Learning New Skills, Making Friends and a Game of Focusing: What I’m Reading This Week

September has just begun, and the countdown is on! At least, that’s what it feels like for me. My calendar is already flipped weeks out, so it’s been a challenge for me to sit still.

I keep making and revising my to-do lists and getting overwhelmed by all that needs done. Even reading a book feels more like a chore than a pleasure these days. After I made myself sick with worry, my partner took a look at my lists and said, “That’s not that much.”

My first reaction was outrage. "How dare you say that and minimize my work!" But after a few hours later, I realized he was right. We only have 24 hours in a day, but we can choose how we use them. Sometimes, you need to put some things on hold. Sometimes, some things don’t take that long. Sometimes, they do.

You don’t know until you try, and by then the hardest part of the process—getting started—is already over. Whether you’re easing in to fall or neck deep in metaphorical leaves like me, I find it helps to write all my burdens down and show them to someone so you gain perspective, motivation, and oftentimes help along the way.

Until next time, be safe, be healthy and be kind!

Learning New Skills

Generative artificial intelligence has ushered in a new era of how we do business, among many other facets of life.

It seems logical to focus on learning how best to use the technology or how it all works. That may make sense in some environments that, say, need those technical skills today, or one that experiences rapid change (or turnover). But for those looking beyond the short term, focusing on those characteristics rather than hard skills could be a better predictor of success.

New research suggests that technical skills are less important than what is oft referred to as soft skills. Notably, the authors instead refer to these as foundational skills.

In an analysis of large-scale U.S. data on over 1,000 occupations across industries from 2005 to 2019, including 70 million job transitions, capturing hundreds of skills. They organized skills into foundational skills (e.g., reading comprehension, basic math skills, and the ability to work well in teams) and more specialized, advanced skills (e.g., competence with blockchain). The researchers reviewed how people’s skills changed and developed over time—and over the course of their careers.

They found that those who scored highly on those foundational skills were more likely to earn higher wages throughout their careers, move into more advanced roles, learn specialized skills more quickly and were more resilient to industry changes. They write: “The presence and development of foundational skills didn’t just make workers more competitive for entry level jobs—they determined how far they could climb the career ladder.”

Researchers now estimate that the half-life of technical skills has fallen from around 10 years in the 1980s to four years today; that duration is expected to continue to decline. As a result, the specifics of what you know may be less important than how you learn, along with how you work with others.

In today’s fast-paced world, I found the research reassuring. There’s a reason why a foundation is so important; it’s the base upon which everything can stand, be they knowledge about AI or something else that is yet to be developed.

Read the full article here.

Making Friends

I’ve heard a lot of folks—specifically, adults—bemoan how difficult it is to make friends as grown-ups. So, when I saw an article on said topic from Psychology Today, I was intrigued.

Author and psychologist Loren Soeiro, Ph.D., ABBP, explains that there are practical reasons why it can be a challenge to meet people as we get older: life transitions. Whether it’s moving, a new job, parenthood, caregiving for aging parents, marriage, divorce or something else, these new responsibilities require more of our time, energy and focus. Something’s got to give, and friendships are often on the chopping block.

It’s understandable, but reading that our number of friends can peak during “emerging adulthood,” defined as the ages of 18 and 29, is still a proverbial punch to the gut. It really adds to the trauma of turning 30! And, Soeiro notes: “Any of this can leave thirtysomethings more fatigued than ever before. And after a long workday, the idea of a night out with friends may not sound as appealing as it once did.”

Soeiro notes that we can still make friends, but it does require work, effort, patience and some realistic goal setting. He recommends readers start small and reminds that even efforts to make small talk with a familiar stranger (e.g., colleague in a different department, barista, librarian, etc.) can lead to improvements in social health and well-being. It can also help us brush up on those social skills that atrophied during the pandemic or were lost to social media.

If all else fails, I have found dogs to be great companions, and they often help start conversations. Although, you might have to make an effort to talk to the humans while petting the dogs, too.

Read the full article here.

A Game of Focusing

I was enchanted the moment I saw the artwork—so many lush green plants—and completely besotted when I saw all-around cool human being Hank Green was involved.

There’s a new popular phone game in town, and its goal is to help you put down your phone. I know, I know. The two seem completely contradictory, but for me, it adds to the charm.

The game, Focus Friend, has a simple objective: to help a brown bean, aptly named Bean, decorate their home. To do that, Bean needs uninterrupted time to knit wares that they can sell to buy home décor. You set a timer and let Bean get to work. If you wish to browse your phone apps or social media, you interrupt Bean. That means their knitting is ruined, and they are visibly sad.

Yes, the whole game is a glorified focus timer, but it is: 1) utterly adorable and 2) activates your altruism because you don’t really want to let someone else—in this case, a sentient brown bean with a leaf on their head—down.

“At first, it was just going to be about taking care of the character, but that turned into whatever the Bean was knitting would break,” said Bria Sullivan, the game’s developer and founder of Honey B Games. “I don’t think we realized how bad people didn’t want to disappoint this little bean.”

Read the story here, and download the game in your app store.