- Becoming a power user of spreadsheets, with formulas, pulling in external data (like forex rates), basic statistical analysis, conditional formatting to present a conclusion (green is better, red is worse) etc.
- Running a VM on AWS, SSH, basic Linux administration, etc.
- Automating manual tasks like cropping 500 JPEGs and rotating them. This could use Automator on macOS or a Python script.
- Writing small throw-away programs in Python. For example, I have a noisy signal, noisy due to errors in measurement. Would averaging with a second noisy signal reduce or increase noise? I wrote a simple Python program to generate two random arrays, measure standard deviation of each, and print out whether the resulting array has lower standard deviation than neither, one or both the input arrays. I then repeated 100 times to eliminate variability caused by the random number generation.
- HTML / CSS / JS to build a simple web site.
- Exploring emerging no-code tools (Airtable?)
Hardcore techies often don't have these skills. That would be like a surgeon who can perform open-heart surgery but can't administer first aid.