9 skills every man should learn by the time he's 30

Men, don't worry if you haven't had any advice on ageing gracefully from your parents or older, wiser friends. These are the skills you need by the time you're 30, according to Reddit users.

1. Defusing tense situations

A useful skill, I think, is learning to defuse a situation. Can come in handy to avoid a bar fight, keeping the aftermath of a car collision civil, or avoiding strife with a loved one.

-Visser946

2. Communicating with people other than your mates

Learning to communicate to your friend's and coworker's SO/wife at social functions. Too many men really don't realize they are shutting out women when hanging with their boys and do not realize this is going to have ramifications down the line. Get better at it in your 20's so that in your 30's and 40's you can still hang with your friends. Also, in the business world this skill is more valuable than you can imagine. Please trust me on this.

-Controlroomoperator

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3. Being clean

Cleaning. Seriously. There's nothing worse than going to someone's place (especially if you're considering sleeping with them) and there's clothes everywhere, dirty dishes because you don't even take them to the kitchen after being done with them, and being afraid to step on the floor barefooted. Doesn't have to be spotless, but if you don't even manage to keep a clean and tidy place, what is going to make me think you actually wash yourself?

- fjordling_

4. Having comic timing

Delivering a joke or story. As a comedian, learning how to properly deliver a joke has really helped me with my social skills and helped me to make friends/hit on guys.

-lolpeepz

5. Knowing that you probably won’t learn anything valuable for another 20 years

Pretty much everything I didn't learn until my late 50's, mainly relationship stuff, how to act as a married couple, etc. Women's expectations of you drastically change when they get a ring on their finger, and I had to go through 3 of them to figure that out.

-frogbrigade

6. Know how to tie a tie

My brother just got married recently and I was one of the groomsmen, and when we were putting on our suits only two of us (me and one other guy) knew how to tie a tie. There were 6 other guys there who had no idea at all.

-GenXer1977

7. Get drink-aware

If you drink, how to hold your liquor and not make an ass of yourself when you're drunk.

- imapieceofshitAMA

8. Having weird skills you never would have considered a skill

According to my grandfather-in-law, knowing how to skin animals is important.

– ThePhotoClinic

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Wiping your ass right. Seriously.

My dad used to say if you can't even wipe your ass, don't even think about getting married.

-jaguilera10

Knowing how to sew. It's especially useful to know how to sew buttons back on.

-eDgAR-

9. Having common sense

Everybody's listing things because 'girls love a man who's handy!' or 'girls love guys who cook!'

The important thing to learn is how to be happy being alone and not base your happiness on what other people think of you. Self improvement is great and all, but if your only goal is to get other people to like you you'll probably end up disappointed a lot.

-dog_in_the_vent

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