Advice • Hacker News Board

Re: Advice

#81

Post by poe876 » Thu, Jul 05, 2018, 3:26 PM UTC

themtutty wrote: post #55

CPLX wrote: post #32

One thing that I didn't do at that age and very much regret is to be really conscious of being healthy and physically fit. That's the right time to learn what you should and shouldn't put in your body, and how to be constantly active. There's a million different ways to accomplish that but it's important to find one. People at that age often don't really understand how closely linked physical fitness and mental healt…

And the general, consistent feeling of well-being and attentiveness is seductive - it makes you feel like it'll always be there, without any maintenance.

Health is fleeting. Human life is short and brutal, so eat away while sitting on your lazy arse, I say.

Re: Advice

#82

Post by tonyedgecombe » Thu, Jul 05, 2018, 3:26 PM UTC

m52go wrote: post #25

This is probably nit-picking, because I understand the intended message, but the "Aim to read a lot" bit gets me. I've always aimed to read a lot...but rarely manage to actually do it.

Perhaps it isn't that important to you then. Most people who read a lot do it because they like it, not because they feel it will improve their character in some way.

One of the things I like about getting old is I can let go of all those things I should be doing, in my case writing but in your case perhaps that's reading.

Re: Advice

#83

Post by tonyedgecombe » Thu, Jul 05, 2018, 3:31 PM UTC

alexggordon wrote: post #51

Something I've thought a lot about is how to educate people, specifically on a larger scale. In general I think it's a really underrated thought-space for tech people, probably because it's a hard problem that most likely won't make you a billionaire. However, in my thinking/reading about this issue, I've discovered that especially at the 10-20 age a lot of time you have to work towards making kids curious and encour…

specifically on a larger scale

It's scale that seems to kill education, in fact I sometimes wonder if there might just be too much of it.

Re: Advice

#84

Post by philip1209 » Thu, Jul 05, 2018, 3:38 PM UTC

CPLX wrote: post #32

One thing that I didn't do at that age and very much regret is to be really conscious of being healthy and physically fit. That's the right time to learn what you should and shouldn't put in your body, and how to be constantly active. There's a million different ways to accomplish that but it's important to find one. People at that age often don't really understand how closely linked physical fitness and mental healt…

I agree - it took me until ~25 to focus on my health. I've felt myself get younger and more energetic over the past few years.

Observing my family, I have realized how much exercise impacts your quality of life as you age. I've seen family blame "just getting old" for many symptoms of poor health choices, such as problems walking up stairs or type II diabetes. If they focused on health, they might be able to improve their quality of life significantly!

As a specific example - various studies have correlated the ability to stand up (or, doing a squat) not only with how long your life is - but also how long you will live independently. Extrapolating this - not only does exercise have the potential to extend your life, but it also extends how long you can continue to do what you want in life - such as traveling, walking, living alone, etc. Being specific - I know one 60-year-old who ran a half marathon last year, and another who can barely walk up the stairs to his bedroom.

I wish I had learned better health and exercise routines as a teenager!

Re: Advice

#85

Post by tonyedgecombe » Thu, Jul 05, 2018, 3:44 PM UTC

janvdberg wrote: post #47

"People who did great things often did so at very surprisingly young ages". This is very true, Gates was 19 (BASIC), Linus was 21 (Linux), Wozniak 25 (Apple I), Ada Lovelace 27 (first algorithm), Bill Joy 21 (vi), Andreessen 21 (Mosaic), Turing 24 (Turing machine) and so on.

Babbage 41 (Babbage machine), John Backus 30 (Fortran), Tim Berners-Lee 34 (World Wide Web), Fred Brooks 30 (IBM S/360), George Bool 32 (Symbolic Logic), Vannevar Bush 55 (memex, forerunner to hypertext), Vint Cerf 29 (TCP/IP), Alonzo Church 36 (Entscheidungsproblem) and so on.

Re: Advice

#86

Post by staunch » Thu, Jul 05, 2018, 3:44 PM UTC

Seems less like an answer to "How do I change the world?" than a rough description of what almost any intelligent person does in an idyllic environment.

It's very common for successful people to over-analyze their specific behavior rather than acknowledge the harsh reality of what actually separates them from others. A description of reality is both less flattering and seemingly less useful. But it does have the virtue of at least being real.

IMHO there are three major factors in changing the world:

#1 High general intelligence and ambition (genetics)

#2 Highly educated well-off parents (environment)

#3 Support of powerful people (opportunity)

You probably can't do much without at least one of these factors. Most people that do big things have all three.

Re: Advice

#87

Post by tonyedgecombe » Thu, Jul 05, 2018, 3:46 PM UTC

timmytwotime wrote: post #20

I think it takes a bit more time to cultivate lessons learned from the past decade. There were things that made sense to do ten years ago, but twenty years, thirty years, forty years (or more) on it becomes more obvious of the validity of the choices made. EDIT: for life-changing choices

Yes, I think you need some distance to look back objectively.

Re: Advice

#88

Post by tonyedgecombe » Thu, Jul 05, 2018, 3:48 PM UTC

LeicesterCity wrote: post #26

At ages 10-20 one has the time to go deep into many different subjects, would that be viable for someone late into the game (20-30s)? Or would they have to narrow the number of subjects they explore?

That statement is a bit of an oxymoron, you can't go deep into lots of subjects. You pick one and immerse yourself in it or you cover a wide range to a shallower depth.

Re: Advice

#89

Post by mychael » Thu, Jul 05, 2018, 3:51 PM UTC

As a Stripe Customer: Less life advice, more focus on making Stripe a better, easier to use product.

Re: Advice

#90

Post by tonyedgecombe » Thu, Jul 05, 2018, 3:52 PM UTC

vasilipupkin wrote: post #71

segmondy wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The things that make you feel happy and fulfilled today might be the very things that make you feel unhappy and empty tomorrow. The challenge is that most people can't tell till they find themselves in that unhappy state. My advice for any young person is to learn to think for themselves and figure out things for themselves. There is no magical advice out there that will work for everyone. The same thing that will tr…

nah. that's just too vague. Let's be more specific. Specifically, you are less likely to feel happy and fulfilled if you do not find something that you really enjoy actively doing. Actively working on something that is yours is more likely to make you feel fulfilled than sitting around the house after 9-5 work. But many people end up mostly sitting around the house, with occasional break for travel and vacations, etc…

Actually I think most happy and fulfilled people find that outside of work, risking your wellbeing on the whims of an employer or the current state of the job market is a fools errand.