I once thought I'd skip learning to cook, thinking I'd specialize in something else and trade money for someone else's cooking. I've since learned to cook moderately well, and there are benefits:

• Much better control of your nutrition
• It impresses people; I can create dinner dates and dinner parties
• It's tradable; you can swap your cooking for people doing other chores or buying food
• Cooking is an activity with enjoyable depth, satisfying geeky tendencies to learn
• Cooking is easy to learn, giving you success spirals
• You can influence the nutrition of those close to you