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Ask HN: What's a surprisingly useful tech skill that's underrated today?

30 points Userrr | 1 comments | 12 Apr 25 08:13 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source

We often talk about mastering popular languages, frameworks, and AI tools. But what about the less-hyped skills that quietly make you 10x more effective?

For example:

Knowing how to write a custom shell script that replaces a SaaS tool

Building internal tools with no-code + cron + GitHub Actions

Understanding how to optimize a slow SQL query line-by-line

Crafting a bash one-liner that saves you hours every week

Using the command line like a superpower

I'm curious: What are the most underrated but highly valuable tech skills you've learned that more people should know about?

Would love to hear stories, examples, or even niche tools you swear by. Bonus points if it’s something you only discovered by accident or necessity, not through a tutorial.

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frou_dh ◴[12 Apr 25 11:40 UTC] No.43663534[source]▶
Being able to use the features of a debugger to understand a problem in a single run, as opposed to editing the code adding/removing print statements and (recompiling+)rerunning the program over and over again.

There's been some kind of macho attitude dispersed wherein it's uncool to use good tooling, so a lot of people don't even learn how to use debuggers properly.

replies(3): >>43664823 #>>43665103 #>>43670085 #
Tadpole9181 ◴[12 Apr 25 14:45 UTC] No.43664823[source]▶
> There's been some kind of macho attitude dispersed wherein it's uncool to use good tooling

It's a part of a wider problem of "I don't know something and instead of learning I'm going to get angry".

replies(1): >>43667445 #
1. palata ◴[12 Apr 25 19:53 UTC] No.43667445[source]▶
Or "I shouldn't have to learn it, it should be obvious".

Many people won't learn the basics of many tools, and instead of learning them they will ask for one-liners so that "they don't lose their time".