Ask HN: What's Your Biggest Regret?

I am 33 years old haven't gotten a programming job yet. I could be making so much money now if I'd done it years ago. I'm hoping to finally make that change in the next few months.

But I couldn't stick to one language or specialization, I have a bunch of half-working projects and nothing finished. I kept switching depending on what interested me at the time. And I kept putting it off due to poor mental health and travel.

I'll never catch up to people that started in their early 20s, but I hope I can figure out how to climb the ladde as quickly as possible.

If I could go back I would finish one thing before starting another.

I also wish I had studied computer vision at uni instead of being the idiot teenager that did game development.

Same here. Mid thirties. Friends are running successful companies, making 6 figures, in early retirement. I'm still living in a small apartment struggling with a Swiss cheese resume.

My advice to others: don't think "I'm still young, there's still time." Push push push today! You will rapidly run out of time. All through my twenties I did various jobs, I thought that great software job was just around the corner. Turns out it's not that easy and when you're older people expect a lot more from you.

For any thing I might wish had been different, there was a reason, whether I know it or not, that I did something that looks bad. I've become more able to accept my past even though things look quite bleak to me these days. In that past I learned some things that give me ideas of what I want to do now, and I'm grateful for that.

Instead of wasting all my money in my 20s it would've been much smarter to save it as I would be a lot more well of today than I am currently.

These comments are a nice reminder that my time on this earth is my most precious asset.