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Don’t Waste Your Twenties

artofmanliness.com

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Re: Don’t Waste Your Twenties

#101

Post by shicky »

kylebrown wrote: post #96
graeme wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some people do need to hear this though. I spent ages 15-23 playing video games for hours. I could have learned programming in that time. (Probably would have, if someone had told me that programming existed) It was fun at the time, but not really fun to reminisce on (unlike partying, which I don't regret). If I could say two things to my younger self, 'ditch video games and do something with more value' would be the…

I've recently been appreciating Cal Newport's latest book "So Good They Can't Ignore You". Wish I was able to read it when I was younger, but like most I was caught up with the "find your passion" hypothesis. The book deconstructs this passion hypothesis for a fallacy, and prescribes a craftsman mindset ("what can I offer the world?") over a passion mindset ("what can the world offer me?"). Don't worry about finding…

very much enjoyed your comment, something I very much needed to hear. I myself am a comp sci graduate and I feel I have no programming skill whatsoever, especially now after almost 2 years of support work in banking. So essentially I feel like I've a software development degree and lack the skill to be a software developer. I've looked at my current passions and the Ira Glass quote also speaks directly to me as I'm looking at potential avenues and saying no, no, maybe with little to no actual experience of these avenues!

May I ask if you've always been a developer and this was limited to languages / paradigms or was this am I a DBA/Systems Analyst/Dev or perhaps even wider?

Re: Don’t Waste Your Twenties

#102

Post by leoedin »

bad_user wrote: post #90
graeme wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some people do need to hear this though. I spent ages 15-23 playing video games for hours. I could have learned programming in that time. (Probably would have, if someone had told me that programming existed) It was fun at the time, but not really fun to reminisce on (unlike partying, which I don't regret). If I could say two things to my younger self, 'ditch video games and do something with more value' would be the…

When speaking about learning stuff, some people are more ready to learn than others. Programming is tough. If you lack the patience and the passion and the resources, you aren't going to learn programming, no matter how many self-improvement articles you may read. I tried hard to learn programming since I was 12 years old. This was in 95 and I didn't have an accessible Internet connection or books and Linux was awful…

I completely agree. I didn't really do much programming until I was perhaps 17 or 18 because I found it tediously dull until then. In the time since then, I've taught myself a whole range of programming languages because I started to enjoy doing it. I'm not sure if I had to mature a little to get there, or whether the little forced programming I did in college gave me enough of a knowledge boost to make it fun. Now I do programming and electronics projects in my spare time because I enjoy them. I also go to clubs because I enjoy them. Is one of those a waste because it's not seen externally as constructive? I don't think so.

Re: Don’t Waste Your Twenties

#103

Post by leoedin »

jessriedel wrote: post #43
theorique wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Clearly. We should strive to be miserable and frustrated because that's a lot better.

We should strive for something greater than ourselves.

What does this even mean? Surely it's all relative, measured by our interpretation of what's great. I'm sure many theoretical physicists would consider their life work to be great, while many others would consider abstract theoretical physics with no practical application completely useless.

Personally, I aim to enjoy life and ensure that any children I have can do the same. I'm not sure if I'd see a point if there wasn't happiness in it for me. Fundamentally, we're fairly insignificant. Your interpretation of life is all you have. Why not be happy?

Re: Don’t Waste Your Twenties

#104

Post by kylebrown »

shicky wrote: post #101
kylebrown wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've recently been appreciating Cal Newport's latest book "So Good They Can't Ignore You". Wish I was able to read it when I was younger, but like most I was caught up with the "find your passion" hypothesis. The book deconstructs this passion hypothesis for a fallacy, and prescribes a craftsman mindset ("what can I offer the world?") over a passion mindset ("what can the world offer me?"). Don't worry about finding…

very much enjoyed your comment, something I very much needed to hear. I myself am a comp sci graduate and I feel I have no programming skill whatsoever, especially now after almost 2 years of support work in banking. So essentially I feel like I've a software development degree and lack the skill to be a software developer. I've looked at my current passions and the Ira Glass quote also speaks directly to me as I'm l…

Thanks, I'm glad typing that wasn't just for myself.

In college, my major was math and biochem (with an eye toward computational biology or computational chemistry). So no, I haven't always been a developer, my interests were very wide: everything from systems biology to quantum mechanics. So wide that I ultimately dropped out at the start of my senior year, rather than choose some specialty for graduate school. I don't regret that, since at least I have a couple friends who did go on to different grad programs (physical chemistry, molecular biology) and I still appreciate the independence and freedom that comes with dropping out.

Anyway, I always wanted to be more of a big picture / theoretical guy and sort of poo-poohed programming. I thought it was more important to have deep understanding of mathematical formulas and creative theoretical research ideas (the passion). But I've come to appreciate that implementing such formulas/ideas as code (the skills) is much harder than I imagined (as is any type of coding), and also the best way to gain a deep understanding.

So that's how I came back to programming in the past few years, which I always treated rather casually growing up (started with some visual basic in my early teens).

How did you end up in banking support work? Maybe thought it was an avenue to wall street quant/HFT work (wild guess)? In Cal Newport's book he does say there are certain jobs where the best option is to leave, eg when there's little opportunity for growth and learning (building "career capital"). But his overall point is to stop chasing a passion by looking for an expected dream job right out of college. Instead, develop it over time by earning and leveraging/parlaying career capital. Going through the motions, gaining experience, and developing valuable skills through hard work. You should check it out (I finally found a pdf online only the other day), sounds like it will be worth your read.

Re: Don’t Waste Your Twenties

#105

Post by irlib »

d0mine wrote: post #60
theorique wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Clearly. We should strive to be miserable and frustrated because that's a lot better.

People can have different priorities in life e.g., instead of "be happy everyday" one can choose to focus on "leave the world a better place".

isn't thought about better world make you happy?
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