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Ask HN: What were your naivetés in your twenties?

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Re: Ask HN: What were your naivetés in your twenties?

#71

Post by ntoshev »

daeken wrote: post #2

I'm 22, and perhaps I'm naive in my belief of this, but one of the biggest things I've learned is that theory and practice are rarely aligned. Reading about mistakes someone else has made generally only helps you see that you've made the same mistake in hindsight; when you're heading down that same path, you tend to justify it or are completely blind to the fact that it's a mistake. All that said, I'm curious about w…

You need to constantly validate your theories against the real world, what other people say is not enough.

This means: solve a lot of problems after you learned a theory, try to feel out the problem space yourself by extending the theory or applying it in a specific way, practice, practice, practice, and always look out for things everyone considers true but are not obvious from the data.

Re: Ask HN: What were your naivetés in your twenties?

#72

Post by patrickk »

M_Sanger wrote: post #64
patrickk wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't believe everything they tell you. If you listen to too many people too often, you will be average at best. In other words, don't go to med school because daddy's a doctor and told you so. There's a reason a lot of highly successful people dropped out of college or never went.

I studied engineering because daddy's an engineer. At a young age I didn't comprehend how fulfilling math and science could be, I didn't understand the creativity and depth and purpose it could bring to me. It turns out daddy has been right a lot of the time. Also, sure some highly successful people dropped out of college, but perhaps even more highly successful people stuck with it so I'm not sure I agree with "a lo…

I didn't mean to appear to disparage college, I myself am a recent graduate.

The point I was making was that some people, in order to be highly successful, have to do things that seem weird, risky or downright crazy in order to get ahead (things that their friends, family, business partners, investors etc wouldn't approve of or don't see the reason for).

Examples:

- Sergey Brin is on leave from his PhD studies in Stanford. If the price of me not having to use Yahoo or MSN to find stuff online is the knowledge that one of Google's co-founders doesn't have his PhD yet because he dropped out of his studies to co-found Google, then that's a price I'm willing to pay ;-). Apparently his parents still aren't happy that he doesn't have it, even though he's the 24th richest man in the world.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergey_Brin

- A guy called Michael Burry was the first man to 'predict' the housing market collapse in the US. Author Michael Lewis profiled him in his book, 'The Big Short'. His investors criticized him for years that such a stance was insane, un-American, impossible etc. Mr. Burry didn't listen to any of them, and stuck to his guns because his own research and insight told him he was right. He made millions in a short space of time when things went pear-shaped near the end of 2008. Others copied his strategy also, and made out like bandits.

See: http://www.vanityfair.com/business/features/2010/04/wall-str...

Re: Ask HN: What were your naivetés in your twenties?

#73

Post by chegra »

cookiecaper wrote: post #68
chegra wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with the track record thing but it is important to compartmentalize here. Somebody might have a track record of being a womanizer but might be good at what they do eg. Bill Clinton, Tiger Woods, JFK, or they might have a gambling problem, reference Michael Jordon. With that said, only judge people on track record in the category you need them to perform in.

I don't know, I think character is a really important trait. If someone is a womanizer and consistently breaks his commitment to his spouse, why should we believe that he will deal any differently with us? One is to have the most intimate, enduring, unbreakable commitment to his spouse, and if this person considers such an intimate connection worthless, why would he place any value on your professional relationship?…

Phil Jackson placed Rodman on the Bulls despite his character flaw and generally being regarded as being unstable. But Rodman was the best at what he did. I think everybody comes with their flaws but choose people based on their genius not on their lack of flaws.

I think people have this notion that a person has to be this all around good person, when it is not true. Like Woods, the media needs to present this image of being perfect. What you need are people perfect for their position and manage their other flaws

Re: Ask HN: What were your naivetés in your twenties?

#76

Post by nailer »

chegra wrote: post #56

1. Your friends aren't your market, so don't be surprise when they don't read your blog or join your site. It's like offering a guy a skirt to wear; it's just not something they are interested in. 2. Your friends and family really want you to succeed. Even though they might say negative stuff about you trying something new, they want you to succeed. Part of the reason they say these stuff is that they want to prevent…

> 75% of romantic relationship are established through your network.

Yes, but if you can cold call you'll get get a wider range of possible results (says a happily married cold caller!).

Re: Ask HN: What were your naivetés in your twenties?

#78

Post by todayiamme »

Disclaimer: I am not even 19 yet. So take this comment with an ocean full of salt.

I have failed in my life more times than I can remember. In fact, everything I have ever done has been a failure at some level or the other. All of my plans to get myself out of the rut and actually do something with my life have failed.

I have so many shortcomings that I can't list them in a book let alone a comment, but pitfall has taught me something. Never ever give up. It is something so cliched, but somehow it's the essence of life. All of the advice above me has taught me a lot, but the thing is that while implementing that advice you will fail.

You will fail again and again and again. I really hope that life has dealt you a fair hand, but sooner or later you will feel like everything is lost, and that life is no longer worth living. Don't listen to yourself at that time. Give yourself time, and just get up and start moving. I really do hope that you don't have to experience this, but it is quite true.

It is something so obvious, but something really hard to do when you are in that situation. I really hope that you never ever go through that pain, but whenever you do just remember that life is worth far more than what we can ever imagine.

Other than that rather obvious piece of advice I would suggest that you should surround yourself with people who care about you. Find your family. It doesn't matter if it is united by biology or sheer love, but you need people in life to love you and give you those small things that we all take for granted.

I know just how corny this sounds, but I wouldn't be alive today if it weren't for this. Whenever you know that you are loved unconditionally it gives you a sense of security and peace that no amount of money in this world can buy. Those people are the ones that make your life worth living, and help you to achieve your goals.

Re: Ask HN: What were your naivetés in your twenties?

#79

Post by pavelludiq »

My twenties started 6 months ago, but I've already discovered several of these.

I discovered that despite knowing several languages and frameworks, i can't actually program. Despite being able to get descent grades in high-school without studying i can't do it with university material, so i have less time to play with computers, because i actually have to put in effort. I thought smoking is bad for you, the same way junk food is, actually it has a much bigger impact on your body, much faster. I thought i don't need to sleep...ever. I look forward to discovering more of these, as quickly as possible.

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