Not exactly what you were asking for, but along those same lines. There are a set of skills which improve basically any career path--I've seen them called meta-

Not exactly what you were asking for, but along those same lines. There are a set of skills which improve basically any career path--I've seen them called meta-skills, or super skills. Off the top of my head: Leadership, Public Speaking, Persuasion, Writing, Storytelling, Design, Mental models, Systems thinking, Mental focus, Nutrition/Exercise, etc. Getting decently good at one (or more) of these won't take too long and will have immediate benefits to your current work and even your personal life. Maybe try to find some aspect of marketing that you are interested in; it's a large field full of topics I'd imagine programmers would find interesting.