Skills, skills everywhere

[Xplo]

Remember that in order to get even a default in a skill, you have to know something about it - so the fact that you know something about a skill doesn't mean you're not using it at default. Even if you've spent time studying the skill, you might not have a full point in it - and at 4e's resolution before Dabbler was introduced, that means no points.

Ditto for techniques. Just because you know how to kick someone, or apply an arm lock, or whatever, doesn't mean that you have extra points in Techniques; most likely it's just part of knowing the underlying skill (which, again, you might not even have a full point in). If you can get to the end of the sentence "I have 12 Techniques" without noticing a problem with the concept of having 12 narrow specializations, you're thinking about it all wrong.

Of course, I say this, and yet I'm an advocate for giving (for instance) moderately experienced drivers a point in Driving vs. those people who assume nearly everyone is operating at default. In any case, you can't assume that you have a point in every skill you know.