What are top lessons you learned the hard way between age 20 to 30? • Hacker News Board

Re: What are top lessons you learned the hard way between age 20 to 30?

#31

Post by patatino » Sat, Jul 03, 2021, 5:52 AM UTC

runjake wrote: post #14

I was young, smart, talented. People cheered for me, called me brilliant, said I was going to go places, gave me tons of opportunities. People help lifting the young and purportedly gifted. And I believed them, took those opportunities and and kept waiting for the next thing to happen. And they stopped coming. I got older and stopped being that young "prodigy" and people didn't really give a shit. Don't get me wrong,…

I wish people would teach young intelligent kids that hard work is equally important to be successful

Re: What are top lessons you learned the hard way between age 20 to 30?

#32

Post by arduinomancer » Sat, Jul 03, 2021, 6:31 AM UTC

quickthrower2 wrote: post #20

What I didn’t realise (and to be fair it didn’t exist as it does today) is how much developers don’t need business people to employ them. If you don’t have many responsibilities (ie no kids, no sick/poor relatives, no serious illness) you are pretty free to spend 5-10 years on starting your own thing. You might need to give up on luxuries you are used to: living in the city, living alone, take out, regular nights out…

Starting your own thing sounds really stressful though

Everyone I know who founded a startup works crazy hours non-stop

Is the lack of balance worth it?

Re: What are top lessons you learned the hard way between age 20 to 30?

#33

Post by stueynz » Sat, Jul 03, 2021, 9:24 AM UTC

Hmmm… between 20 & 30….

1. Being a rockstar dev means mgmt will cut you a lot of slack and overlook many sins. By the time you are 30 you will be “both too young and too old”

Too old to continue getting away with that jerk behaviour. Too young to know how to stop being that jerk.

I’ll admit I was a slow learner on that one

2. I had a major medical adventure my first year in uni.. I don’t finish with my bachelors degree until I was 22… the lesson is: progressing through life’s major transitions ( graduate uni, first job; first serious romantic relationship; kids etc..) happens at a different pace for many. It is not a competition to be married and kids on the way by age 28

Lessons learnt in my 50s: Recognise your younger Self in today’s crop of 20 somethings; enjoy their youthful exuberance and cut the jerks the same slack that the 50yo mgmt did to you

Re: What are top lessons you learned the hard way between age 20 to 30?

#34

Post by alltakendamned » Sat, Jul 03, 2021, 11:03 AM UTC

arduinomancer wrote: post #32

quickthrower2 wrote: post #20

What I didn’t realise (and to be fair it didn’t exist as it does today) is how much developers don’t need business people to employ them. If you don’t have many responsibilities (ie no kids, no sick/poor relatives, no serious illness) you are pretty free to spend 5-10 years on starting your own thing. You might need to give up on luxuries you are used to: living in the city, living alone, take out, regular nights out…

Starting your own thing sounds really stressful though Everyone I know who founded a startup works crazy hours non-stop Is the lack of balance worth it?

It is only crazy hours if you go for a start up with a goal of maximizing growth.

It is perfectly possible to start a sane business that focuses on providing its owners with a good life.

The nice thing about running your own business is that it is your own choice, as long as you don’t tie yourself up with large investments.

Re: What are top lessons you learned the hard way between age 20 to 30?

#35

Post by thepra » Sat, Jul 03, 2021, 11:23 AM UTC

I learned to identify and avoid propagandistic and conspiracy-theory contents after being an avid and gullible consumer of it

Re: What are top lessons you learned the hard way between age 20 to 30?

#36

Post by rozenmd » Sat, Jul 03, 2021, 1:48 PM UTC

arduinomancer wrote: post #32

quickthrower2 wrote: post #20

What I didn’t realise (and to be fair it didn’t exist as it does today) is how much developers don’t need business people to employ them. If you don’t have many responsibilities (ie no kids, no sick/poor relatives, no serious illness) you are pretty free to spend 5-10 years on starting your own thing. You might need to give up on luxuries you are used to: living in the city, living alone, take out, regular nights out…

Starting your own thing sounds really stressful though Everyone I know who founded a startup works crazy hours non-stop Is the lack of balance worth it?

VC money isn't the only path worth taking - and there are always ways to make it less stressful: https://onlineornot.com/how-to-handle-monitoring-solo-founde...

Re: What are top lessons you learned the hard way between age 20 to 30?

#37

Post by quickthrower2 » Sat, Jul 03, 2021, 9:17 PM UTC

arduinomancer wrote: post #32

quickthrower2 wrote: post #20

What I didn’t realise (and to be fair it didn’t exist as it does today) is how much developers don’t need business people to employ them. If you don’t have many responsibilities (ie no kids, no sick/poor relatives, no serious illness) you are pretty free to spend 5-10 years on starting your own thing. You might need to give up on luxuries you are used to: living in the city, living alone, take out, regular nights out…

Starting your own thing sounds really stressful though Everyone I know who founded a startup works crazy hours non-stop Is the lack of balance worth it?

I hate crazy hours! But I wouldn’t go down the VC root and I wouldn’t be trying to create the next Dropbox.

Re: What are top lessons you learned the hard way between age 20 to 30?

#38

Post by cosmodisk » Sun, Jul 04, 2021, 12:06 AM UTC

That more often than not, those in high positions, either in companies or politics, are often clueless about a lot of of things.

Re: What are top lessons you learned the hard way between age 20 to 30?

#39

Post by ceilingcorner » Sun, Jul 04, 2021, 7:40 AM UTC

Traveling, dating random people, etc. is mostly a waste of time. Invest time and effort finding the right partner and the right place to live early and build a life. “Chasing experiences” is mostly unfulfilling.

Re: What are top lessons you learned the hard way between age 20 to 30?

#40

Post by zzzpaz » Sun, Jul 04, 2021, 9:32 AM UTC

ceilingcorner wrote: post #39

Traveling, dating random people, etc. is mostly a waste of time. Invest time and effort finding the right partner and the right place to live early and build a life. “Chasing experiences” is mostly unfulfilling.

You tend to realize this after you've done this experiences. If you don't, you'd miss out something and somehow you will get it back later.

I know of people who got married before 20 yo, been together for a decade, got kids an all and after that one of the partner walked away because "I'm missing something out, I want find myself".

Traveling is a way to learn new culture and see things with a different lens so I'd definitely not remove that from the experience of person on their 20s