When I mention 'skills' in conversation sometimes people respond with 'well what about things like social skills and stuff, you engineers are always forgetting soft skills' and I thump my head against whatever blunt surface is handy because *duh!* social skills are important, so important that I forget that most people are going to assume I don't consider it part of the general category of skills.
Believe me, as someone who used to have a remedial-at-best level of social skills and suffered for it, I am only too painfully aware of how tremendously important social skills are to having a good life.
So, mostly to have a handy url I can link to when I use the word in future posts, here are some other categories and kinds of skills that I mean when I use the word skill in a general context:
Social skills, like being a good listener, conflict resolution, negotiation, creating connection quickly with people you just met, hosting dinner parties, picking up on how people in a group are doing and knowing what to do about it, and flirting.
Leadership and organization skills, like inspiring people with a common vision, delegating tasks in a way that makes people feel good about doing them, prioritizing things that need to get done, and keeping track of stuff so things don't fall in between the cracks.
Artistic and performative skills, like acting, dancing, making music, painting, comedy/telling jokes, public speaking, writing, and presiding over ceremonies and celebrations.
Emotional/psychological skills, like internal tracking, introspection, emotional control, the ability to self-diagnose and self-soothe, and combining these skills with social skills so e.g. the ability to perceive other people's emotional/psychological states and make good decisions about how to engage with them.
Intellectual skills, like how to read a book and form your own opinions and judgements about it, how to evaluate an argument, how to recognize common logical fallacies (ad hominem, strawman, the fundamental attribution error, etc), how to spot and avoid bias and blind spots in yourself and others.
Ecological skills, like how to listen to the birds, how to think about bioregions and watersheds, an understanding of energy balance in nature, which way is north, which way is home, how to not die in the woods from dehydration or hypothermia or starvation, and how to forage and grow food.
And, yes, Technical skills, like which end of a screwdriver to hold on to, the art of (dis)assembly, how to install Ubuntu on an old computer, fix a flat tire, or make cider out of the neighbor's apples (with whom you used social skills to develop a relationship with, which is why you have access to the apples in the first place...)
This is an indicative list, not an exhaustive one. Feel free to post more in the comments if you like. If these categories look like the seven categories of the Renaissance Ideal if you squint... well, yeah. They are, with the lines drawn a little differently.