Posted on Oct 23, 2026 UTC

In this recent story , I wrote about the basic life skills that some adults have yet to learn. This ranged from knowing how to properly clean one's home to being skilled in conflict resolution to the unique instance of someone who didn't know how to butter their toast. The anecdotes resonated with readers, who wrote in about the lack of basic skills they've spotted in those around them. And I have to say, I'm pretty shocked by some of these answers:

1.

"Holding a conversation with another human."

2.

"The ability to do simple arithmetic in your head: add, subtract, multiply, and divide very simple things; know what a percent means, how much to tip a waiter, and be able to figure out how much change you should get back from a transaction. These are fairly basic skills that everyone should know, but many rely on someone else (the restaurant or the store where they are buying things) to figure them out.…