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Don’t Waste Your Twenties

artofmanliness.com

41–50 of 105 posts

Re: Don’t Waste Your Twenties

#41
post #5

I hate these kinds of articles because they can put tremendous pressure on people. There isn't a "right" way to spend your twenties (or thirties, or any decade) and comparing yourself to Einstein and Newton and Kepler like this article does is worse than counterproductive. The only way you should concern yourself with living is to try to be happy every day, whatever that means to you. Listening to pundits showing you…

> The only way you should concern yourself with living is to try to be happy every day, whatever that means to you. Barf. There's a lot more to life and human flourishing than just making yourself happy.

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

Re: Don’t Waste Your Twenties

#42
post #11
post #5

I hate these kinds of articles because they can put tremendous pressure on people. There isn't a "right" way to spend your twenties (or thirties, or any decade) and comparing yourself to Einstein and Newton and Kepler like this article does is worse than counterproductive. The only way you should concern yourself with living is to try to be happy every day, whatever that means to you. Listening to pundits showing you…

Especially idiotic are the random references to successful people. As if not "wasting" your 20s (whatever that means) would somehow improve your odds to become the next Einstein. If you happen to be the next Einstein then I firmly doubt reading baseless self-improvement drivel makes a difference towards realizing or not realizing your potential.

Great point! :)

My quote of the day too!

Re: Don’t Waste Your Twenties

#43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The only way you should concern yourself with living is to try to be happy every day, whatever that means to you. Barf. There's a lot more to life and human flourishing than just making yourself happy.

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

We should strive for something greater than ourselves.

Re: Don’t Waste Your Twenties

#44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The only way you should concern yourself with living is to try to be happy every day, whatever that means to you. Barf. There's a lot more to life and human flourishing than just making yourself happy.

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

Meaningful life != happy life. http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/01/theres-mor...

Re: Don’t Waste Your Twenties

#45
I lost my 20s to depression and to the aftermath of depression. I used to be grumpy about it.

However there is a thin thread of causality that leads me to the life I lead now. It's pretty good and I think it will get better.

Also: The Art of Manliness is played-out schtick.

Manhood doesn't come from reading about manhood on a website whose incentives are skewed to making you read more.

Re: Don’t Waste Your Twenties

#46
My advice to the kids or the weak willed reading either the article or the HN commentary is to study the wikipedia article for "survivorship bias" and think really hard about how if you're only "beginning things" in your 20s and "building things" in 30s etc then you're doing it horribly wrong. For a small fraction of people who are very lucky this is almost useful, but everyone else needs be able to handle what could negatively be described as rebuilding after disaster or positively described as lifelong learning. You shouldn't stop "beginning" until you're dead, not on your 30th birthday or whatever. Never stop "beginning".

Always be resilient... Ask any "old" person, eventually, you're gonna crash and burn even if you think you're conservative. What really separates the winners from the losers is how you react when at the bottom, not when peaking or at the top...

Another thing worth considering is living in the world, not in a plan, although goals are OK. A plan is nice, but as an engineer I assure you that physical reality follows its laws, not your plan, and you'd best get used to living in the world instead of in a plan. Not that planning as an abstract concept is always a waste of time, it just usually is. Goals are good and are not detailed plans. A goal is something like meet the ideal spouse and live happily with them. A plan has ridiculous metrics and set pointless scheduled firm dates, like meet spouse at exactly age 26, married by 28, squirt out precisely 2.1 kids by 32, etc. Plans are doomed to failure and unhappiness, goals on the other hand are OK.

Finally a really good piece of advice is broaden your horizons and question your definitions, especially if the definitions don't benefit you and come from people making a profit off you. "Kids" think the definition of socializing is staying up all night drinking until you vomit and make a fool of yourself then miss work the next day. Therefore the 20s are when you should socialize. Uh, no, you need a new definition of socialize and you should be doin it all your life not just 20s or until your liver gives out. I was ignorant too, and I survived and improved since, so don't feel bad if you have to do the same.

Re: Don’t Waste Your Twenties

#48
post #4

At Age 20: I was partying like a madman, it was awesome At Age 21: Graduated, seeing a great girl, making a little money, enjoying city life At Age 22: Still having fun, meeting and sleeping with new people At Age 23: Yup. Same. At Age 24: New girl, same awesome life At Age 25: Lots of international travel this year. More great friends made Fun! At Age 26: More of the same. And I'm still doing financially fine (thoug…

Awesome. It sounds like you had a great decade!

Do you have any pointers for us early-twentysomethings? I've just turned 23 and while I'm having fun in the city, enjoying the world of work, it doesn't sound quite as interesting as the same part of your life. How did you meet new friends, expand your social network, sleep with new people, and enjoy the metropolis? I've found the transition from university to work has made all of the above more difficult.

Re: Don’t Waste Your Twenties

#49
Not buying the article.

I agree that no one should waste 10 years of his life-- that seems obvious-- but the article itself is a mix of pseudoscience and anecdote.

In fact, the people who seem least to be "wasting" their 20s-- the ones in IBD analyst programs and MBA programs-- are the ones losing their creativity the fastest. If you play the corporate game, creative atrophy sets in, and it's a rapid process.

Re: Don’t Waste Your Twenties

#50
post #23

Can someone properly define "wasting" please? Accomplishments, last I checked, don't have a youth fetish. This one was well written, but these types of articles miss the point. You can't make sweeping generalizations based on brain chemistry alone. Experience and background plays a large part of who we are, not just genes. You succeed when you succeed, if it happens. Sometimes, maturity is essential for the process,…

All quite true but I'll drop in here that the Fields medal is only available up to age 40.
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