Ask HN: What would you tell your younger self 10 years ago?

* Always care for your Health both Physical and Mental; this means proper Food and Rest along with a "Healthy Lifestyle". Your "Wellbeing" IS "You".

* Always keep yourself First i.e. try to garner an advantage in every situation. The "World" doesn't care about you one whit and thus you need to fight for what you want with everything that you have got. In "Human Societies" this takes many forms (eg. Power play, Negotiation, Politics etc.) and you need to be aware of them all. Learn to "Survive".

* Always make sure that you have some education/skill to earn you a steady income.

* Always save Money for a rainy day. Always live within your means.

* Try and become "Good" in something. This will give you a Goal/Meaning to your Life. Pursue "Knowledge for Knowledge's sake". Study "Philosophy".

* Our World is based on Consumerism and Unlimited Distractions; thus if you are not careful you can lose everything. Moderate your appetites and enjoyments. Simplify your Life.

I'd tell myself the exact opposite. Big companies are slow, it took around 2-5x longer to do something in a big company as opposed to a startup. Startups paid terribly but they really taught me to build stuff efficiently. Most of them die inevitably, so I feel no guilt for the experimental code moved into production.

A few points:

Synthetic clothes (ie manmade fibres like polyester) are mostly made of plastic which is really really bad for your skin and your hair, especially if you have eczema.

Non-synthetic clothes pack more bang for their buck when it comes to protecting you from the weather - a thin wool jumper does so much more than a bulky polyester one, a cotton top will let your sweat out which is so much better for both summer and winter, and so on.

Synthetic materials are often used because they are cheap so it serves as a good (but heavy handed) litmus test about the quality of garment, because if they've cheaped out on the material they have probably cheaped out elsewhere in the process.

Fire resistance - I wore a synthetic dress near a fire recently and as embers fell on me it literally just melted holes into it.

If you're interested do what I did - find all the cotton, linen and silk in your wardrobe and priortise wearing those clothes for a month. Then you will start noticing the synthetic clothes feel uncomfortable. Wool is also non-synthetic but a lot of people find it difficult to tolerate. Don't forget it's not just clothes, it's bedsheets too

1. Before anything, develop morals and emotional intelligence. That means no complaining, being more patient and more trusting that things will turn out well. Everyone says be more patient but you have to be a lot more patient. Impatience screws everything: gaming, relationships, career growth, spiritual growth. This is why every insists on meditating.

A good question to ask yourself is if some celebrity posted this on social media, would you respect him more or less? Vulnerability is also overrated.

Corollary: never put yourself in a situation where you can't afford to be patient. The greedy people will seem successful until they get screwed by The Pandemic.

2. The best investment is in yourself. Max out salary before thinking about stocks.

3. Read a company's Glassdoor before the interview.

4. Focus on one thing at a time until you have intuitive control over it (especially code).

5. Buy the Microsoft Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 as soon as you can afford it. You've been typing wrong your whole life.

6. Rule of thumb with cash investment is a 10x return. Rule of thumb with time investments is a 1x return within 2 years.

7. Don't work with/for anyone who you don't admire. Don't "settle". There are plenty of good people in the world and the best way to meet them is to become an upstanding person yourself. Following the bad ones will lead you into a pit of other bad people.

> 6. Rule of thumb with cash investment is a 10x return

Over what time period?