Use a computer. Information technology pervades every aspect of our lives these days. Just ignoring it and refusing to engage means giving up the ability to even understand what's happening around you.
Basic cooking! I know people who order in or buy pre-made supermarket dishes for every meal. I find it such a waste of time, and the food is often of such low quality.
Absolutely this. I used to think it was a generational thing but we had a friend near to retirement who stayed with us for a couple of years. Despite raising a child they had next to no idea how to cook bar heating something from a tin and microwave dinners. I mean they'd never cooked a baked potato before and was puzzled by how much we made things from scratch. Quite astounding.
I mean the chicken and ribs are fine. I mean I don't think if I bought the more expensive frozen chicken and baked it that it would be better. Sandwiches made to order are pretty fine to. But yeah a lot of it I don't get why anyone gets. Sorta ew.
Empathy.
The ability to summarize, within three paragraphs, a piece of media that they have just consumed.
Agree. Even retain keywords or bullet points. This helps to retain information and arguing in discussion and even problem solving. Something that should get a lot of focus in education in my opinion.
I think this can be better summarized as reading compression.
This reminds me of all those damned book reports we had to do in school.
As long as you're able-bodied, knowing how to swim. I don't mean mastering the perfect technique or anything like that, just being able to not drown after falling into deep water and being capable of moving yourself forward in the water using any style.
I dont think knowing how to 'swim' as that motion comes from some intincts... its more how not to panic and fail wildly.
Willingness to make personal sacrifices to bolster causes they claim to support.
Sacrifice is a particularly useful thing. Also recognizing sacrifice that is inconvenient as opposed to harmful. There is that whole study of the kids that could hold off eating the marshmallow to get two later seemed to predict doing better in life.
in a specific field?
If not a specific field, I would say the ability to tolerate contradictory/opposing ideas.
Literacy
How to sew - not just for repairing clothes, but also for the eventual necessity when there aren't any surgeons left after the resource wars.
Keeping your basic first aid skills up to date with courses is genuinely worth every penny you spend on it.
How to tie a simple set of knots - fig 8 and bowline for making loops, also a clove hitch and a reef knot for attaching two lines together are solid starting points
Also knowing what to have in an emergency kit and how to not freeze to death if the heating goes out are very important
For that matter how to end ones life painlessly.
If they have a vehicle, then basic maintenance. I'm not even talking about oil changes, but I've shown people in their 40s how to do things like fill up the windshield washer fluid reservoir.
Errrrrm... I'm one of those types I'm afraid
One thing I hate is my wife can do that stuff and is a car person but she can't really do that stuff anymore due to health issues. I don't do those things because im not a car person and hate them. Between us we have a car and that whole aspect makes me very uncomfortable but the situation sorta evolved around us.
I mean in the US its kinda everything. We really don't act as a cohesive society with specialists handling their specialty and instead sorta duck tape everything.
Rules