You probably overestimate the things that don't matter and underestimate the things that do.
Ask HN: What would you tell your 16-year-old self?
11–20 of 72 posts
Re: Ask HN: What would you tell your 16-year-old self?
#12Get away from the computer screen.
Re: Ask HN: What would you tell your 16-year-old self?
#13Do not compare yourself to others. Life is not a race. Read as much as you can. Learn about finances. Find a mentor. Pick one or two hobbies and seriously pursue them. Your smarts will take you nowhere. Become disciplined. Stop drinking sugary sodas. Steal money from dad and invest in Apple.
Re: Ask HN: What would you tell your 16-year-old self?
#14Personal connections matter oh, so much more, than you can conceive of at your age. Never permanently alienate anyone.
And do stuff. Otherwise, unless you are a publicist or salesperson, the knowing people thing creates opportunities but you have no way to capitalize on those opportunities or create your own identity.
Unusual successes is built on emphasizing strengths, not trying to eliminate weakness. People who achieve real success generally do so by being extremely good at at least one thing. If you are truly world class at something useful, you can achieve tremendous success.
The upper limit of a person's success, however, is almost always set by a weakness. This is inevitable, as it is extremely hard to see your true weaknesses, so don't obsess over your failings, therein lies the road to despair. But do keep an eye out for stuff you avoid or are afraid of, and if you get a chance, address it.
Re: Ask HN: What would you tell your 16-year-old self?
#15Do NOT do things because they may make you rich. When people say that kind of thing, I always imagined doing jobs I would hate, but that wasn't the case. Building machine learning models to play poker, doing quant work for a hedge fund, and co-founding startups were all a ton of fun and really interesting. That allowed me to rationalize the decisions.
I'm just now coming out of that 10-year streak. I knew when I was 16 that I wanted to do AI for medicine. At 28, I'm finally doing it.
Also, start rock climbing. You'll be such a bad ass at 28 with 12 years of experience. :)
Re: Ask HN: What would you tell your 16-year-old self?
#16Get away from the computer screen.
Hah! I've certainly been doing that more often, particularly this summer.
Re: Ask HN: What would you tell your 16-year-old self?
#17I would tell him to take a close look at his friends and figure out which ones are not good influences. You don't want any "idiots in your boat". I once heard a guy say this and it's so true:
"Show me your friends and I'll show you your future."
Re: Ask HN: What would you tell your 16-year-old self?
#18I'd say don't sweat it. Make sure to not focus too much on computers. Programming/entrepreneurship is great and interesting, but I know that I spent a lot of my early teens as a loner in front of my computer screen. Also, I'd say finish. Whatever it is that you do, finish it. Don't let abandoning stuff become a habit.
Thanks. This resonates with me.
Re: Ask HN: What would you tell your 16-year-old self?
#19Do not afraid to be failed. It is one of the ways to win by learning to your failure. One more thing.. make (appropriate) jokes.
Re: Ask HN: What would you tell your 16-year-old self?
#20Here's some meta-advice: most old people are filled with regret, and envy the young. They don't remember what it's really like to be a teenager. They probably don't even know what the real foundations of their successes and failures were. Be very careful following advice.
Instead you should try to find someone worth emulating, in their general attitude towards life.