# skill (10-skill.com)

A skill is something a person learns and gets good at through practice. People talk about job skills, social skills, or life skills like cooking or driving.

## What a model may hear
- voice app extension (Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant): treat it as a third-party module that handles voice commands and may need invocation by name
- ML model capability (machine learning research): assume a benchmarkable task the model can be fine-tuned or evaluated on
- game ability or talent tree node (RPGs and game design): read it as a unlockable player power with cooldowns, levels, or prerequisites
- skill-based routing (call centers and customer service software): route a request to an agent tagged with matching expertise

## Where people and models part ways
- Says: "I want to build a skill"
  Means: the person wants to learn something new
  May be taken as: the model assumes they want to code an Alexa skill or game ability
  Say instead: "I want to learn a new ability"
- Says: "What skills do you have?"
  Means: the person wants to know what the model can help with
  May be taken as: the model lists technical capabilities or pretends to have software plugin features it does not have
  Say instead: "What kinds of tasks can you help me with?"
- Says: "Rate my skills"
  Means: the person wants feedback on their abilities
  May be taken as: the model assumes a request for automated scoring of a machine learning benchmark
  Say instead: "Give me feedback on how good I am at this"
- Says: "Add this skill"
  Means: the person wants to note something they learned
  May be taken as: the model tries to install a plugin or modify a configuration it cannot access
  Say instead: "Help me list something I learned"

## Tips
- Say 'learn' or 'practice' instead of 'skill' when you mean human learning
- Say 'Alexa skill' or 'voice app' if you mean the Amazon platform
- Say 'capability' or 'feature' if you want to know what the model can do
- Say 'ability' or 'power' if you are talking about games
- Avoid 'skill' as a verb; say 'get better at' instead

## Often confused with
- ability: broader, less tied to learned practice
- talent: implies natural gift, not trained
- expertise: deeper, more formal mastery
- competency: workplace assessment jargon
- feat: one-time achievement, not ongoing capacity
- plugin: software add-on, not human knowledge