Guys- what skills do you wish you'd learned earlier in life?

[CaptainHenreh]

The logic behind it and the train of thought you need to master are things that I think are of great value. .

I'm glad you clarified, because I'm about to get to my point. I work with shit programmers every day. I don't want your kid to know C syntax, or, as derek says, "the best way to build a string in java". What's important isn't that they know a high level language, but that they understand logic, logical operations, and data structures.

The trick is, computer programming isn't even the most common use of those kinds of skills. If you really have a good understanding of logical operations, I can teach you to program anything, in any language. But you can write Candy Crush XIII and still be a shit programmer, if you don't have that.

I know that's what you were getting at and yes I'm feeling pedantic this morning blame it on the tea. But I dont' want people to get the idea that they can learn .NET syntax and fire up a really nice SDK and really have learned the skill they really need to..