
Advice - janvdberg
https://patrickcollison.com/advice
======
CPLX
One thing that I didn't do at that age and very much regret is to be really
conscious of being healthy and physically fit.

That's the right time to learn what you should and shouldn't put in your body,
and how to be constantly active. There's a million different ways to
accomplish that but it's important to find one.

People at that age often don't really understand how closely linked physical
fitness and mental health are. But if you ignore it there will be
consequences.

~~~
themtutty
And the general, consistent feeling of well-being and attentiveness is
seductive - it makes you feel like it'll always be there, without any
maintenance.

~~~
poe876
Health is fleeting. Human life is short and brutal, so eat away while sitting
on your lazy arse, I say.

~~~
WJW
It's pretty much a self fulfilling prophecy, yes.

~~~
sireat
As Aristotle said everything in moderation including cigars and pizza.

Going into a full blown mega health nut phase is not very helpful either
because the end result is not going to be pretty anyways.

Now if/when we start making serious life extension progress beyond 120 years
with high quality of life then we can start talking.

~~~
tim333
If you look at the places where people live longest they are not health nuts
especially and have quite a nice lifestyle. eg

>Ikaria, Greece, three times more likely to reach 90 than Americans, almost no
dementia

>residents stay active through walking, farming and fishing, but they also
make sure to take time out to nap and socialize. In addition to their
Mediterranean diet, they eat a lot of wild greens and drink an herbal tea
that’s full of nutrients. Their community lifestyle also encourages good
health habits and regular social engagement.

------
gfodor
> If you think something is important but people older than you hold don't
> hold it in high regard, there's a decent chance that you're right and
> they're wrong. Status lags by a generation or more.

I winced a little bit at this one, though it's worded strangely so I may be
misinterpreting it. The way I took it is poor advice -- when there is a
mismatch between yourself and another in terms of "what's important" or what
should be kept in "high regard", do not immediately assume the other person is
a moral failure. This is the kind of thinking that leads to division and
mistrust between people. The proper way to react to this is to make a good
faith effort to understand why the person doesn't care about the issue you do,
and be conscious that you may also change your mind one day. "Strong opinions,
weakly held."

~~~
dkrich
Agreed. The older I get the more I’ve learned to listen to other people and to
question my own ideas. I’ve gotten to the point where I actually view people
who listen to others and are open to changing their opinions when confronted
with good advice as being much more intelligent than those who are sure they
are right about everything all the time.

As the Bob Dylan song goes, “I was so much older then, I’m younger than that
now.”

~~~
mcguire
Are you the co-founder and CEO of Stripe? Were you a millionaire at 19 and
now, at 29, worth north of a billion dollars?

Why would anyone want to listen to your advice?

(/s Be careful about listening to people who are obviously statistical
outliers, who are young and apparently have succeeded at everything they've
touched.)

~~~
eldavido
I find it interesting that it's accepted in our culture, that "Having money"
means "Someone worth listening to".

I see this all the time and just wanted to point it out.

------
pkaler
So, funny story. I was in YVR waiting for a flight when I decided to get my
shoes shined.

The shoe shine had been reading a manga take on the bible. Just a regular guy
that in another life could be a computer programmer if the circumstances were
different.

He asked me what I do: mobile apps. And he went on and on about how his
favourite iPhone app downloaded all of Wikipedia but it didn't work on the
latest version of iOS anymore.

That app was Patrick Collison's Encyclopedia app:

[http://radar.oreilly.com/2009/07/oscon-preview-how-
patrick-c...](http://radar.oreilly.com/2009/07/oscon-preview-how-patrick-
co.html)

~~~
mgummelt
The timing on this is odd. Patrick says he built the Wikipedia app over a few
weeks in Japan in late 2007, which would have been soon after founding
Auctomatic: [https://venturebeat.com/2007/10/22/auctomatic-launches-
bette...](https://venturebeat.com/2007/10/22/auctomatic-launches-better-tools-
for-ebay-powersellers/)

It seems like a strange decision take take a month off after founding your
startup to build a side project in Japan.

~~~
tedmiston
From the article:

> Then in November of 2007, I went to visit my friend in Japan for a month.
> And in Japan they have all of this incredibly advanced cellular technology
> and all of the rest. And so because of that, they had very few wireless
> networks, and my phone didn’t work. As a result, I actually had very little
> access to the Internet. I sort of realized without Wikipedia how little I
> really knew. And I had just got an iPhone, so I decided to try basically
> putting a copy of Wikipedia on the phone, so that I’d have it as I was
> walking around in Japan.

------
codingdave
"Go be an autodidact iconoclast, and hang out with everyone else does that,
too." is a great recipe for being an interesting person. But changing the
world requires not just being interesting, but understanding the status quo,
and finding ways to bridge them. This advice won't give you both sides.

Also, there is nothing wrong with living a pedestrian life. Millions
(billions?) of people do so, happily. And there are many small changes you can
make in the world even while walking a typical path. The world changes over
time, as many people make those small changes. Feel free to pursue large
changes, but don't reject the power of incremental improvements.

~~~
jschwartzi
Agreed. I'm quite happily pedestrian, and I've met too many people who "went
deep" only on a few subjects but were very boring people unless you talked to
them about their chosen subjects. Some of my best friends are boring from an
economic standpoint because they're poor. But they're wonderful people and I
wouldn't trade them for any of the learning I could get from someone who makes
more money.

I think Hunter S. Thompson's advice for young people is much better, because
in it he makes the point that anyone seeking to give you advice can't possibly
know enough about your situation to give good advice.

[https://fs.blog/2014/05/hunter-s-thompson-to-hume-
logan/](https://fs.blog/2014/05/hunter-s-thompson-to-hume-logan/)

If who you are is pedestrian, don't hesitate to be the most pedestrian you can
be.

~~~
eshwar
Wrong, don't be anything. Pedestrian or Deep. Labels do NOT matter. San
Francisco has got this wrong. And most of the world is following San
Francisco, that is wrong.

Be and do what must be done, not get advice from Collison or Musk et al. This
is something I have learned along the way. Sure, respect achievements.

Please for God's sake do not try to become like someone or be something or
change the world. It is not worth it. Others can label you. It doesn't count.

------
yla92
For some of us who are in 20~30, I recommend Sam Altman's "The days are long
but the decades are short"[0].

[0]: [http://blog.samaltman.com/the-days-are-long-but-the-
decades-...](http://blog.samaltman.com/the-days-are-long-but-the-decades-are-
short)

~~~
loco5niner
> The days are long but the decades are shot

Typo - "Shot" should be "short"

Although I have to admit, that word might fit in some cases...

~~~
yla92
Fixed. Thank you! It indeed might be fitting in some cases :D

------
ArtWomb
"Make things". And put them in front of as many people as possible. Locally
you gain knowledge. Wisdom comes with scale ;)

Oh, and you guys were great on Bloomberg Studio 1.0!

[https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2018-05-31/john-
patric...](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2018-05-31/john-patrick-
collison-on-bloomberg-studio-1-0-video)

~~~
newfocogi
This 100x! Falling in love with "making things" in my mind might the single
most important trait to be come a successful entrepreneur. The other trait
might be "insatiable curiosity", but I think someone who "makes things"
demonstrates a curiosity to identify interesting spaces and the
resourcefulness to piece together a solution.

------
renjimen
I would suggest travel over most of these. Particularly if you live in a
fairly inward looking society like the US. Forget SF - live in another
country, learn another language while your brain is still plastic enough to
become truly fluent, understand your own culture by spending time among
others, realise how fortunate you are to be born in a developed country.

~~~
tedmiston
+1 even if just briefly

Study abroad was my favorite part of college. Spending just a few weeks each
in Taiwan and Costa Rica was pretty enlightening.

------
mugsie
> Why San Francisco? San Francisco is the Schelling point for high-openness,
> smart, energetic, optimistic people. Global Weird HQ.

This could describe Seattle, Portland, Austin, Denver (from my experience) in
the US, and a myriad of other places worldwide.

~~~
gfodor
Note: optimism in SF more easily sighted when the preferred political party is
in power

~~~
nostrademons
Nah, there are still plenty of optimistic people in SF. Many of them right now
are working on a blockchain something-or-other or an AI-powered something-or-
other.

The type of folks you want to meet, if you're interested in doing something
that will be seen as important in a generation, are generally fairly
apolitical. Politics (at least the hyper-partisan variety pursued in the U.S.
today) consumes a lot of energy for the purpose of opposing other people who
are expending a lot of energy. It makes sense that neither one of them makes
much progress, though they generate much heat and noise in the process. Real
change comes from people working on stuff so weird that nobody bothers to
oppose them.

------
ebbv
As far as "changing the world" goes; the reality is you mostly have to be very
lucky. The amount of people setting out to do world changing things vs. the
ones that are successful is a staggering ratio.

Hitting 40 this year my advice to any young person is do what will make you
feel happy and fulfilled. Whatever that is. It's hard to figure that out, but
we only live once and the old adage "You'll regret the things you didn't do
more than the things you did." is generally true.

The one sentence version is; say "Yes!" to more things.

~~~
segmondy
The things that make you feel happy and fulfilled today might be the very
things that make you feel unhappy and empty tomorrow. The challenge is that
most people can't tell till they find themselves in that unhappy state.

My advice for any young person is to learn to think for themselves and figure
out things for themselves. There is no magical advice out there that will work
for everyone. The same thing that will transform someone's life in an amazing
way will ruin someone else life.

~~~
vasilipupkin
nah. that's just too vague. Let's be more specific. Specifically, you are less
likely to feel happy and fulfilled if you do not find something that you
really enjoy actively doing. Actively working on something that is yours is
more likely to make you feel fulfilled than sitting around the house after 9-5
work. But many people end up mostly sitting around the house, with occasional
break for travel and vacations, etc.

~~~
tonyedgecombe
Actually I think most happy and fulfilled people find that outside of work,
risking your wellbeing on the whims of an employer or the current state of the
job market is a fools errand.

------
dmitrybrant
> If you're 10–20: These are prime years!

I lol'd.

~~~
robertk
He should have said 11-19 to give the statement a double entendre.

------
Swizec
And remember: if you're _not_ 10-20, you can still do all these things! The
best time to plant a tree is 10 years ago, the second best time is now.

When you feel old and curmudgeonly, that's the perfect time to take a deep
breath and become a beginner in something new.

~~~
jimmies
After being trapped in a rut at 30, I decided to rethink many aspects of my
life just 4 months ago. I made a major overhaul of myself, and it worked out
so well I couldn't imagine.

It's never ever too late to do anything, the important thing is whether
someone's willing to admit they didn't know as much as they thought.

~~~
Swizec
As a fellow rut feeling 30 year old I would love to hear more about your
experience. If you’re okay sharing of course :)

~~~
jimmies
I totally would share it. I do write my blog at my profile. It will take a
while for me to organize my thoughts to write this down (in a month maybe?),
but it is coming :)

------
wilsonnb2
Why is this kind of vague advice popular? Just because the author is famous?
If someone else had written this would anyone care?

Personally, I got tired of hearing famous people tell me I should read more,
work on things I love, be an expert (or don't be an expert), "make things",
blah, blah, blah many years ago.

~~~
hymenopter4
Hey, dude, you know, you should learn to relax a little bit. You know what
would make you more successful?

A good tan! Get some sun, bro!

------
abhiminator
>The internet is one of the biggest advantages you have over prior
generations. Leverage it.

Most powerful statement in there. It's one thing to 'know' about Internet's
power and another thing to utilize it to your personal best.

Internet can be an incredible personal force multiplier -- if used in a good
way -- leading to never-before-imagined opportunities. This truly is an
amazing time to be alive. [0]

[0] [http://www.upworthy.com/4-awesome-how-we-met-friendship-
stor...](http://www.upworthy.com/4-awesome-how-we-met-friendship-stories-that-
will-inspire-you-to-get-online)

------
andy_adams
> If you think something is important but people older than you hold don't
> hold it in high regard, there's a decent chance that you're right and
> they're wrong. Status lags by a generation or more.

I feel like I'm missing the point of this one. For basically 100% of the
things I thought were important between 10-20 years old, as I got older I
realized I was wrong and older folks were right.

Conversely, if someone older than you thinks something is important and you do
not, you should probably reserve judgement until you're older...

~~~
sincerely
Yea if I followed these instructions I would have flunked out of high school
playing Team Fortress.

Someone 20-30 disagreeing with the previous generation is much more likely to
be right imo.

------
staunch
Seems less like an answer to "How do I change the world?" than a rough
description of what almost any intelligent person does in an idyllic
environment.

It's very common for successful people to over-analyze their specific behavior
rather than acknowledge the harsh reality of what actually separates them from
others. A description of reality is both less flattering and seemingly less
useful. But it does have the virtue of at least being real.

IMHO there are three major factors in changing the world:

#1 High general intelligence and ambition (genetics)

#2 Highly educated well-off parents (environment)

#3 Support of powerful people (opportunity)

You probably can't do much without at least one of these factors. Most people
that do big things have all three.

------
ritchiea
I wish someone would write a useful version of this for the question “what
should I do to make the most of my life when my family is poor or somehow less
fortunate?”

A lot of this would still apply but there’s a huge percentage of the
population that has to deal with major difficulties in life before they can
heed the kind of advice Patrick offers.

~~~
fellowniusmonk
I come from a considerably poorer background than you based on your other
posts, poorer than most, with birth defects that have caused me constant
problems and... I could add a bunch of things to this list but it's quite
accurate, I'm just past 30 now and by being poor, smart, open, hardworking and
going where the energy/money is you end up ticking all of these boxes.

You'll end up more closely identifying with first gen immigrants which puts
you in a pretty good place out in SF.

You'll get used a lot in your 20s, people will make a major buck off your
skillsets, but if you keep growing them you'll skyrocket a few years after
most everyone else plateaus, the joy of working and fear of poverty never
leave, but they are rocket fuel later.

You get used to deprivation, develop a non-fragile sense of self, and learn to
let most things go too, you'll get used to sweating in secret and it'll give
you a great pokerface, it's great training for doing the hard things once life
gets easier financially in your 30s and temptation to coast lays most other
people low.

~~~
yakshaving_jgt
I feel relatively successful now at 28 as a programmer, speaker, founder etc
after having had to eat with the homeless every day when I was 20, so this
comment hits pretty close to home.

------
archagon
I was scratching my head at the popularity of this article before seeing the
author. In my opinion, it's a rose-tinted picture of success as filtered
through Patrick Collison's extremely unusual life experiences, and comes off
as terribly naive without that context.

~~~
kreetx
Definitely, it's popular because of its author, but it's good advice. And what
if the way to success is in not giving up on your naivety?

------
jimmies
One thing I'd love to add is that is to make friends with people: People who
are older than you, people that don't do stuff you do, people with radically
different ideas and lifestyles, people in different countries/cultural
backgrounds, people who are successful and unsuccessful.

If it is possible, you should find ways to talk to people you adore. Many
people will spend the time to talk back to you. They will be the fuel in your
life when you need advice, help, inspirations.

If you're a person in STEM, you should listen carefully to/date people
studying arts, literature, social studies, education, politics... Never ever
look them down as not as smart as you are. Think of people who don't think the
way you do as being different rather than inferior to you. This is easier said
then done, if you have a good job and in general, probably have a higher
position in the food chain compared to them.

~~~
Viliam1234
> If it is possible, you should find ways to talk to people you adore.

This. I was often surprised to find out that a famous person whom I admire is
actually a very nice person, replies to my e-mails, and sometimes even agrees
to meet and talk in person. Sometimes you may even be able to help them with
something, and that feels really awesome.

> you should listen carefully to/date people studying arts, literature, social
> studies, education, politics...

But you should always listen to more than one person in each category, and
compare what they said.

------
jxub
> _Status lags by a generation or more._

That's a really overlooked point, and perhaps the most contrarian nugget of
wisdom in this damn good piece of advice. Point is, whatever successful thing
you do, it'll always end up gaining you a certain degree of prestige (which is
ultimately a form of bullshit, but that's another topic).

~~~
prmph
The converse also seems to be true: Some currently seemingly prestigious
things are long past their relevance, society at large has just not caught on
yet; it is good to recognize these and to avoid building your future on them.

------
hguhghuff
I’m more open to advice from ordinarily successful people rather than the most
successful people in the world.

------
voidmain
I'm a bit amused by the advice to move to SF _because that 's what all the
other nonconformists are doing._

~~~
pc
Advice is to visit, not to move!

~~~
sudhirj
I was in SF for the last WWDC, mostly to see and visit these people I keep
hearing about. But I couldn’t for the life of me figure out where they were or
how to talk to them. I went to WWDC, a couple of meetups, the Computer History
Museum, walked through Stanford, ate hummus in Palo Alto, took only public
transport or shared Lyft rides. But other than a chance meeting with the CEO
of Mode Analytics in one can ride that lasted three minutes, basically zero
interaction with the type of people mentioned.

Granted, I am an introvert and don’t strike up conversations as much as I
should, but it seems like saying visit SF is useless. Is there a club or some
secret society or library or bar that everyone hangs out in? I’ll come back
and visit if I have an address to go to. SF is way too broad.

~~~
wolco
Hang out in front of google or attend the local 2600 meeting.

Best way to meet CEOs is to become one yourself.

~~~
sudhirj
What’s a 2600 meeting? This?
[https://www.2600.com/meetings/mtg.html](https://www.2600.com/meetings/mtg.html)

I’ll keep trying to search, but could someone post a note on what’s it’s
about?

~~~
crankylinuxuser
That's correct. 2600 is a hacker quarterly. The 'zine has all sorts of
interesting writeups, including hacker politics, 0-day discussions, free
software talks, notes from people (including fuckyous as well). And the back
is a picture of payphones from around the world.

And the name is a throwback to the 2600Hz tone that was used to gain operator
rights on pre-digital trunking phone lines.

------
smithmayowa
What I will like to really know is people thoughts on what they think people
20-30 & 30-40 should do

~~~
mkagenius
Jack Ma of Alibaba had few advice to various age groups:
[https://youtu.be/__Mz-oxsXAs?t=116](https://youtu.be/__Mz-oxsXAs?t=116)

~~~
doomjunky
< 20 Be a good student.

< 30 Follow somebody. It's not which company you go, it's which boss you
follow.

< 40 Work for yourself, if you realy want to be a entrepeneur.

< 50 Focus on things you are good at.

< 60 Work for the young people.

> 60 Spend time for yourself.

~Jack Ma's Advice to The Young People

------
sus_007
> _In particular, try to go deep on multiple things...deep on languages,
> programming..._

I fall under the target audience for this piece and by now I've dabbled with
at least half a dozen of programming languages and their celebrated
frameworks/libraries- from Front to the Back. I tried my best to go _deep_ on
all of them just for the sake of learning. But, now I feel lost and can't
figure out which path am I supposed to pursue in this vast CS space. Where did
I mess up ?

Edit: spelling errors

~~~
newfocogi
I can only speak from personal experience, but I have noticed that I easily
get excited to learn a shiny new tool or skill, but once I have basic
familiarity with it, my eagerness dries up because all that was driving my
desire to learn was the intrigue of an unknown experience. Times where I felt
like I actually went deep (and it didn't require superhuman discipline to
spend time on something I had lost interest in) were when I was working on a
problem I was passionate about that required deep knowledge of a certain set
of tools or skills. Then I had reason to keep pushing and along the way I
realized I had become halfway decent at that tool/skill set.

~~~
sus_007
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. True, it is in fact the _desire to learn was
the intrigue of an unknown experience_ sensation that makes me jump from one
ship to the other, frequently. I guess I need to work on my discipline and
focus on a single tech stack for a considerable period.

~~~
svilen_dobrev
Languages are just ...tools, instruments. So desire to learn a language (or
framework, whatever tool-kit) for the sake of learning .. isnt going to hold
far. BUT.. once u have that half-tool, and the half-transparent-new-window
that comes with it, u can use it (and bunch of others) to be able to desire to
learn something completely different... AND then use that as a stepping stone
for the next.. (repeat..) until u find what u want to do, and all those stones
either become the polished fundaments or just mark your steps searching around
for the way.

There's saying.. if u fall on your face, dont forget to take something as a
souvenir...

have fun

------
sneak
San Francisco is absolutely not Global Weird HQ.

~~~
magic_beans
Is this guy unaware of New York?

~~~
sneak
I’m pretty sure Global Weird HQ is not in America. NYC and SF are some of the
most uptight places in the world.

~~~
java_script
SF is subversive and counter-culture... if being a cutthroat capitalist is
subversive... ROI is the new karmic energy ;)

------
carusooneliner
I like this point in particular -- "Don't stress out too much about how
valuable the things you're going deep on are." The general stance of people is
to stick to the practical stuff -- knowledge or skills that you can use right
away. But, it's important to have a long view and given enough time the
impractical could turn into something practical. Serendipity is underrated,
and in my experience the impractical stuff is what enables serendipity.

------
Ensorceled
This is great advice. Now, I just need a time machine ...

------
eaenki
Hackernews, Medium and Slack groups related to what you like are great ways to
get to know people in SF that are into tech/startups. Anyone has any other
suggestion as to where to meet people that built something interesting? I
tried tech/startup meet ups and Startup Grind but they sucked. I had more luck
with unrelated events.

------
madrox
When I was a teenager, I listened to "Everybody's Free (to wear sunscreen),"
which prompted me to read the essay "Advice, like youth, probably just wasted
on the young." Probably one of the only real bits of advice I listened to in
my teens, thought about, and then attempted to follow.

[http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-schmich-
su...](http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-schmich-sunscreen-
column-column.html)

I'm actually old enough to write a 20-30 column. My only advice is to know the
different between wanting something and how you want something to happen. In
my 20s, I despised the idea of luck, but I've learned so much of what happens
in life is outside your control. The only thing reliably in your control is
your attitude.

------
B1narySunset
If you're 10–20 you should also set aside some time to have fun!

~~~
rufius
I’d contend you should set aside time to have fun at all ages.

------
m52go
This is probably nit-picking, because I understand the intended message, but
the "Aim to read a lot" bit gets me.

I've always aimed to read a lot...but rarely manage to actually do it.

~~~
robertk
Try Audible and audiobooks, it’s easier to fill the commute with sound. You
can also add the Kindle app to your smartphone top-4 bar.

~~~
mitchty
I've never been able to get into audiobooks. I listen to podcasts already, and
to be honest I find my retention on audible things drastically less than the
written word.

------
alexggordon
Something I've thought a lot about is how to educate people, specifically on a
larger scale. In general I think it's a really underrated thought-space for
tech people, probably because it's a hard problem that most likely won't make
you a billionaire. However, in my thinking/reading about this issue, I've
discovered that especially at the 10-20 age a lot of time you have to work
towards making kids curious and encouraging this behavior without explicitly
demanding it. In other words, I think this article is almost better read by
parents than the kids themselves.

The average 10 year old will most likely not go out of their way to "aim to
read a lot" if it is hard to get books. Fortunately, I had a set of parents
that highly valued education, and they really worked towards opening access to
books for me and my siblings (we could go to the library whenever we wanted,
and they prioritized driving us there). Obviously there will be the occasional
10 year old that will do anything to get more books but I don't think that is
average, as are most things on this article.

This follows for most things on this list. Curiosity, taking hobbies you enjoy
way way way too far (read that as "becoming an expert"), and "making things"
are all things that I think happen better or exclusively under parental
guidance. In addition to that, something I think I noticed (and I'd be curious
if Patrick experienced this too) but doing most of these activities with my
siblings significantly encouraged my habits. I built my first computer with
the help of my siblings, and have read dozens of books I never would have
without the suggestions of my siblings.

All these slightly random thoughts combine into the fact that my "resume
education" did very little to get me to the point that I am today. I didn't
learn how to program at school. I didn't write my first program at school. I
didn't develop my love of reading at school. I didn't build my first quad-
copter there, etc. So, rounding this out, I'd ask the question; what portion
of these activities (listed here, or on Patrick's blog) should I have done at
school vs at home? Should education move to a more Montessori[0] style to
encourage this exploration? Should teachers merge more into parents as is the
case in a lot of public schools? How can a company (non-profit?) garner enough
of a child's time to encourage these behaviors?

On a more tangential note, have you done anything in the education/parenting
space Patrick?

[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montessori_education](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montessori_education)

~~~
tonyedgecombe
_specifically on a larger scale_

It's scale that seems to kill education, in fact I sometimes wonder if there
might just be too much of it.

------
janvdberg
"People who did great things often did so at very surprisingly young ages".
This is very true, Gates was 19 (BASIC), Linus was 21 (Linux), Wozniak 25
(Apple I), Ada Lovelace 27 (first algorithm), Bill Joy 21 (vi), Andreessen 21
(Mosaic), Turing 24 (Turing machine) and so on.

~~~
tonyedgecombe
Babbage 41 (Babbage machine), John Backus 30 (Fortran), Tim Berners-Lee 34
(World Wide Web), Fred Brooks 30 (IBM S/360), George Bool 32 (Symbolic Logic),
Vannevar Bush 55 (memex, forerunner to hypertext), Vint Cerf 29 (TCP/IP),
Alonzo Church 36 (Entscheidungsproblem) and so on.

------
timmytwotime
I think it takes a bit more time to cultivate lessons learned from the past
decade. There were things that made sense to do ten years ago, but twenty
years, thirty years, forty years (or more) on it becomes more obvious of the
validity of the choices made.

EDIT: for life-changing choices

~~~
tonyedgecombe
Yes, I think you need some distance to look back objectively.

------
jakecrouch
> But having good social skills confers life-long benefits. So, don't write
> them off. Get good at making a good first impression, being funny (if
> possible... this author still working on it...), speaking publicly.

I would be careful with this point. Young people who don't have great social
skills already tend to feel that they are somehow missing out on something
important. But those who have good social skills in our culture will have a
hard time forming new and unique ideas, and will often get talked into
believing big, fundamental ideas that are wrong or crazy. I'd compare it to
being a smoker in the 1960s. In exchange for being cooler, you suffer
irreducible risk, that is made more dangerous by the fact that few people
realize it's there. Until our culture changes, it's probably better to
encourage people to learn about human nature than about "social skills".

~~~
hluska
> But those who have good social skills in our culture will have a hard time
> forming new and unique ideas, and will often get talked into believing big,
> fundamental ideas that are wrong or crazy. I'd compare it to being a smoker
> in the 1960s.

I can assure you that having good social skills is absolutely nothing like
being a smoker in the 1960s. And, there is no absolute relationship between
having good social skills and getting talked into believing crazy ideas.

I have absolutely no idea where you get those ideas, but they are completely
and demonstrably wrong.

------
LeicesterCity
At ages 10-20 one has the time to go deep into many different subjects, would
that be viable for someone late into the game (20-30s)? Or would they have to
narrow the number of subjects they explore?

~~~
robertk
Learning is age invariant. The difference is you will have a day job, but yes,
it’s viable.

------
tobbe2064
There was a survey done at a home for the elderly that asked them what they
would do differently. All of them, 100%, gave the same answer: Spend more time
with their family.

------
themtutty
> This probably won't change a lot throughout your life

For many people, this is not true. Look at how common a second-act career has
become.

------
mychael
As a Stripe Customer: Less life advice, more focus on making Stripe a better,
easier to use product.

------
java_script
Advice for SF people: Stop talking about changing the god damned world when
what you're actually working on is a middleman payment processor. You sound
like your head is planted so far up into your ass you can see daylight again.

E: Just to point out what I actually believe so I’m not just doing a drive-by
insult - let capitalism and self interest be just that, like how a pizza
delivery guy or payday loan provider probably isn’t deluding themselves about
making an impact. Leave talk of societal impact to actual politics.

~~~
austenallred
> payday loan provider probably isn’t deluding themselves about making an
> impact

Having worked at a YC-backed alternative to payday lender
([https://www.//lendup.com](https://www.//lendup.com)) and having spent a lot
of the time in the call center listening to our customers, I'd suggest that a
lender to folks without access to credit can have much more impact than you
could possibly imagine. Being able to instantly inject $500 into the bank
account of someone that needed it for a car repair or they'd lose their job
when they couldn't get it elsewhere was only one of the many, many examples.
Now multiply that by hundreds of thousands of customers, and the impact is not
trivial by any measure.

Taking something that is incredibly painful and making it a delight at scale
is a beautiful thing, almost no matter how trivial that thing is. I'm reminded
of when Steve Jobs forced the Apple team to shave 30 seconds off of the
startup time, because multiplied by the number of people who use Apple devices
it's the equivalent of years in aggregate.

I love that there are thousands of companies trying to change the world by
making the one thing they work on absolutely perfect. It's a great thing.

~~~
aphextron
>Having worked at a YC-backed alternative to payday lender
([https://www.//lendup.com](https://www.//lendup.com)) and having spent a lot
of the time in the call center listening to our customers, I'd suggest that a
lender to folks without access to credit can have much more impact than you
could possibly imagine. Being able to instantly inject $500 into the bank
account of someone that needed it for a car repair or they'd lose their job
when they couldn't get it elsewhere was only one of the many, many examples.
Now multiply that by hundreds of thousands of customers, and the impact is not
trivial by any measure.

This is exactly the mindless "head-in-ass" crap the OP was talking about.
You're not helping that person by lending them $500 at 400%+ APR [0]. You are
trapping them into a debt cycle they will most likely never recover from until
default. Subprime lending is a predatory practice which has been around
forever, no matter how you flip it. It is legal under our system though, so
you're more than welcome to do it and profit from people's financial
ignorance. Just don't try to pretend like you're helping anybody.

[0] [https://www.lendup.com/rates-and-notices](https://www.lendup.com/rates-
and-notices)

~~~
austenallred
You clearly don't understand how LendUp works, so I'll just leave it at that.

~~~
aphextron
Yes, clearly I just don't understand the complex problems they are tackling.
I'm certainly not calling them out on being shady and awful like every other
payday lender since forever [0].

A few takeaways from their most recent CFPB fine of $6 million :

>"Misled consumers about graduating to lower-priced loans"

>"Hid the true cost of credit"

>"Reversed pricing without consumer knowledge"

>"Understated the annual percentage rate"

>"Failed to report credit information"

It's honestly sad how weak the CFPB is, but at least it's something. This
entire industry is a stain on humanity.

[0] [https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/newsroom/lendup-
enf...](https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/newsroom/lendup-enforcement-
action/)

~~~
austenallred
Yes, I was there for all that. I am incredibly proud to call myself a
LendUpper and I have no regrets.

All of that stuff was either done on accident when the company was a small
handful of people or is pretty innocuous (we got in trouble for not displaying
on our advertising that the rate may differ from the imaginary icon we showed,
which displayed one of the possible rates based on how much money you took
out. Or getting nailed for trying to give people a discount if they promised
early repayment and not giving the discount if they didn't pay in advance).

Literally any company that had that regulatory weight on it would have the
same number of things the CFPB could go after if they could, but no one else
is trying to play by the rules and just operate out of sovereign nations.

------
baby
Instead go visit Bordeaux, drink a lot of wine.

------
nextstep
>>>Figure out a way to travel to San Francisco

Hahahahahahaha is this for real?

~~~
dang
Please don't do this here.

------
rememberlenny
Considering his blog hasn't been updated since 2013, can someone add the
proper publish date?

~~~
pc
It was published today.

