Do a Google search of “top ten skills” and you’ll get a sense of how we are collectively anticipating what’s around the corner. Here are four sample lists to contemplate. Take your pick.

General

• Public speaking
• Writing
• Self-management
• Networking
• Critical thinking
• Decision-making
• Math
• Research
• Relaxation
• Basic accounting

Knowledge-Based Economy

• Analytical Reasoning
• Non-Routine Problem Solving
• Creative Leadership
• Personal Initiative
• Character Development
• Willingness to Experiment
• Curiosity and Enthusiasm
• Mental Flexibility
• Real-Life Networking
• Digital Literacy

Tech World

• Business process modeling
• Database
• Messaging/Communications
• IT Architecture
• IT Security
• Project Management
• Data mining
• Web development
• IT Optimization
• Networking

Post-Collapse

• Organic Gardening and Seed Saving
• Food Processing and Preservation
• Hunting, Fishing, and Gathering
• Animal Husbandry
• Construction
• Alternative Energy and Fuels
• Water Purification
• Basic First Aid and Natural Medicine
• Mechanics
• Soap and Candle Making

The contrasts are interesting and reveal that the trick with the slippery fish we call “the future” is that it’s so tough to get it right: we could predict it if we could just get a glimpse of what’s coming. Preparing your list of skills in preparation for that is also very tough. You’ve only got so much time. You can’t possibly master all of the skills you just might need.

So, are you going to gamble on the Post-Collapse skill set (which glaringly omits various zombie-related abilities)? Figure out how to change the tire on your car? Maybe it’s more the Tech bent you are looking at. Be careful here. Learning a programming language or approach that will be obsolete next year is something to be anxious about. Any one of the ten skills on the tech list could absorb us fully as specialties in their own right. You better choose well. The General list is a bit more open. You can imagine yourself actually getting around to some of those. You might not take up candle making, but the relaxation item looks feasible and could be added to the Tech, Knowledge-Based or Zombie list without much trouble.

Still, the phenomena of generating lists of future skills remains an entrails-and-tea-leaves activity. I admit that we need to undertake it when we are talking about educating our children, building institutions, and responding to what we can see of the coming trends. It would be nice, after all, to have at least a bit of lead time before being run over by the demographic thunderbus we call the Boomers.

What kinds of skills do you think we need to be working on these days? Are there any particular sets within your line of work that could be added to this list of success ingredients? Share away. Maybe all of us is smarter than any one of us.