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Things I Should Have Known at 20

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Re: Things I Should Have Known at 20

#61

Post by pacomerh »

rauljara wrote: post #18

The list is all phrased as commands. I can't stand that. There is no one way through life, and I wish people didn't act like just because it worked for them it will work for everyone. Find people that are cooler than you and try to be even cooler than them seems like a particularly terrible command to give in general. So many of the people I admire the most just don't care so much about image. And I've met too many p…

A positive person extracts what he or she finds useful and dumps the rest. It's pretty obvious these "commands" worked for him, and you should take them with your own judgement. Getting annoyed by this is a waste of time, look at point 20. and see if it makes your life easier.

Re: Things I Should Have Known at 20

#62

Post by nzealand »

duckduckgouser wrote: post #33

This article is obviously written by someone (at least mentally) under the age of 35. Always try to be cooler and more accepting than others? WTF. I gave that up years ago. There too much to deal with in life without worrying about what is cool.

I started to write a similar list out for my son to read later on in life. It was mostly bullshit. I like his comment about relationships however.

Re: Things I Should Have Known at 20

#63

Post by noname123 »

planetguy wrote: post #14
swalsh wrote: post #6

If I could go back to when I was 20, i'd have myself memorize this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burnout_(psychology) Would have saved me 3 agonizing years.

I'd memorize: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cnidaria http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chlamydia and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_streets_in_Baltimore,_M...

At a tender age of 20, were you sir a Johns Hopkins Biology student faced with an essay question in a final exam about the types of reproduction in the Cnidaria phylum?

But after the exam and with nothing further to lose, you tried to get to The Block to escape the nonsensical world of jellyfish sex for something more practical; however, lacking directions ended up in a even sketchier part of town and during some ensuing endeavors, caught the claps? And finally experiencing natural selection yourself.

Only way one'd memorize those three things.

Re: Things I Should Have Known at 20

#64

Post by trentfowler »

raldi wrote: post #3

#21: Floating navbars are an abomination and make your site incredibly frustrating to read on a mobile device -- especially in landscape mode. At least put an X button on that thing.

This speaks to me.

Sent from my iPhone. (Note: really android but iPhone for dramatic effect)

Re: Things I Should Have Known at 20

#66

Post by SoftwareMaven »

sown wrote: post #49

For me, #5, being shy, is more about the reinforced belief -- after a life time of observation -- that no one wants my opinion regarding any topic.

If I look at my surface-level emotions, that's what I see. If I scrape deeper, I realize it is more related to me not connecting, so my opinions don't seem to resonate. If I dig even deeper, I realize it is often me projecting how I expect somebody will respond, thereby circumventing the need for them to actually respond.

But knowing that doesn't make it easier for me to ignore it.

(FWIW, I appreciated your opinion on this. This point struck e, too, but it wasn't until I saw your comment that so closely echoed my own feelings that I stopped to put more thought into it.)

Re: Things I Should Have Known at 20

#68

Post by tensor »

Number two is flat out wrong. The majority of knowledge that you need to know is not bleeding edge and does not become outdated by the time a curriculum is formed. In fact, you can't even understand the bleeding edge research without first understanding what came before it.

If by institutions, we are talking about universities, then they are one of the best places to access vast amounts of information and experts on different domains that you'll ever find. Most of us are just too young to realize it and don't care enough about learning to make use of those resources.

Hell, we see article after article here on hacker news about how horrible it is that science papers are so often paywalled. Yet nearly everyone went through university during which time they probably had free access to nearly every single relevant english science article on earth.

Perhaps if people bothered to learn a fraction of what is available in just the computer science or engineering departments of their university we wouldn't see the same old 50 year old technologies being reinvented again and again. Hey look! It's event driven frameworks again! The next greatest thing that's 50 years old!

The only part of point two I like is to not have faith. Never have faith in anything. Always observe, reason, and experiment.

Re: Things I Should Have Known at 20

#69

Post by natep »

fumar wrote: post #5

It is a pretty solid list. I am 25 and these are things that would have helped me at 20. I am trying to accomplish some of these now. 3. I used to read a book per week. I stopped and now I need to get back. 9. I never thought I would be a conservative person. I see the difference between my younger cousins and I. 10. I am jobless. I definitely am trying to eliminate costs. 13. I started taking Udacity classes. I have…

Stay motivated, but keep in mind that your body gains strength/endurance/etc during your rest periods, not while exercising and breaking down muscle. Unless you're seeing good results, I'd consider more full rest days.

Re: Things I Should Have Known at 20

#70

Post by prawn »

rauljara wrote: post #18

The list is all phrased as commands. I can't stand that. There is no one way through life, and I wish people didn't act like just because it worked for them it will work for everyone. Find people that are cooler than you and try to be even cooler than them seems like a particularly terrible command to give in general. So many of the people I admire the most just don't care so much about image. And I've met too many p…

Think of "cooler" as "more like what you aspire to be." For some people, that might be dressing a certain way or acting tough. For others, it might be acting more confident or being more productive.

Cool is different things to different people.

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