Storytelling
If there’s any one skill I admire, it’s storytelling. Think about your favorite people, I bet they are good storytellers. If you look at successful people, they are amazing storytellers. Some say Steve Jobs has a reality distortion field. I attribute that to skilled storytelling. Skilled storytellers make even the smallest things fascinating.
Think of anyone — the best scientists (Feynman) are (was) able to tell amazing stories. Programmers like Paul Graham or Steven Yegge can write about anything and it’s still fun to read. They are excellent storytellers.
Enough famous people though. How about someone unknown? It’s almost embarrassing to admit, but I’m thinking of Violent Acres. She’s definitely a little off, but highly entertaining. After a couple months of writing she’s now internet famous for little reason other than she can turn her crappy ass days into amusing stories. It’s an impressive skill.
I like people who can tell good stories. I think I’m pretty decent at reading, listening, laughing and enjoying them. On the other hand, telling them certainly isn’t one of my strengths and improving that is one of the reasons I set up this blog. So far I’m doing a pretty terrible or at least highly inconsistent job. There are a whole lot of little things that are always happening, I just need to start writing them down.