Everything in Life Is a Skill

Almost any repeated action — in business or in everyday life — is a skill. The key test is simple: can you measure how well you do it on a scale with many gradations, rather than the binary «I can / I can’t»? Walking is a skill. Negotiating is a skill. So is writing — and reading, cooking, sex, washing the dishes, programming, closing deals, and just about everything else.

And here’s the catch: even with all the theory and all the past experience, a skill decays without regular practice. Yet in real life, when you ask someone whether they can do something, they almost always say: «yes, I can.» A far better question is: «On a scale of one to ten, how would you rate your skill — and how often have you actually used it lately?»

Why does this matter? Because it gives you a much sharper read on what you — and others — are truly capable of, and, more importantly, where the limits are.

Take me. I haven’t driven a car in a few years. And despite more than twenty years behind the wheel, every time I get in now I remind myself that the skill has gone dull, and that I should be far more careful on the road than back when I drove every day.

I’ve watched plenty of negotiations lost this way — people who once had deep experience with the hardest deals, but who hadn’t practised in a long while, leaning on «old memory» and losing to opponents with less life wisdom who had simply kept their negotiating muscle sharp on exactly this kind of meeting.

This lens — skill level and frequency of use — is especially relevant in hiring. Why hire someone who used to be good and forgot, when there’s someone who is good and keeps at it?

When something important has to get done here and now — something we once did well but haven’t practised in ages — maybe it’s worth handing it to the person who does it daily? At least until our own skill is built back up to where it was.

But often it’s worth simply making peace with the fact that some skills have faded — and that’s fine, because others, more relevant now, have taken their place.

We are all, in a sense, the sum of our scores across millions of skills. 🤔