If you could "skill trade", what would you trade? (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) by bridgeenjoyer@sh.itjust.works to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

96 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I'd trade my car repair skill for house repair, and my musical ability for math ability. Both of those are far more useful in life. Maybe also trade my computer ability for welding or woodworking.

(page 2) 46 comments

sorted by: hot top new old

[-] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

So many music answers here, I didn't expect that.

Maybe my ability to "sing" by vibrating just my lips together, in exchange for absolutely anything useful. I don't know if anyone else can do that, so if we're going by a kind of bell curve way of measuring "talent", it could fix a lot for me.

I’d trade my car repair skill for house repair

Interesting, why? You'd think they both are things you either have to do yourself or pay someone for.

[-] bridgeenjoyer@sh.itjust.works 2 points 5 months ago

Eh, car repair is worthless. I can swap engines, build engines, replace head gaskets and alternator's and clutches, but no one cares. That work maybe gets you 50 bucks here and there. House repairs are astronomically more expensive (especially things like dirtwork or drainage or concrete. A medium sized deck is $30,000 today to build. Plus cars now are mostly throwaway and not repairable without an ee degree and a dealership computer. Everything that ever breaks is just a little sensor made in China thats impossible to replicate.

[-] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Have you actually worked as a mechanic, then? I don't know who else would be pulling out the engine of a modern car.

It's true that you can make a good living as a tradesperson working on houses. A great living, even, if like in my area there's a shortage. I know mechanics and they seem okay, but I think they're all heavy mechanics, so that doesn't necessarily contradict you. One person that does auto bodies, too, which again, isn't different.

[-] yermaw@sh.itjust.works 2 points 5 months ago

I would trade my video game ability for basically anything else in the world. Im no longer a world-champion contender level of skill, and without charisma its worthless.

I'd like to trade it in for carpentry or any handymannery.

[-] DioramaOfShit@lemmy.world 1 points 5 months ago

Im a carpenter and a gamer

[-] harrison_fnord@reddthat.com 2 points 5 months ago

Na i am good. I might be just a bartender, but I gave so much to become one of the best in my trade. Giving away that would mean giving away part of myself. I paid a high price to get where I am now and I am good damn proud of myself.

But if I had to I would want to git gud. Always wanted to be able to beat Dark Souls with ease.

[-] stoly@lemmy.world 1 points 5 months ago

I would happily trade my very good writing abilities for the ability to engage with higher mathematics. The first can be learned, the second requires the right sort of brain (which I don't have).

[-] polotype@lemmy.ml 2 points 5 months ago

Funny, while i would never give up my ability to do math for writing, i feel the other way around in regards to which one can be learned and which one can only be "gifted".

I always was utterly unable to get decent grades in linguistics. No matter how much i tried ;)

[-] stoly@lemmy.world 1 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Hilariously I'm a linguist. I actually have several degrees in the humanities and social sciences plus a masters in IT management but made the potentially questionable decision to jump into an engineering doctorate with no engineering experience. It's been as fun as you might imagine, but I am learning lots and advancing through the program.

I wish that my undergrad advisor had let me take calculus like I wanted to, but he wouldn't since it wasn't required for the program. My doctoral advisor didn't say anything so I figured that I was in the clear. What do you know? It's all calculus based and I'm learning to do derivatives and integrals in realtime.

What I've learned here is that if we squished our brains together, we'd form a single, complete person.

load more comments (14 replies)

[-] octobob@lemmy.ml 1 points 5 months ago

I am extremely focused on industrial electrical work as a career and have done it for about 12 years. To be quite honest, I can't picture myself ever doing anything else.

As a hobby though, I love working with wood. I've been slowly building my new kitchen and enjoying it quite a bit. Woodworking may be in my future. A good friend of mine has a membership to a shop that's close by

[-] kn33@lemmy.world 1 points 5 months ago

I played saxophone through college. It was fun, but I haven't played in years. I'd rather know French at this point and try to move to the alps

load more comments

this post was submitted on 12 Mar 2026

59 points (96.8% liked)

Ask Lemmy

41122 readers

1597 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions

Rules: (interactive)

1) Be nice and; have fun

Doxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, toxicity and dog-whistling are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them

2) All posts must end with a '?'

This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?

3) No spam

Please do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.

4) NSFW is okay, within reason

Just remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].

5) This is not a support community.

It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.

6) No US Politics.

Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world or !uspolitics@lemmy.world

7) No Hit-and-Run questions.

Please don't delete your post for no apparent reason. If you plan on deleting a question later, say so in the post, or if you feel that you have a good reason to remove it, message a mod beforehand. It's not fair to the ones who took their time to answer, and it's not in the spirit of the community.

8) No Bots.

Posts or comments from bots, LLM's, AIs, Neural Networks, Transformers, or Marvin the Paranoid Android are not welcome in AskLemmy. Real humans only please.

Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.