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Ask HN: What were/are you doing at age 25? What would you change?

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Re: Ask HN: What were/are you doing at age 25? What would you change?

#31

Post by mkempe »

rossboss wrote: post #5
mkempe wrote: post #2

State at 25: Pursuing a PhD, in large parts because I won a non-negligible prize for my Masters thesis and the non-PhD billionaire prize-maker encouraged me to pursue academics instead of business; also, nobody in my family had ever pursued a PhD. Overall a waste of many, many years. Should have followed his example, not listened to his words. Advice: Don't waste your time with academics and the petty politics of uni…

What would you say to someone who is around that age working full time and halfway through a CS masters (struggling through it)?

Most crucially: why are you doing it? Second: what will it add to your life and to your business abilities?

Re: Ask HN: What were/are you doing at age 25? What would you change?

#33

Post by paulgb »

- The stakes will never be this low again, so if you want a change (new city, job, relationship, etc.) make the jump.

- Make a diverse friend group. If you're in tech your college and work friends will generally be part of the same monoculture and it gets boring if you can't escape it. Non-technical hobbies are important too.

- Be active. Once you're in your mid 20s health isn't something you can take for granted.

- Don't stop reading just because you're out of college and nobody is forcing you to anymore.

Re: Ask HN: What were/are you doing at age 25? What would you change?

#34

Post by kenneth »

Spent most of 25 having freshly broken up by my long-term girlfriend and quit my job, flying around the world in first class on miles & points, while doing a bit of consulting work and investing, and a lot of spending down my savings (mostly by angel investing all of it).

I don't regret any of it. Grew up quite a bit, doubled how much of the world I'd seen (and I started out already being well-travelled), and got to know myself a bit better by opening up to more new people and relationships than I had in years prior.

Re: Ask HN: What were/are you doing at age 25? What would you change?

#36

Post by code_scrapping »

Finished my masters and working my first software eng job at a mid-sized company. Had loads of money (relative to my needs back then), bought my first car, I decided that it was too boring and wanted to challenge myself. Enrolled in a PhD program the following year.

Advice to myself - better work out a balance between all the different sides of life.

Re: Ask HN: What were/are you doing at age 25? What would you change?

#37

Post by m00s3 »

I had been working on a really cool map viewer tool for Windows 3.1. It had a C backend doing the rendering and map file parsing (Intergraph design files, PITA to parse), and a VB3 UI. It was a huge improvement on existing tools for viewing IGDS files at the time. I saw it demo'd on stage at a MS dev conference in front of Steve Balmer. Basically peak of my career. In 1994. After that I quit the job, for no good reason. Moved across the country, and did next to nothing for a couple years. And I regret that decision every day since.

Re: Ask HN: What were/are you doing at age 25? What would you change?

#38

Post by diamondo25 »

I'm 25 and I should say: invest more money, take risks. And think about your health. If you got money, try to get personal fitness asap. It can only improve you and your body. Oh, and take more risks. Years go by fast and investing in stuff that give you a fixed interest is better than putting it (and keeping it) on your bank account.

Re: Ask HN: What were/are you doing at age 25? What would you change?

#39

Post by throwaway413 »

tptacek wrote: post #11

I had just moved to Ann Arbor and started at Arbor Networks after the failure of the first company I founded. My son was 2 years old and my daughter had just been born. I'd have done a much better job handling my personal relationships. Nothing I did at age 25 had really any material impact on my career. I liked A2 and the people I worked with at Arbor but I can sum the career value up as "can occasionally write an a…

25 years old right now, 3 year old son, and my marriage just ended several months ago. Not my choice. Would have done anything. Hardest time of my life.

Re: Ask HN: What were/are you doing at age 25? What would you change?

#40

Post by hpcjoe »

mkempe wrote: post #2

State at 25: Pursuing a PhD, in large parts because I won a non-negligible prize for my Masters thesis and the non-PhD billionaire prize-maker encouraged me to pursue academics instead of business; also, nobody in my family had ever pursued a PhD. Overall a waste of many, many years. Should have followed his example, not listened to his words. Advice: Don't waste your time with academics and the petty politics of uni…

This ^^.

I got a masters at one U, and was ensconced at another U for the Ph.D. by then. Actually that was the year that I started at the new U, and they told me, 2 weeks before I started, that they expected me to take and pass the Ph.D. qual exam. Which was in 2 weeks.

I did, but it was not a fun 2 weeks.

That was ... er ... ah ... 28 years ago.

I've used the Ph.D., outside of press releases and presentations, mebbe a few times since then. Has nothing to do with my career.

My advice to people considering Ph.D.'s ... if you seriously want to be called Dr., then sure. If you want to pursue tenure track, have your head examined, and then sure. Just remember, similar odds to lottery games. If you want to do industrial research, sure.

I actually wrote about this recently, with some observations about Ph.D.s in industry[1].

More seriously, I do occasionally reflect upon the opportunity cost, the lost earning time, lost wages, the later start to my family, ...

[1] https://scalability.org/2018/07/typecasting-and-the-trust-us...

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