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

I was writing COBOL for a banking software firm. I wouldn't change it, it's been a good ride.

BTW, I waited 'till early 30s to get married. I think that was a good decision, too.

At 25 I got the first job I was good enough enough to have a real positive impact in my company. I'd been programming video games since I was 7, then got my first professional job at 16. Building business software in the late 90s exposed me to a bewildering sea of horrible technologies, overcomplicated architecture and process, and a lot of people much older than me pretending they knew what they were doing--and I didn't know any better at the time. The software world at that time was beige, mean, boring, and way, way too complicated. Moats at this time consisted of massive proprietary projects with vendor lock-in the main objective. The magic of the tight knit 80s hacker scene the had enchanted me as a child had faded and the excitement of the post dot-com bust was still to come.

But the dot com bubble burst and just a few shitty years later I turned 25 just as a new era was starting, there was so, so much I had still to learn, but now I had 18 years under my belt and secured a senior position at an energy company a few days after my 25th birthday. I wrote an important control system, the first program I'm still somewhat proud of/not completely embarrassed by over the next few months, today the oldest software I have written still in production now, 11 years later. It was the start of a beautiful age of software development, of increasing simplicity, openness, and kindness, and the world we developers live in has bloomed with color and been framed in elegant design. The logos of the companies we work for, our offices, our computers, our IDEs and our code are a delight for the senses. Code has bled into popular culture, and the social stigma that being a programmer once carried has been replaced by a certain amount of respect. It is an amazing time right now to be a programmer, and at 25 you missed a lot of misery.

Having said that if I could go back I'd say to myself, enjoy yourself more. Figure out where you want to live and move there as fast, put down roots, make good friends. Friends get very difficult to make past your 20s. Don't waste your time on people/projects/technology/companies/features that aren't worth it. The greatest asset you have is time, it is easy when you have so much to squander it. Get really good at your core skills. A job you are really good at and people respect you for is 1000% more fun than the same job you suck at.

25... that was 8 years ago.

I was studying computer science, working at a small software company.

I had an open relationship with my girlfriend of that time, but she didn't like it.

What would I tell myself?

Don't start relationships with people who don't approve of your lifestyle. I only do polyamory now and stopped dating monogamous women entirely 5 years ago.

Also, don't let people who don't really know you tell you what you can and can't do. I had a bunch of such nay-sayers at work/university.

Do your own thing, but try to become good at it. People have houses and children? Who cares! Define your markers of success, but don't use them to hide from work. You won't be happy if you live under a bridge just so you can tell people "getting rich isn't my thing", you will onl be happy if you really believe in your life choices

Try something, get exhausted, take some time off, then get involved in something else.

Rinse and repeat until dead.

At 25 I just moved sideways from doing embedded software development to web application development prior to the dotcom boom.

That led to solid IT skills and a very interesting career. I don't think I'd change anything.

Biggest piece of advice would be to save half of what you earn. (or try and live off half of what you earn) At 25 I'd just become debt-free, but it took me a while to figure out how to reduce my tendency to spend whatever I earned.

If you could do that, then at 40, your expenses are covered by what you earn in investments. That frees you immensely.

Oh, and take time out to enjoy it all. That's key.