Epistemic Status: Abstract claims, but grounded in data science... though the data science is somewhat stale. I wrote this on March 5th of 2026 based on memories of work I did and methods applied circa 2017, and pushed it out for publication after realizing that maybe there is appetite for it, after I saw this post.

Suppose we took a snapshot of each person in the US, and made a list of their "skills", as one might do with a D&D character.

I would like to report on what I expect would happen if this was attempted in real life, and why (until I get to the point that you understand the title of the essay about "Budgeting" skills being Important a little ways in).

I haven't done this recently, with modern data, but I felt that this was likely to be something in my brain that most people don't know about, and worth an article.

At the end of the essay there will be a call to action! I want to start at least one study group in the SF bay area to "Level Up Budgeting" so I could attend somewhere face to face and talk about books [...]

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Outline:

(01:22) Object Level Skill Discussion

(01:26) First, The Boring Skills

(03:05) Second, The List Of Skills

(05:59) Third, The Serious Lumping Begins

(08:36) Fourth, Lumping The Skills With Math?!?

(10:53) Fifth, Seeking Betweeneness Centrality Youll Find Budgeting

(12:21) Sixth, Meditations On The Betweenness Centrality Of Budgeting

(15:24) A Sort Of A Methods Section

(18:47) A Call To Action: Study Groups

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First published:
April 19th, 2026

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/HNTm6zgCDoFDSJo6e/the-budgeting-skill-has-the-most-betweenness-centrality

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.