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Show HN: HeyFromTheFuture – Advice people wish they had at your age

heyfromthefuture.com

21–30 of 174 posts

Re: Show HN: HeyFromTheFuture – Advice people wish they had at your age

#21
Nice idea. But I feel like most things people wish they knew at a younger age aren't the sort of thing you can learn by reading a line of text. Most are behavioural things that you really have to experience.

Like you can't just say "be more confident" to someone. Or "do more exercise". Or "don't go into debt". No shit.

Re: Show HN: HeyFromTheFuture – Advice people wish they had at your age

#26

Hoo boy that's a lot of over-privileged suggestions right there. "hi, millennial who is working full time to make rent, now is the time to start your business!", "Why not take your family around the world?" It's a nice idea and the site works pretty well on mobile, but it sort of grinds my gears.

Actually all of these things are more achievable than you think. I have a relative who has a family of 5 (as in two adults and three young kids) and they've managed to travel the world the past several years on a high school teacher's salary.

It's all about your priorities/tradeoffs and how much work you're willing to put into it. They lead a very no-frills budget-restricted life, keep very minimal possessions, put effort into finding overseas teaching jobs in low cost-of-living areas, finding dirt-cheap travel deals, and honestly I think the kids getting all this early travel and cultural exposure is probably a big net win (vs e.g. prioritizing things like buying them the latest video game consoles and fashionable clothing, etc).

You could say the same for starting most small businesses. There are loans available to get up and running if you have a solid business plan and don't have awful/ruined credit, and many viable businesses can be "pay my bills" profitable fairly quickly. You won't make as much excess cash as getting on the corporate treadmill and doing well, at least not earlier on, but you do reap the rewards of being your own boss and learning a suite of skills that's much rarer, and over time even the small business world can eventually become quite lucrative if you want it to be.

Re: Show HN: HeyFromTheFuture – Advice people wish they had at your age

#27
post #26

Hoo boy that's a lot of over-privileged suggestions right there. "hi, millennial who is working full time to make rent, now is the time to start your business!", "Why not take your family around the world?" It's a nice idea and the site works pretty well on mobile, but it sort of grinds my gears.

Actually all of these things are more achievable than you think. I have a relative who has a family of 5 (as in two adults and three young kids) and they've managed to travel the world the past several years on a high school teacher's salary. It's all about your priorities/tradeoffs and how much work you're willing to put into it. They lead a very no-frills budget-restricted life, keep very minimal possessions, put e…

> all of these things are more achievable than you think

Perhaps one of them is achievable, but only at the cost of a very high level of focus - and giving up on the others.

Travel is certainly a lot easier to achieve when you're young, and in many places cheaper (e.g. Interrail tickets, which I would recommend to anyone looking to see a lot of countries in a short time)

Re: Show HN: HeyFromTheFuture – Advice people wish they had at your age

#28
post #2

I like the idea, some thoughts.. Every year seems a little much? Maybe at young age, but 21/22/23 doesn't really make that much of a difference, or even 40/45 The advice should be written for the perspective of the reader not the writer: "Hey 13 year old, don't stop learning how to play piano" How would that help a 13 year old? Something like "Hey 13 year old, I stopped playing the piano at your age and now I'm regre…

Cultivating remaining flexibly young minded and and open minded is far more accurate than age. Closemindedness and fear exists at each age group.

On the other hand, age might be used as a way to self identify a spot in the site. As children we are raised by age and grade to measure where we are, should be and headed. It's a form of subtle conditioning we do not have a choice in until it begins to wear off in one's 20's or 30's.

Re: Show HN: HeyFromTheFuture – Advice people wish they had at your age

#29

Great site! Was fun reading through. Out of curiosity I skipped to age 81 and saw > Hey 81 year old, You've got one good year left... maybe Ouch! That one sucks

Yeah many of them are quite silly, I’m not really sure what the value is of the site. I perused several in my age group, and they were just clichés.
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