What do you mean by "cool"? If you're including LW and the homecoming king in the same concept, well, that seems very broad.
The Homecoming King in question took philosophy classes at university while in high school, so he's sort of special. But yeah, this "coolness" I speak of is pretty broad, and means roughly the same thing as "generally desirable to know/affiliate-with/learn/&c.", with some moderate measure of personal contingency.
So, transferable skills: skills that, upon improvement, increase your ability in other areas (and also improve other, higher-level skills).
A basic example would be reading/writing. Knowing how to read and write allows one to access a huge amount of other skills and resources which are otherwise unavailable. A less obvious example would be clear speech (enunciation). Ability to speak clearly improves one's prospects in a lot of different areas (e.g. professional advancement, dating, etc.).
I'm looking for additional examples. Which skills did you find to be most transferable? Did you become proficient in X, and then found this helped you in many other areas of your life? Please share.
(I tried to find whether this was discussed before, and failed; if it was, I would appreciate the link.)