How do you avoid or identify a poisoned skill?

This is almost exclusively dependent upon personality. For me a skill’s value is directly proportional to what it enables. Poisoned skills are false promises, that is an ability that masquerades as something it isn’t.

For a long time I was a JavaScript programmer. The skill is qualified by what you produce and the quality of product. Does the product do what it claims, does it work well, is it portable, is it fast?

For most people in that line of work the primary qualifier of a skill was vanity, the appearance of doing work. As such everything was about social compatibility and tool fashion. I considered those poisoned skills.

Now that AI is becoming a thing expert beginners are falling out of favor in the work force. I may well be more valuable to my former line of work than I was when doing that work. I developed practical skills as opposed to just using tools.