[Aditya]

Just as we keep updating our cars for better performance and comfort & convenience, we humans keep updating ourselves by learning new skills. These skills enhance our abilities and make us more capable. Some of them might help us earn a living, while some might just give us peace of mind. Some might help us entertain our friends and family, while some might just help us survive when the going gets tough.

Here are five skills that I would like to learn.

Cooking

This summer, my wife and daughter had gone on a vacation and unfortunately, my cook had an emergency at her home. Other than cooking rice and eggs, I am useless in the kitchen. This meant that my father (he'll be 87 later this year) and I had to call for lunch and dinner from one restaurant or the other for many days, which wasn't a good thing. It was the first time in my life that I felt that I should learn cooking.


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Rifle Shooting

Yes, you read it right. I want to learn rifle shooting. I have had some training as a kid at summer training camps, but nothing too serious. I would definitely like to take things further. A shooting range is less than a kilometre from my residence. Will have to drag myself to it one of these days.


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Playing a musical instrument

If anything soothes my mind when I am disturbed, it is music. Pandit Shivkumar Sharma playing the santoor is bliss! The piano is another musical instrument that amazes me. These two instruments are the ones I'd love to learn to play. Maybe I can entertain some people later in life (provided my wife doesn't crack my head open before that).


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Scuba Diving

I love the sea. And I am quite a strong swimmer. I can swim in a pool or open water. I know how to do bodysurfing as well. The next step is to go underwater. I happen to know someone who is an instructor in the Andamans. Maybe I will club a vacation with a scuba diving course in the coming years. Let's see.


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Learning the stock market

I am pretty much a big zero in this and honestly, in all these years, I was not even interested in the stock market. However, now I am viewing it as a secondary source of income. Over the next couple of years or so, I'd like to familiarise myself with it. As I age, it could come in handy.


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It's never too late to learn. So what skill would you like to acquire and why?

[callvvijay]

3 skills - musical instrument, stock market, swimming

Violin - Learnt violin for around 8 years in my school days and re-joined last year (along with my son). However, with work commitments and other priorities (and of course, plenty of lame excuses), I'm unable to do justice to the class. Wish to spend more time in practising.

Stock market - Have some basic knowledge on this and have been an investor with some expert help. Would like to get into the nuances of this for a long time now. As you had rightly pointed out, this could very well serve as a secondary source of income - if you know what/how to do it correctly. No one can pinpoint the peaks and bottoms - but, some expert knowledge would make a lot of difference.
I have heard folks say that stock market is like gambling - I absolutely would not agree to the statement.

Swimming - Learnt swimming at the age of ~25 and that too, could do it only for those 14 days period. Wish I had learnt it in my younger days.

P.S: Nice topic!!

Cheers!

[warrioraks]

Awesome topic.

I knocked off swimming from my list of skills to acquire pretty late in life but really glad I did.

I do have another skill/thing which I tried twice but failed - Wearing contact lenses.
Sounds stupid and weird unless you are in my shoes.

I am a myopic with high spherical power and this becomes a limiting force during sports and a few other activities (scuba diving, roller coasters, 3d movies). In such scenarios, lenses can help me significantly and make the experience much more enjoyable. But I am unable to poke my eyes and put on the darn things.

Was having a conversation with wife today that I should try it once again. Fingers crossed!

[CentreOfGravity]

Here are the skills I'd love to learn:

The art of Heal and Toe:
As soon as I get my driving licence and get a hang of city driving (turned 18 a couple of months back), I'll make it a point to learn rev-matching. It is said to be good for the engine. Not only does it give you smoother downshifts, but it also gives you eargasms (meaning = pleasure derived from certain sounds) every time you get it right!

Note: To all those who just picked up their chappals, be assured that I'll turn out to be a safe driver thanks to my dad and Team-BHP!

Swimming:
I had gone for a 10-day swimming course twice during my summer vacations while in school, but I'm still a noob when it comes to actual swimming! I can't even float on water, let alone swim properly.

Learning the guitar:
The guitar is my favourite western musical instrument since childhood, thanks to this video:

https://youtu.be/PCiWTRg-itY?si=XXVOrLgxoX8xHeF0

I have wanted to learn to play it, but the desire wasn't so strong to warrant an enrollment to a class. Lately though, that urge has been increasing and I'd love to learn to play the guitar, especially because I've completed my 12th grade.

Video Editing:
I've been meaning to create an automotive YouTube channel, and I don't think it's a good idea to hire an editor right off the bat. That's why video editing is on this list.

Backflip and frontflip:
I've already learnt a few basic stunts like cartwheel, kick up, headstand & handstand, splits, etc, but this is what I ultimately want to learn. What's holding me back, you ask? Well, the fear of landing on my butt and breaking my back

Holding my breath for long:
I can hold my breath for close to two minutes, but I'd like to take it further, as much as possible. Stupid skill, I know; but a skill nonetheless.

Beatboxing:
Because... why not! This isn't a skill per se, but a nice to have "segment-first" feature! Do watch this video:

https://youtu.be/GNZBSZD16cY?si=03IxWR0dMOsk2mcj

Breaking a coconut:
As ridiculous as it sounds, I always struggle to break a coconut properly! I have to hit it a million times for some sort of crack to appear. When it does crack, my skin ends up getting stuck between the crack!! Now if I pass these two hurdles, I manage to lose all the coconut water . To all those who can break a coconut into two perfect halves in a stike or two, take a bow. I've been breaking my head on how to break a coconut for the longest time.

The downside of belonging to a Malayali family = I will be summoned every other day to get my head... err, a coconut broken!

[digitalnirvana]

Three things which probably should be taught in school:
1. Financial literacy, including budgeting and saving
2. How to pay your taxes, including investments
3. First aid, including emergency procedures

Aside, as a personal wish
4. Guitar or any other stringed instrument
5. Being a polyglot. At least two major world languages except English. Preferably Germanic and Romance

[catchjyoti]

Things that I want to learn:

1. Chinese language - Being a non-Indo-European language, it is a tough one for me to learn. But this will open up to me a language spoken by over a billion people whose literature dates back thousands of years.
2. Sauces - Being Indian our cooking is mostly spice-based. But there is a vast cuisine in East and South-East Asia which is sauce-based. And I want to explore that.
3. Harmonica - I want to learn playing a musical instrument and this is one of the most portable. Also helps in building up lung capacity.
4. Body-weight exercise - Main advantage is I do not need any equipment and can be done wherever I am. Will keep me fit and strong.

[ssoni.1411]

Financial Modelling:
I am looking for a job in Financial Services but I am not able to land one. Hence, I hope to get a job as soon as I am done with this.

Drums:
I have always been passionate about drums and I like watching a lot of bands and drummers.

[YD14]

I am already learning cooking and ironing (yup, I am about graduate from college and still mess up ironing) but there are other skills I want to learn at some point in my life.
1. Swimming - I am surprised how many people actually want to learn this.
2. Riding two wheeler - I know how to drive 4-wheelers and have driven for many thousands of kms but due unavailability of a two wheeler at home, I still don't know how to ride a bike.
3. Learn Kannada - I have many friends from Karnataka most of whom know Hindi. I wanna surprise them someday by learning Kannada. Maybe a East Asian or European language too someday.
4. Skating - Don't know why but I feel like this could be fun.

[shabih]

It was during the pandemic that I discovered the cult classic PlayStation game - Red Dead Redemption 2. I'd play for the entire day at a stretch. And then I'd dream of the wild wild west, riding on horseback, hunting wild animals.

Now I want to learn horseback riding like Arthur Morgan

[Jaguar]

Originally Posted by Aditya

Rifle Shooting

Yes, you read it right. I want to learn rifle shooting. I have had some training as a kid at summer training camps, but nothing too serious. I would definitely like to take things further. A shooting range is less than a kilometre from my residence. Will have to drag myself to it one of these days.

I did a beginner-level course from Guns For Glory and it was a good experience. For the higher levels, they wanted commitment of at least a couple of hours a day, 4-5 days a week. So I didn't proceed. Plus their center near my home had only the setup for 10m air pistols and rifles. Want to do a course with real guns, but those facilities are not common.

[Malyaj]

Great topic!

I wanted to learn cartooning, as I wanted to create my own cartoons for my blog. Now with work taking up most of my time again and the blog being sidelined, looks like an unfinished dream. Not so much the cartooning itself, but the accompanying write ups require a lot of creative thinking, and with work-from-office every day in Bangalore's crazy traffic, the mind goes numb.

[lazy]

Become a true / authentic full stack developer with advanced Phython/R skills.

cheers
lazy

[Puntoo]

It may seem childish to some, but I have long harbored the desire to acquire a few unique skills:

After watching the movie Shall We Dance? during my college days, I developed a strong desire to learn ballroom dancing. I’m not entirely sure why, but this aspiration has remained on my to-do list for over 18 years.

For more than 20 years, I’ve wanted to learn how to operate heavy earth-moving machinery and obtain a license for it.

I am also passionate about off-roading and wish to explore it further.

[Sphere]

The skills I want to learn priority wise:

1. Stock Market - As many mentioned, knowledge about stocks is extremely necessary in todays age. An average of 3-4% people of India invest in stocks, it will be a huge opportunity to make money in the future (just like it has already been since it started in India in 1875).

2. Flying an Aircraft - My goal in life is to become a pilot, and it is most probably going to be my career in the next 5 years. Fingers crossed.

3. Video Editing -I have been a casual gamer since childhood and also started a YouTube channel in the lockdown. I used to edit my videos myself. Now I work in digital marketing and content creation where I feel video editing is a really important skill.

4. Horse Riding - I was fascinated by horses since childhood, and it has always been on my bucket list to learn horse riding. Never got an opportunity though.

5. Scuba Diving - I have been a great swimmer since childhood, thanks to my mom, who continuously took efforts to take me to classes everyday. But now I haven't been swimming to due lack of time and no pool nearby. Scuba Diving is the next thing I'm aiming for. It is really fascinating to explore the underwater life.

[subraiyr]

I have come a long way in life and into the second half of the journey and there is so much more to do. Sometimes I dread that time is too little. But hey I keep saying there is time for one more

Music is my therapist, my stress buster, my go-to for anything anytime. I learned to play the Veena and spent about 2 years trying to learn. I want to restart and have a go at it again. I have a brilliant Trivandrum Veena which is probably getting to its 50th year of living. And absolutely sonorous

To be a life saver - Something probably tough in India, but I would love to learn/study to become a doctor. To me it is such a noble profession. Seeing your patient and their loved ones rejoicing in their recovery is probably the most gratifying thing in the world

To think/act/enjoy life like a kid. Oh what joy it is to be in a state of gay abandon. I am sure all of us have lost or are losing this art.