45 Times Adults Didn't Know Very Basic Things And Someone Had To Give Them A Reality Check

Reader’s Digest suggests that some of the fundamental life skills that everyone should aim to have include things like:

1. Balancing a budget, paying your bill, and doing your own taxes;
2. Having boundaries and saying ‘no’ to people;
3. Cooking a meal and doing other basic tasks in the kitchen;
4. Accepting criticism gracefully;
5. Sewing on a button;
6. Understanding the consequences of your actions;
7. Changing a tire;
8. Having a genuine face-to-face conversation where you listen more than you speak;
9. Doing laundry;
10. Navigating public transport.

Knowledge gaps are fairly common. And the irony is that you’re rarely aware of them until someone challenges your (lack of) knowledge. You can be strongly biased or woefully uneducated in a particular subject without even realizing it. For instance, because you misinterpreted something you (half) read in passing in a handful of headlines on social media one time without cross-checking claims and doing your due diligence regarding source reliability. Or you may have never had the time or opportunities to learn skills that seemingly everyone else your age knows how to do well.

However, if you have a growth-oriented mindset, you won’t see the mistakes you make as personal failures. Rather, they’re opportunities to improve and learn new things. By messing up you—hopefully—become more self-aware, open-minded, and willing to put in the work to research topics that are both new and the ones that you previously thought you were well-versed in. In short, you want to have the mindset of a real scientist, checking how your assumptions and hypotheses line up with objective reality. And that takes a lot of humility.

According to Business Insider, some of the core skills that every functioning adult should have include:

1. Accepting feedback gracefully;
2. Learning to apologize sincerely;
3. Managing your time well;
4. Saying ‘no’ respectfully;
5. Getting better at empathizing with other people;
6. Learning to make friends;
7. Communicating through your body language;
8. Speaking a second language;
9. Sticking to a budget;
10. Getting comfortable with public speaking.

What are some absolutely must-know pieces of information and life skills that you think any grownup should have in their toolbox? What are some frustratingly common sense things that you’ve had to explain to other adults who should have known better?

What do you do to fill in any knowledge gaps that you’ve become aware of? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments!