Some day you will have the unique opportunity to talk to yourself from the future, don't blow it like I just did.
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Ask YC: What would you tell your younger self?
41–50 of 156 posts
Re: Ask YC: What would you tell your younger self?
#42Everything on Overcoming Bias - that's what it's there for.
Re: Ask YC: What would you tell your younger self?
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
"don't waste your college years" precisely...two chicks at the same time. don't blow it. College is the absolute best time to achieve this with just a bottle of vodka instead of needing to become a millionaire.
Am I allowed to disagree and say that I'm one of the rare males who doesn't find the prospect of sex remotely interesting unless I really care about the girl? I've tried getting shitfaced and hooking up, and even at my drunkest I find the prospect entirely repulsive. As a freshman: I'm not really into the whole "college experience" thing. I've been in better situations before. A friend and I are making our start-up,…
I am pretty much with you in your sentiments ;). I just made the post to add some humor.
Not just youth, but "now" is a great time for most things. Focusing on getting laid and getting drunk is not what youth is for. At the same time, being too serious and just trying to make money is also not the best thing (that's what I did throughout my 20s). I'm 40 and still learning how to find appropriate balance in life. At least by now I've realized that finding balance is the key.
So I guess if I had to seriously answer the OP, I would say to my old self "find the way of the tao."
Re: Ask YC: What would you tell your younger self?
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
"don't waste your college years" precisely...two chicks at the same time. don't blow it. College is the absolute best time to achieve this with just a bottle of vodka instead of needing to become a millionaire.
Am I allowed to disagree and say that I'm one of the rare males who doesn't find the prospect of sex remotely interesting unless I really care about the girl? I've tried getting shitfaced and hooking up, and even at my drunkest I find the prospect entirely repulsive. As a freshman: I'm not really into the whole "college experience" thing. I've been in better situations before. A friend and I are making our start-up,…
While I would not call it "entirely repulsive," the act of random sex has always been far less fulfilling for me. We are also some of the rare males who consider it possible to have "bad" sex. I collectively refer to us as: Connoisseurs ;)
That being said, I wouldn't call the average college student immature. The older I get, the more I realize that the line between "maturity" and "immaturity" is incredibly fine and not at all well defined -- and one can occasionally act immature while still maintaining maturity. It's not as simple as, "People who goof around and worry about nothing but sex and booze are immature while people who worry about making a living and reading leather-bound books are mature."
Strictly speaking, maturity in this case simply means "having reached an advanced stage of mental or emotional development characteristic of an adult." Now, given that stage, what you choose to do does not necessarily directly reflect on whether or not you've reached it. For instance, a mature person in college may realize that, all things being equal, their college years may well be the last they have to truly live care-free and without serious responsibility. Given this rationale, would you fault them for using that time to pick up random men/women, drink five nights a week, and generally just focus on having fun?
Now, if they continued this lifestyle after college perhaps they aren't mature enough to realize that they must now change their behavior in order to thrive under their new circumstances. Or, perhaps, they just don't give a damn. To me, maturity simply indicates that a person is fully aware of the ramifications of their actions and are willing to own those actions. I don't consider a 40 year old CEO any more mature than a 40 year old McDonald's worker, provided they both want to be where they are and know exactly how they got there. Would you say that Lester from American Beauty one day became immature or finally mature? Or neither? Or both?
Re: Ask YC: What would you tell your younger self?
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
"don't waste your college years" precisely...two chicks at the same time. don't blow it. College is the absolute best time to achieve this with just a bottle of vodka instead of needing to become a millionaire.
Am I allowed to disagree and say that I'm one of the rare males who doesn't find the prospect of sex remotely interesting unless I really care about the girl? I've tried getting shitfaced and hooking up, and even at my drunkest I find the prospect entirely repulsive. As a freshman: I'm not really into the whole "college experience" thing. I've been in better situations before. A friend and I are making our start-up,…
I completely agree, the first year was new and fun. Then the next year, and the following years come, and you realize that 95% of your classmates are still as immature as they were when you met them the first year.
Maybe it was just my school. I figured Stanford and other top schools would be different.
I have two semesters left and I will be leaving shortly to work on my startup full time.
Re: Ask YC: What would you tell your younger self?
#46I would probably say something along the lines of, "You've been lucky enough to be born in a time and place where there is nothing you cannot do; the world is there for the taking, so stop sitting around and go fucking take it already!"
To this day, I still don't take as much as I should. But, baby steps.
Re: Ask YC: What would you tell your younger self?
#47Buy Google stock.
Sell everything before Oct 2008.
Profit.
In college I would tell myself not to worry as much about grades, but to focus on a few projects of my own. Take more internships in different fields.
Re: Ask YC: What would you tell your younger self?
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
Am I allowed to disagree and say that I'm one of the rare males who doesn't find the prospect of sex remotely interesting unless I really care about the girl? I've tried getting shitfaced and hooking up, and even at my drunkest I find the prospect entirely repulsive. As a freshman: I'm not really into the whole "college experience" thing. I've been in better situations before. A friend and I are making our start-up,…
While I would not call it "entirely repulsive," the act of random sex has always been far less fulfilling for me. We are also some of the rare males who consider it possible to have "bad" sex. I collectively refer to us as: Connoisseurs ;) That being said, I wouldn't call the average college student immature. The older I get, the more I realize that the line between "maturity" and "immaturity" is incredibly fine and…
And there's an even finer line between immature and just fun-loving...
Re: Ask YC: What would you tell your younger self?
#49have more freedom in every way!!
Re: Ask YC: What would you tell your younger self?
#50Celebrate your failures. Insulate but donot isolate yourselves Ignorance is sin. Innocence is bliss.
Monospace your writing.