Meta-skills are broad capabilities that help you to develop other skills and can be applied across a wide variety of domains. As more jobs become automated, possessing these skills will be more important than ever. This article discusses five particular meta skills: Feeling, Seeing, Dreaming, Making, and Learning.
Feeling
Social intelligence is going to be an even more important skill than before – with technology outperforming our more analytical talents, individuals with more empathy and other uniquely human gifts are going to bring the most value to the table.
- Feeling doesn’t just refer to interpersonal skills; it also covers qualities like intuition, or the ability to arrive at a conclusion without relying on conscious reasoning.
Making
This meta-skill is related to design and design thinking
Learning
Constant learning leads to greater value, but learning itself can be an intrinsically rewarding activity
- Find subjects that bring you joy and dive into them
- Doing this regularly will make you more curious and hungry to learn about other topics that you may not have cared for originally
Seeing
Computers are fantastic at addressing individual problems, but not the big picture
- Humans have the ability to strategize, to understand how the whole can be greater than the sum of its parts, and to escape biases
- Becoming better at seeing things isn’t as easy, but provides a more accurate representation of the world
- In turn, seeing better provides better information to act on
Dreaming
Innovation, creativity, generative talent – these skills will always be in high demand
- Being original and trying to innovate carries risk, and nothing is going to be improved without taking that risk
- Settling for tried-and-true solutions also means settling for mediocrity
