, but don’t turn around and go ad-hominem in response. And for fuck’s sake, unless an opinion is so abhorrent or intolerant that it threatens someone else’s existence (e.g. Nazis), you don’t get to take away the holder’s rights to citizenship, food, shelter, healthcare, etc.
EDIT: And yes I do consider this a skill that people have to learn. I think most should be capable by maybe… age 7.
How to turn greenhouse gasses into pure drinking water. I wish I knew how to do that.
Media literacy and reading comprehension. Specifically, the ability to infer an intended target audience for a particular piece of work. A large part of media literacy is being able to view a piece of media, and infer the intended audience. Maybe you see an ad for pink razors, and can infer that it is aimed at women who shave. But that’s just a simple example. It should also extend to things like internet comments.
People have become so accustomed to laser-focused algorithms determining our media consumption. Before, people would see a video or comment they didn’t resonate with, infer that it wasn’t aimed at them, and move the fuck on. But now, people are so used to their algorithm being dialed in. It is to the point that encountering things you don’t vibe with is outright jarring. People don’t just move on anymore. They get aggressive.
Maybe I make a reel about the proper way to throw a baseball. I’ll inevitably get at least one or two “but what about me? I’m in a wheelchair, on crutches, have a bad shoulder, have bad eyesight and can’t aim, etc… Before, those people would have gone “this clearly isn’t aimed at me” and moved the fuck on. But now they make a point of going “but you didn’t make this specifically for me.
It has gotten so bad that content creators have started adding disclaimers to their videos, news articles, opinion pieces, etc… It’s fairly common to see quick “and before I get started, this video is just for [target demographic]” as if it’s a cutesy little thing. But the reality is that if they don’t add that disclaimer, they’ll be inundated with “but what about [outlier that the content clearly wasn’t directed at]” types of responses.
Listening and empathy. Putting themselves in others’ shoes instead of just seeing/speaking/thinking about I, me and myself.
People have said “critical thinking”. I agree, but we can be more specific than that:
- Formal logic to think clearly
- Relational frame training to think fluidly
- Human cognitive bias awareness and mitigation strategies to avoid magical thinking or otherwise systematic cognitive errors
- Discourse Analysis to be critical of any message https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LKiaYBVAEUk&pp=
- Mindfulness and acceptance skills to engage with what our thoughts and body tell us, regardless of whether it’s painful or difficult
- Visible Thinking Routines to make thinking and communication with others easier
- Research design (Joseph A. Maxwell) and system design (How to Design Programs) to seek information critically and how to systematically tackle challenges
This covers so many other things.
My usual specific go-to is how to search the internet for things. But not knowing how to search for hyper-specific things is the symptom of a lack of critical thinking skills.
other things
Interesting. So you’re saying that critical thinking is not what I mentioned, but rather it is something different (an “other thing”). What would you say critical thinking is?
Not at all, I’m saying that many smaller problems people often cite are simply symptoms of a lack of critical thinking.
Ah. It sounds as if you’re saying that critical thinking skills are the base of many skills. That’s actually an interesting issue: could you increase skills by skill and end up with someone that is a critical thinker? Or is critical thinking something fundamental that naturally manifests in many different skills?
Driving. Most people know how to operate a vehicle, but a lot don’t know how to actually drive properly.
And yet the state gives them a license to drive. And doesn’t bother enforcing traffic laws. To me that’s the real problem.
Critical thinking.
They should teach basic philosophy in schools; common formal fallacies and such.
But then the eletorate would actually be making good decisions, how would the rich afford their 10th yacht?
Reading a map.
GPS is great & all, but I know people that if you put a paper map in front of them they’re still lost because they can’t correlate the map with reality.
I can read a map (and hate letting the car navigate) but map has to be aligned with the world. Before the cell phone, I used to spread the map out on the ground, with north pointing north.
Thank you! You know what you need to do to make things work, and you’re not one of the people who think “North” = “The direction I’m facing”
Patience.
I’ve taken up several hobbies (game dev, gardening, woodworking, etc) where results aren’t always well seen until weeks, months or even years after starting a project.
Everyone seems too interested in getting results fast and now, and the world seems all too keen to sell you something to try and make that happen.
Knowing the right tool for the job, specifically when it comes to repairing the things they own. I get that familiarizing yourself with your car’s engine bay isn’t the sexiest thing to do if it doesn’t interest you, but most systems are incredibly intuitive once you know how to use a couple of basic tools. Competency in hand tools is something I think everyone should have TBH
Yup. I am really not a car person, and I only have basic mechanical skills. But even I could troubleshoot and fix my old car. To be fair, it was a really simple car, most components were easy to access (and replace), and 90% of the bolts were 13mm.
media literacy
Making constructive, non-adhominem critique, and accepting such critique. Maybe calm debate/discussion in general.
Look at yourself: your momma is bigger than a triceratops and you’re going to teach me something about ad-homo…-nomo…thing? Phah!
I can teach you about homo things, too ; )
Financial literacy
