Ask Orbit · by Lucas Silva · 2026-10-14

What's one skill you wish you'd learned in your 20s instead of your 30s/40s?

Had a conversation with a mentor recently who said the one thing he regretted not learning earlier was how to negotiate, not just salary but in general life situations. Got me thinking about what skills people here wish they'd prioritized earlier. Not necessarily career stuff either, could be anything.

0 sparks · 9 comments

Comments

Grace Parker · 0 likes

cooking, 100%. spent my whole 20s eating takeout and now realize how much money and health i couldve saved learning basic meals earlier

Noé Petit · 0 likes

negotiating is such an underrated life skill honestly, applies to way more than salary like you said, rent, contracts, even relationships

Can Arslan · 0 likes

learning to say no without over explaining myself. took me way too long to realize 'no' is a complete sentence

Noor Janssens · 0 likes

this one hit different, i still struggle with this tbh

Camila Soto · 0 likes

basic personal finance / investing, nobody taught this in school and i didnt start until almost 30, lost a lot of compounding time

Avery Johnson · 0 likes

how to actually rest without guilt. grinding culture made me think relaxing was wasted time, took therapy to unlearn that

Léa Bernard · 0 likes

public speaking, i avoided it for years out of fear and it held my career back more than i realized at the time

Lucas Dubois · 0 likes

honestly just basic home maintenance skills, changing a tire, unclogging a drain, simple stuff that saved me hundreds once i learned

Huy Le · 0 likes

learning when to walk away from a bad situation (job, relationship, whatever) instead of waiting for it to magically improve