Make friends. Keep friends.
Making new friends get much harder when you are older.
Ask HN: What is it like to be old? What advice would you give to younger people?
41–50 of 312 posts
Re: Ask HN: What is it like to be old? What advice would you give to younger people?
#421. Language is just a tool our species uses to act through others, invented as a necessary means to protect and manage children and that has evolved to other uses, but it is a narrow keyhole through which to experience the world, or to express it. Most suffering is an artifact of it, and most joy is inexpressible in it.
2. Regret is almost always about what you didn't do, and rarely about what you chose freely or decided yourself.
3. Understand the effect of compounding in every endeavour.
4. There is no 4.
Re: Ask HN: What is it like to be old? What advice would you give to younger people?
#43Physically, my best advice is to take good care of your back and your teeth. These 2 things can make a huge quality of life difference once you are past 40. I would also add your eyes, but there is not a lot you can do about that one! Almost everyone needs reading glasses by 40. Glasses suck, but you get used to it. Psychologically, the best I can say is to forgive yourself for any stupid things you did when you were…
Agreed on all accounts. Fighting your teeth, back, and weight sucks. You can't undo the damage of neglect to your teeth
Re: Ask HN: What is it like to be old? What advice would you give to younger people?
#44Be in service to someone or something without expecting anything in return. For me it is my dog.
Unless you don't like your dog, this ironically just sounds like an excuse for caring about no one but yourself.
Re: Ask HN: What is it like to be old? What advice would you give to younger people?
#45This seems like it isn't physically related, but it is: as the years accumulate, it becomes more and more clear that the person staring back at you in the mirror is the one you have to live with most intimately. Do the best you can with what you have, in all things, always. The person in the mirror will know whether it was the best you could, and he or she or they will also know whether you can be forgiven for any given action given what you had at the time. The biggest part of this is unkindness: If you are unkind, that person in the mirror will never let you forget it. You may not spend much time on this when you are young but you will spend a lot of time on it when you are older.
Re: Ask HN: What is it like to be old? What advice would you give to younger people?
#46Be cognizant of phony social pretexts. I can remember everybody saying I needed to go to college. I did but I don’t college to be a software developer. Go to college not because of some bullshit social pretext but because you honestly want an expanded education. Do the hard things first. Hard things get easier with practice but practice takes time. The easy things remain easy regardless of practice and just rob you o…
survivorship bias
Re: Ask HN: What is it like to be old? What advice would you give to younger people?
#47Make friends. Keep friends. Making new friends get much harder when you are older.
amen, impossible
Re: Ask HN: What is it like to be old? What advice would you give to younger people?
#48I've posted about this many times here and so have a lot of other people: If you're suffering from any chronic aches or pains especially back pain or RSI it may be TMS (though only a doctor can tell you that but you need to be informed). The internet and medical community is full of misinformed people who will fill your head about how a pinched nerve or a slipped disc can cause you immense pain and some doctor may ev…
I can only attest to back surgery being very, very risky and yet pushed as the obvious answer to severe back pain. An acquaintance of mine had failed surgery for a pinched nerve and his life went downhill fast.
Re: Ask HN: What is it like to be old? What advice would you give to younger people?
#49Trust no one, just because you work well with someone doesn’t mean they like you.
especially dont trust those you don't like that say "you should trust me"
Re: Ask HN: What is it like to be old? What advice would you give to younger people?
#50When I was younger, I could skip most of the homework because I learned enough during class. The mandatory assignments were sometimes finished quickly just before I had to turn them in. I didn't get the necessary practice and discipline to do independent work unless I did it for fun. This had to be learned the hard way when I grew older.
Same. In my experience, the relatively smart people in school who worked hard had more successful lives than the even smarter kids who didn't.