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.)
Second this anecdote, and also the parent. I think depending on how you intend to apply it, you may be more or less observant of the short term effects of meditation, esp. mindfulness.
Anecdotally, sitting shikantaza style (just sitting, subtle attention to posture, returning from daydreaming or distraction when you're aware it's happening) has so far had two effects - short term I've found some immediate benefit in terms of being able to apply attention (which was a goal for me), over the span of 1-2 years I've (subjectively) noticed changes in how I react and make decisions which have been re-enforced by other peoples observations.
Further to this I've noticed it's easier to apply some learnings, for example techniques from less wrong. Internally it feels as if there's a longer period after an event happens to internalise and construct a response, instead of an immediate / knee jerk reaction.