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Ask HN: What's Your Biggest Regret?

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461–470 of 570 posts

Re: Ask HN: What's Your Biggest Regret?

#461
post #365

Always had an obsessive personality. Raised Christian. Always had a bent for pushing boundaries. Got interested in the nuerochemistry of psychoactive substances. Got very involved in educating myself about drug usage, until I was finally comfortable trying them. Queue ~6 years of polysubstance abuse, wasted money, and fake ass friends. Did everything under the sun I could get my hands on. I think the list of unique d…

Fwiw it's hard to make friends for everybody after college life

For me, hockey was the biggest help.

I met many friends through having season tickets for my local NHL team, met friends playing adult "beer league" hockey, met friends traveling for away games in different cities, and I even have friends internationally whom I've never met in person but still remain in contact with.

Re: Ask HN: What's Your Biggest Regret?

#463
post #429

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a shame he never took the advice to heart. Jobs' last days were unnecessarily painful for both himself and his family, who desperately tried helping him only to be pushed away and insulted. Jobs was good at echoing the wisdom of people smarter than him, but not so great at using those principles to fix his own life.

> Jobs was good at echoing the wisdom of people smarter than him, but not so great at using those principles to fix his own life. This applies to most people.

Yep, my favorite philosopher, Alan Watts basically died from alcoholism. Though, I am not sure whether his teachings would condone that or not for I have seen a few people argue either way.

Re: Ask HN: What's Your Biggest Regret?

#464

I wish I had asked my dad more things and recorded/wrote them down . My old man is in for stage 4 cancer and it gets harder to ask him things. Every little tidbit of info he gave me over the years I cherish greatly, but I often times (read: nearly always) forget the context or nuance of the statement, meaning that, of the thousands of moments I’ve had with him, only a select few are ones that provide me any insight i…

Im seriously considering asking my father to sit down with me and record all his stories I loved to hear growing up. I am not sure why, but I feel "uncomfortable" in some ways asking it. I know I will regret it one day when I am older and his gone, but I struggle to find the courage to ask for some reason.

Re: Ask HN: What's Your Biggest Regret?

#465
post #450

Not learning how to invest my money in early 20’s instead of spending it all on crap I didn’t need and not having the foresight to know I could have been in a much better position today financially had I just put my money away in the market rather than lighting it on fire with stupid material purchases that are in a landfill somewhere today. If you are young and have an income stream, do your future self a favor and…

Weren't your purchases impacted the quality of life you had at the moment? I don't know your particular context, but living in the moment vs. preparing for future is an old and common theme to many (i.e. almost all) of us, and buyer's remorse is a real but unfair frame of thought to judge ourselves. Also, investment requires discipline and foresight (intelligence) that come a bit later, as we grow. I for one, am glad for acquiring the benefits of that growth when I did, although it didn't hurt to have had it earlier.

Re: Ask HN: What's Your Biggest Regret?

#466
post #285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm a developer, and a decent one - not FAANG level by any means, but decent This statement rubs me the wrong way. What does that mean being "FAANG level"? It's either a misconception of what is going on there or underestimating yourself... Or both

> What does that mean being "FAANG level"? Money. Lack of talent at the job, or lack of ability to perform in their notoriously-grueling interviews (I'm brain-dead after ~2 hours of a normal interview battery, personally) means that a whole lot of devs can never make FAANG-tier money, because they can't hack it at the job, because they can't hack it at the interview for one or more of several reasons, or because bein…

That's the ego of software developers speaking. The presumption that there's a strict hierarchy of competence based on what company you've worked at is a dumb and arrogant idea imo. Sure you might've passed a tough interview test, but you're doing CRUD that every else does, so putting devs onto that ladder is silly especially when the interview does not reflect how well one does at the job/getting results, with all it's variances and challenges.

Re: Ask HN: What's Your Biggest Regret?

#467
On a similar theme with others, not enjoying my youth. Well, I'm still 21, but I'm strongly career focused. Didn't go to college or university. I'm very socially isolated and miserable despite raking in money working in software. I act about 10 years older than my age so when I do meet people my own age I struggle to relate. I tried filling the emptiness with money, psychedelics, and various substances but it didn't make the situation any better.

Would it have been better to go to university just for the social experience? I don't know. Is signing up for a mountain of debt worth it to build a network? Some university students would surely kill to be in my position, so do I have a right to feel like this?

I feel like a broken person and I don't really know how to turn things around. I think the "just go to clubs" advice is overprescribed and in my experiences it's just people way older than me that attend anyway. The door to social circles is locked and triple bolted now that I'm in the working world.

Re: Ask HN: What's Your Biggest Regret?

#468
Not being able to form relationships quickly.

Feeling the need to be entirely self-reliant and not asking for help or admitting difficulty.

Not asserting my preferences, even though I had no problem asserting rights and formal entitlements.

Lacking sexual confidence in high school.

Re: Ask HN: What's Your Biggest Regret?

#470
post #333

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe this is a stupid question, but why is it unrentable? Could you AirBnB it?

I don't think it's a good idea to do that without insurance, personally. Though paradoxically if it burned down it probably would be worth more. I'm more worried about personal liability if someone hurts themselves.

Doesn’t Airbnb provide insurance?
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