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Ask HN: What one thing would you tell your younger self?

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71–80 of 86 posts

Re: Ask HN: What one thing would you tell your younger self?

#71

"The adults in your world are lying to you. Yes, I said lying. LYING. The reason why they say what they say is to make their lives easier, not yours. They don't care for you as much as you think they do. They don't even care for each other as much as they say they do. They are lying. Even if it seems true, they aren't. They are just very good at lying to you and themselves. The world is big, huge, and interesting. Do…

Oh dear, you're not a parent are you. The reason adults lie is because we want our kids to experience the life we dream of, not necessarily the one we have. Or at least, the best bits of what we have, without the pitfalls that we know are there, drugs, debt, etc. We understand some of the things we did and do wrong, and what we do right, and we want to give them the tools to avoid making stupid mistakes and focus on…

Wow, in this case, I stand by my statement 'The world is big, huge, and interesting. Don't think its as small as the adults want you to think it is' even more strongly now.

"pitfalls that we know are there, drugs, debt....study or whatever"

Congratulations! Out of the infinite amount of things in the world that are good and the infinite amount of things in the world that are bad, this parent just taught the kid to worry ONLY about drugs, debt, and homework.

If there's one thing about children I can say without a doubt is that they are the ultimate copy machines. The thing they are completely focused on desperately trying to copy? Their parent.

So in reality, the best possible way for a parent to teach their children their dreams they want is to personally live those dreams. However, for 97% of people in this world, this so hard that they don't want to do it. Thus they choose the easier alternative - lying. This, ironically, then teaches the kid this technique as well since kids, well, copy them.

Re: Ask HN: What one thing would you tell your younger self?

#76
post #75
post #74

Don't spend so much time titting about on the internet when you are at work.... Oh :-(

Oh, and having kids is THE most completely awesome thing you will ever do, so don't be afraid of it.

And sleeping tablets and laxatives are not a good combo.

Re: Ask HN: What one thing would you tell your younger self?

#77
My parents encouraged me to be active and do interesting things, but every time I really started to get into something they seemed to get scared of me really committing to anything. It's like they were scared that if I tried really hard at something and failed, I would feel bad.

I would tell myself to go all in on whatever I was interested in, no matter how young I was. I would tell my parents to let me go hard at whatever I was interested in.

Re: Ask HN: What one thing would you tell your younger self?

#78
post #55

I am 21 now, but I would tell my 18 year old self to spend less time reading reddit/digg and start building more stuff. And also, finish your projects and focus!

Your future self asked me to tell you to spend less time reading HN and start building more stuff. And also, finish your projects and focus!

Hah! I knew someone would post this. And that's very true, I should spend less time on HN. That's why I have it blocked in my hosts file on my PC. So I can only access it from my phone :)
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