Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: What is something important I should start doing in my 20s?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 160 posts

Re: Ask HN: What is something important I should start doing in my 20s?

#121

Post by omosubi »

omeze wrote: post #57

3 things: Build a reading habit. Books have evolved as a central tenet of knowledge preservation of societies for a reason - they contain a lifetime of wisdom in a few hours of consumption. Read books that are 10+ years old, like High Output Management, The Mythical Man Month, and Good Strategy / Bad Strategy. They’re written by people who have done great things and condensed great lessons, don’t underestimate the de…

Regarding books: the older, the better. There's a reason they're still around. Read the classics.

Other advice: consistency is key to be good at anything. It's better to do 5 or 10 minutes a day every day than once a month for a full day.

Other comments in this thread mention therapy: i had a very mediocre experience with therapy and think a lot of therapists dispense advice that follows cyclical social trends. If you sense this, run. It took me a while to realize this. Also I think most people wouldn't need therapy if they ate right, exercised, had a half decent job and had a handful of close friends/a spouse they got along with. This might sound cynical but i think a lot of what people are missing can't be replaced by therapy. Some things can be resolved but most can't and you just have to be constantly improving as a person.

Re: Ask HN: What is something important I should start doing in my 20s?

#123

Post by cercatrova »

jakelazaroff wrote: post #58

As someone who just entered his 30s, here’s my list of things I’m glad to have done or wish I had done (sooner): Start investing. You don’t have to learn a ton about picking stocks — start by consistently putting money into a robo-advisor like Wealthfront or Betterment. This compounds; a small amount of money invested now will be more impactful than a large amount of money invested later. If your job offers a 401k, c…

> Wealthfront or Betterment

You don't even need either of these since they charge fees on top of a regular fund. Just put it into a total stock market index, usually this will be VTI, by Vanguard.

Re: Ask HN: What is something important I should start doing in my 20s?

#124

Post by aynsof »

markus_zhang wrote: post #106

1. See if you are into exercising. Find something you love. Not everyone love weoghtlifting or jogging so try to find something you enjoy and better if you find a partner. The point is from my experience himan vitality does not decrease continuously buy drops sharply after certain age. On my side it was 28 and 35. 2. Take care of joints and teeth. Once they degenerate it's impossible to reverse the process. 3. Get fi…

I'd adjust 6 to read:

Be very mindful and careful about which drugs you take.

Do your research (e.g. on Erowid) and know that while some drugs can have amazing, long-term benefits, others can be an easy way to downward spiral out of society. I'd include LSD and MDMA in the former category; opioids, amphetamines, and cocaine in the latter.

There's also a category of 'casual' drugs which require discipline if you want to enjoy the benefits and avoid the pitfalls. I'd include alcohol and marijuana in this category, but I realise this is a very personal thing. Just be aware that there can be serious risks to these which aren't fully captured by their normalised place in society.

Re: Ask HN: What is something important I should start doing in my 20s?

#125

Post by ElCapitanMarkla »

aynsof wrote: post #124
markus_zhang wrote: post #106

1. See if you are into exercising. Find something you love. Not everyone love weoghtlifting or jogging so try to find something you enjoy and better if you find a partner. The point is from my experience himan vitality does not decrease continuously buy drops sharply after certain age. On my side it was 28 and 35. 2. Take care of joints and teeth. Once they degenerate it's impossible to reverse the process. 3. Get fi…

I'd adjust 6 to read: Be very mindful and careful about which drugs you take. Do your research (e.g. on Erowid) and know that while some drugs can have amazing, long-term benefits, others can be an easy way to downward spiral out of society. I'd include LSD and MDMA in the former category; opioids, amphetamines, and cocaine in the latter. There's also a category of 'casual' drugs which require discipline if you want…

“Everything in moderation” ;)

Re: Ask HN: What is something important I should start doing in my 20s?

#126

Post by kuhewa »

behnamoh wrote: post #27
buss wrote: post #12

Hire a trainer and learn how to weightlift. You may have been a nerd like me that thought weight lifters were wasting time on vanity, but as you age your body will betray you. You need to learn how to stay fit or you will end up with myriad health issues and end up unhappy. A trainer is essential for a new lifter. It is easy to hurt yourself, and you need to work on good form for years before it becomes second nature…

How about cardio activities? I think those contribute more to getting rid of unhealthy fat and cholesterol, but I may be wrong.

Ideal would probably be a mix of resistance training, maximal intensity-metabolic conditioning work (sprints/HIIT/plyometrics), and low intensity steady state cardio (i.e. zone 2, cardio at the pace.you can hold a conversation). Each has unique benefits.

Re: Ask HN: What is something important I should start doing in my 20s?

#127

Post by Aicy »

netizen-936824 wrote: post #105
serjester wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A trainer can be amazing but I wouldn’t call it necessary, especially for someone young. They can get expensive and the op would get a lot of value from starting weight lifting imperfectly now than potentially waiting years to be in the financial position to hire a coach. There’s so many fantastic resources online. Just stay away from Olympic style lifts and be careful with compound movements.

Definitely start with a trainer. They can enforce good technique and give you the basics of nutrition and mesocycle planning. I personally regret not starting with a trainer, as I'm now fixing issues that I reinforced because I didn't have the proper external feedback.

Implying people need to start with a trainer is pointlessly exclusionary.

When I started training I couldn't afford a gym membership so primarily did bodyweight training at home, so a trainer was just completely off the radar as an option.

Sure, once I could afford the gym I could train a lot better, and the may have neen true if I could afford a trainer on top, but I couldn't.

Re: Ask HN: What is something important I should start doing in my 20s?

#129

Post by muzani »

Decide where you want to be after you retire. If you want to lie on a beach all day or travel the world, it's probably easier to get a job that lets you do that instead of waiting for later. In many cases you can achieve your goals with an order of magnitude less savings, and often optimizing for higher income may be counterproductive.

Re: Ask HN: What is something important I should start doing in my 20s?

#130

Post by ix101 »

anonymoushn wrote: post #9
SecurityMinded wrote: post #7

Start saving for retirement. Every $100 you can put in to your retirement savings per month will come back to you at least 30-40 times over when you retire at 65 or may be even earlier.

it doesn't seem responsible to promise people 9% returns in perpetuity! a lot of the time this advice is given to people who are paying higher rates on debt, which also seems troubling.

A 30-fold return is achievable with just over 7 percent average return after 5 decades. No guarantees of course but with diversified investments it's probably not much of a stretch. Stock Market crashes have typically recovered relatively quickly and continued on up.
Post reply on HN