
What advice would you give your 16 year old self? - Princeps
I&#x27;m 16 and have interests in programming. I know HTML and in the process of learning Objective C for apps. There is so much I don&#x27;t know and I want to learn as much as I can. What advice would you give?
======
milesf
I'm 44 now, and I know without any doubt whatsoever that my 16 year old self
wouldn't listen to anything I had to say.

But you're smarter than I [am|was], so my advice to you is don't listen to
others who don't build stuff. Or in a more positive way, only listen to people
who actually build stuff themselves. Why the Lucky Stiff said it best:

    
    
      When you don’t create things, you become defined by
      your tastes rather than ability. Your tastes only
      narrow & exclude people. So create.

~~~
hkmurakami
_> only listen to people who actually build stuff themselves._

Wow, amazing advice. It echoes my sentiment about investment advice, which is
to only listen to people who actually run money (e.g. run their own funds, and
even then, be on the lookout for ulterior motives). This translates to: never
listen to your "financial advisor" (which is a misnomer if there ever was one)

~~~
superuser2
In this case it's actually backwards. Financial advisors who are involved in
companies that sell financial products necessarily have a conflict of interest
- they only get paid if you buy something they get a cut from.

Fee-only financial planners, however, are unbiased.

~~~
lutusp
> Fee-only financial planners, however, are unbiased.

How so? Their bias is that they need to justify their fees, and, according to
many studies, their fees can't be justified:

WSJ: "Darts Top the Readers' Stock Picks":
[http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142412788732423510457824...](http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324235104578243910435616872.html)

Someone earlier suggested buying and holding an index fund -- that's good
advice, for reasons given here:
[http://arachnoid.com/equities_myths](http://arachnoid.com/equities_myths)

~~~
superuser2
I don't think we're talking about the same thing. My parents' financial
planner is not even slightly involved in picking stocks. His advice was on how
to structure our family's savings, which included buying and holding an index
fund and pulling the college UTMA account my grandpa started out of whatever
instrument it was in.

Unlike someone who worked for a bank or an index fund, though, he didn't have
a perverse incentive to sell us one of his company's products.

~~~
lutusp
> I don't think we're talking about the same thing. My parents' financial
> planner is not even slightly involved in picking stocks. His advice was on
> how to structure our family's savings, which included buying and holding an
> index fund and pulling the college UTMA account my grandpa started out of
> whatever instrument it was in.

Fair enough, but since this kind of general investment information is freely
available online, I personally wouldn't pay someone to provide it.

> Unlike someone who worked for a bank or an index fund, though, he didn't
> have a perverse incentive to sell us one of his company's products.

Except his own fees as a financial advisor, presumably ongoing. Also, you may
not be aware of this, but if a financial advisor steers a client toward a
particular fund, he gets a commission, despite the fact that he's an
independent agent, not an employee of the fund.

~~~
superuser2
> NAPFA defines a "Fee-Only" financial advisor as one who is compensated
> solely by the client, with neither the advisor nor any related party
> receiving compensation that is contingent on the purchase or sale of a
> financial product. This definition is in direct contrast to most advisors,
> who earn commissions, discounts, and other incentives when their clients
> purchase financial products. Also, unlike other financial planners, NAPFA
> members are required to clearly disclose the fee in advance.

Source:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Association_of_Persona...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Association_of_Personal_Financial_Advisors)

What you're saying is true of most financial planners, but _not_ fee-only
planners. That's the whole point of being fee-only.

Also I will use the Internet as long as I can starting out, but things aren't
always that simple. We hired an advisor this year because we received two
complex inheritances (one foreign) and started drawing down college savings,
all at once. My dad is a CPA and an ardent DIYer, but even he knew he was in
over his head and needed to hire a professional.

~~~
lutusp
You make good points, upvoted.

------
Almaviva
"It will just happen" is advice for normal people, not you. Nothing will ever
happen, not a single thing, that you don't work for. You have a chance to
experiment and make mistakes socializing with girls and it's acceptable to
even be rather crazy, and everyone will grow up and forget. Above literally
all things, don't waste this chance. Going to a school program that has more
men than women is a colossal failure of the kind of intelligence that actually
matters. A relationship is the single biggest determinant of human happiness
for you, weight it accordingly. Your window for finding one will end much
sooner than you'd like so don't take for granted any little experience you
ever have with a woman, because they will get rarer tending to zero.

~~~
EllaMentry
Alternatively...

Recognize that you will never be happy in a relationship until you are happy
with yourself. There is plenty of time to fall in love, seize the opportunity
while you are young to explore and don't let yourself be tied down to a
town/province/country.

My first serious relationship didn't come along till I was 24...by that point
I had lived in 3 countries, visited dozens more and had hundreds of exciting
opportunities (both in work and outside of work).

I know who I am outside of a relationship and I know that is a very attractive
quality in myself and others.

"Going to a school program that has more men than women is a colossal failure
of the kind of intelligence that actually matters."

Oh please! Going to a school program based on anything other than the quality
of schooling program is a colossal failure of the kind of intelligence that
matters. Schools have more than one department. Do what you love to do and
make friends (of all kinds) from all over the school (Humanities, Hard
Sciences, Maths, Soft Sciences..) - Life does not end with the classroom door.

~~~
Almaviva
You at 16 didn't need the kind of advice that I did. Congratulations,
seriously.

------
ChuckMcM
I agree with miles, build stuff. But perhaps more importantly _do stuff._ It
is highly unlikely you've discovered even a tenth of the things that you could
be passionate about.

Also don't drive by looking backwards. When I learned to sail my Dad told me
that you could tell a good sailor from a bad one by the straightness of the
wake left by the boat. I kept looking at the wake and trying to correct for
the various wobbles in it, and that made it more wobbly. I got frustrated and
told him it was impossible.

He took the tiller and proceeded to zoom straight across the lake we were on.
He explained that the only way your wake would be straight is if you kept you
eyes on your destination. When I asked how you could know your wake was
straight if you weren't looking at it, he said "People with you can see it and
will complement you on it."

It wasn't until I was much older (like 25) when it dawned on me he wasn't
talking about sailing.

~~~
biinui
sorry, i think i'm a bit obtuse. may you elaborate more on this?

~~~
anotherhue
Perhaps: Pay attention to where you're going, not where you've been?

------
mkautzm
Actually do something.

I talked about writing code more than I wrote code and that was a dumb
mistake.

Also, if I could do it all over again, I'd make it a point to really work with
C/C++. I feel like moving to any other imperative language is pretty easy if
you have a firm grasp of that language.

I would also not learn Objective-C, but that's more of an opinion than
anything.

~~~
taspeotis
> I would also not learn Objective-C, but that's more of an opinion than
> anything.
    
    
        wouldYouMindExplainingPlease:whyYouAreNotFondOfObjectiveC:withAnExample:orMaybeTwo:

~~~
mkautzm
My big hang up is that it's not used much outside of the Cocoa environment.

Beyond that, I'm a really big fan of putting C in the hands of people who want
to learn to program on the grounds that it forces you to develop good habits.
You don't get awesome, abstract data structures, inheritance, etc. to help
manage your project. You kind of have to develop good habits or else you end
up with a mess of a project that is unmanageable after a point. Those skills
apply to even modern, high-level languages. They are of course applied a
little differently, but it forces you to learn good project management skills.

------
gosu
1) Math is way more than calculus. Writing proofs is the best way to train the
general skills that will get you recognized as smart.

2) Stop being a coward. Always push yourself to do embarrassing,
uncomfortable, or hard things, or you'll still be 16 when you're 21.

3) Gaming and computing is addictive. Don't waste precious life on it.

4) You're an idiot, and your unexamined decisions make you a bad person,
though you don't intend to harm anyone. Find values to believe in, and use
them to make hard or painful decisions with dignity. Foremost of those should
be: treat your people well, even at your own expense.

5) Examine, accept, and embrace your feelings and your past, for better and
worse.

6) Read more fiction to learn more about life.

7) You're a social animal. You'll never grow as much, or be as happy, as when
you're surrounded by people.

8) Don't stop doubting yourself.

Very little of this has to do with programming or careers. But I don't regret
not knowing C at 16 nearly as much as I regret all of the above. Learning to
live well is so much more important.

------
ethanbond
I'm just a few years past you (18) and I can tell you the most significant
periods of growth I've had were when I jumped in WAY over my head.

I did design, got offered a front-end dev job, and learned HTML/CSS within 1
week after failing for 2 years.

Then I did HTML/CSS, went to a hackathon and had to dive into Rails to finish
on time, and I didn't "learn Rails" but I learned a TON (and won 2nd place!)

Took up a job doing more traditional ColdFusion and XSLT sites - learned a ton
in 3 days. I was also forced into learning SASS/SCSS - learned a ton within
like 2 weeks.

Keep going. Get in over your head. Take on the projects that you're not sure
you can finish, understand it's okay to walk away from them (jobs, too), but
try your hardest not to.

Also, take CS101 at your local college ASAP. It'll get you off your feet
wicked quick.

------
jacques_chester
_Dear Jacques,

Herewith some remarks:

1\. You have ADHD and are prone to clinical depression. Both are treatable.
Spending decades suffering pointlessly isn't necessary to discover either of
the former or the latter.

2\. Go find someone who can teach you Olympic weightlifting. You love it and
wish you'd started much earlier. It will teach you important lessons about
persistence. Plus you are one of those lucky blokes who can gain weight by
frowning at a barbell, might as well take advantage.

3\. Don't go straight to university. Take some time to grow up a little first.

Yours &c &c

You._

Funnily enough, none of these are about a laundry list of technologies. When I
was 16, people wrote web apps in mod_perl and DHTML was looked on as something
you resorted to only occasionally.

~~~
lutusp
> 1\. You have ADHD and are prone to clinical depression. Both are treatable.

Actually, according to recent findings, neither of those can either be
reliably diagnosed or treated. Recent meta-analyses reveal that anti-
depression treatments (both therapy and drugs) are in the majority of cases
indistinguishable from the placebo effect. As to ADHD, diagnosis remains a
very serious problem -- it's a throwaway diagnosis that anyone can either get
or avoid, depending on their tastes. And, like depression, there's no
meaningful treatment.

~~~
jacques_chester
It was very difficult to draft this reply without becoming unproductive and I
hope you take it as constructive feedback.

The contrarian articles you see linked here on HN or published in the _NYT_
are not a substitute for professional psychological and psychiatric advice.
They are published _because_ they are contrarian. "Scientists still agree" is
not a story.

Obtaining a diagnosis for ADHD is not "a throwaway" in most countries because
the first line of pharmaceutical treatment is stimulants with addictive
potential. These drugs are tightly regulated and the legal diagnostic bias is
against their being prescribed.

That the mechanisms are not completely understood and that _some_ studies show
a strong placebo effect does not mean that ADHD and depression can't be
diagnosed or treated. The preponderance of evidence is that for most cases a
judicious combination of pharmaceutical and therapeutic interventions can lead
to long term improvements in quality of life for both conditions. Neither
diagnosis or treatment is exact, but to throw them away for imperfection is an
example of the nirvana fallacy that leads to preventable harm.

I encourage you to consider the possibility that you are deterring others from
seeking help that could save their lives or significantly improve their
quality of life.

In future you might consider refraining from doing so and encourage others you
see struggling with mental health issues to seek out attention from a
psychologist or a psychiatrist, either of whom is better versed with the
current research than you or I.

~~~
lutusp
> The contrarian articles you see linked here on HN or published in the NYT
> are not a substitute for professional psychological and psychiatric advice.

Say what? Would that be why the director of the NIMH has recently decided to
phase out the DSM as scientifically worthless, saying "Patients with mental
disorders deserve better"?:

[http://www.nimh.nih.gov/about/director/2013/transforming-
dia...](http://www.nimh.nih.gov/about/director/2013/transforming-
diagnosis.shtml)

> That the mechanisms are not completely understood and that some studies show
> a strong placebo effect does not mean that ADHD and depression can't be
> diagnosed or treated.

No, it only means that diagnosis and treatment claims are anecdotal, neither
scientific no reliable. Surely you are aware that health service providers are
rapidly moving toward an evidence-based practice model, which when fully
enacted would eliminate the majority of psychological treatments across the
board, both drugs and therapy?

> The preponderance of evidence is that for most cases a judicious combination
> of pharmaceutical and therapeutic interventions can lead to long term
> improvements in quality of life for both conditions.

Unless you choose to count the placebo effect as a treatment success, that is
absolutely false. The current literature shows that neither diagnosis nor
treatment is efficacious _in any scientific sense_. As to cognitive-behavioral
therapy, it has recently been shown to be indistinguishable from the placebo
effect:

[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23416876](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23416876)

Quote: "These analyses, in combination with previous meta-analytic findings,
fail to provide corroborative evidence for the conjecture that CBT is superior
to bona fide non-CBT treatments."

Meaning: CBT, indistinguishable from any other therapy, is also ipso facto
indistinguishable from the placebo effect.

As to antidepression drugs, a recent meta-analysis that includes studies the
drug industry chose not to publish, shows them to be clinically
indistinguishable from placebo in most cases:

[http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fj...](http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pmed.0050045)

Quote: "Meta-analyses of antidepressant medications have reported only modest
benefits over placebo treatment, and when unpublished trial data are included,
_the benefit falls below accepted criteria for clinical significance_."

> I encourage you to consider the possibility that you are deterring others
> from seeking help that could save their lives or significantly improve their
> quality of life.

I encourage you to learn science, and bring yourself up to date on the present
self-inflicted plight of psychiatry and psychology. You clearly are living in
denial, ironic given the fact that you may be a mental health professional.

~~~
jacques_chester
> _Would that be why the director of the NIMH has recently decided to phase
> out the DSM as scientifically worthless, saying "Patients with mental
> disorders deserve better"?:_

An alternative reading is that he correctly identifies that the DSM is based
on consensus and that where possible he would like to replace consensus with
classifications built on additional modes of observations that have only
recently become available. I see that as a positive development.

> _Meaning: CBT, indistinguishable from any other therapy, is also ipso facto
> indistinguishable from the placebo effect._

For someone who believes in the immaculacy of science, you enjoy leaping to
conclusions.

> _I encourage you to learn science, and bring yourself up to date on the
> present self-inflicted plight of psychiatry and psychology._

Your rhetoric reminds me of some of the other anti-psychology literature I've
seen circulated by various organisations holding other beliefs that might be
charitably considered as "exotic".

> _You clearly are living in denial, ironic given the fact that you may be a
> mental health professional._

I'm not, but good luck with your Skinner Box vision of psychology.

In me you seem to see the fruits of a vast conspiracy against science and the
public. In you I see a person whose determination to XKCD386 is going to cause
active harm to others by spreading the idea that depression or ADHD should
simply be accepted and not treated.

This one can't be settled satisfactorily. Let's stop talking.

~~~
lutusp
> An alternative reading is that he correctly identifies that the DSM is based
> on consensus and that where possible he would like to replace consensus with
> classifications built on additional modes of observations that have only
> recently become available.

An alternative to your comments would be for someone to read the original and
discover that the problem is that, in psychiatry and psychology, these
conditions are only described, not explained, and any meaningful treatment
requires an explanation, an identified cause. Like in science.

> ... additional modes of observations ...

The issue is not "modes of observations", the issue is a widespread move
toward using the methods of neuroscience to identify the causes of these
conditions, and treating causes rather than symptoms.

> Your rhetoric reminds me of some of the other anti-psychology literature
> I've seen circulated by various organisations holding other beliefs that
> might be charitably considered as "exotic".

You aren't arguing against my views. You're arguing against the views of the
director of the NIMH and dozens of other qualified critics including the
editor of DSM-IV, all of whom hold the same general views I do. You're arguing
against a historic move toward science.

> I'm not, but good luck with your Skinner Box vision of psychology.

It's instructive that you've posted no evidence for your position. As to a
Skinner-box view of mental health treatment, I direct your attention to this
account of deep brain stimulation, a procedure in which a neurosurgeon was
able to erase all symptoms of depression in a severely depressed person by
throwing a switch:

[http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/02/magazine/02depression.html...](http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/02/magazine/02depression.html?pagewanted=all)

Quote: "Deanna later described it in similar terms. "It was literally like a
switch being turned on that had been held down for years," she said. "All of a
sudden they hit the spot, and I feel so calm and so peaceful. It was
overwhelming to be able to process emotion on somebody's face. I'd been numb
to that for so long."

"As it turned out, 8 of the 12 patients he operated on, including Deanna, felt
their depressions lift while suffering minimal side effects — an incredible
rate of effectiveness in patients so immovably depressed. Nor did they just
vaguely recover. Their scores on the Hamilton depression scale, a standard
used to measure the severity of depression, fell from the soul-deadening high
20's to the single digits — essentially normal."

End quote.

I emphasize this is a preliminary result, and at the moment it's expensive and
risky invasive surgery, unsuitable for any but the severely depressed. My
point is that I doubt the severely depressed clients who received this
treatment will object that they're being turned into updated versions of B. F.
Skinner's lab rats.

> In me you seem to see the fruits of a vast conspiracy against science and
> the public.

Locate that part of my posts in which this paranoid delusion finds support.
There is no vast conspiracy, there is just mediocrity, denial and
shortsightedness.

> ... by spreading the idea that depression or ADHD should simply be accepted
> and not treated.

Another example in which, with no evidence, you invent a position for someone
else. The issue before psychiatry and psychology is not whether to treat or
not to treat, the issue is that there is no reliable evidence that present
treatments work. This is why alternatives are being explored, and why the DSM
is finally being put aside.

> This one can't be settled satisfactorily.

Of course it can. Ask the director of the NIMH. Ask those who have received
meaningful scientific treatments for depression. Ask the victims of recovered
memory therapy whether they think that treatment merited the public support it
received. This issue certainly can be resolved satisfactorily, and the first
step has been taken -- the DSM, the "bible" of psychiatry and psychology, has
been set aside as having no scientific value.

------
rweba
(1) Exercise everyday

(2) Try to get enough sleep

(3) Make a very conscious effort to get out of your comfort zone and try
unfamiliar things, even if you only try them briefly.

(4) Understand and accept that sometimes it takes years before a project gives
any substantial results, so don't get discouraged if a project seems
impossibly hard and going nowhere at first.

~~~
ashleyjs
I love number 3. I have stepping out of my comfort zone for the past year and
I have done things I thought were impossible for me.

A great book for facing your fears and expanding your comfort zone is the
Flinch: [http://www.amazon.com/The-Flinch-
ebook/dp/B0062Q7S3S](http://www.amazon.com/The-Flinch-ebook/dp/B0062Q7S3S)

------
cperciva
Publish, even if you don't think your work is ready. Better to publish five
papers which all have loose ends in need of tying up than to publish a single
work of undoubted genius. Other people will tie up the loose ends, and
everybody will remember you as having the original ideas.

When I was 15, I did my first significant research, discovering a novel (and
significantly faster) algorithm for computing GCDs of polynomials over
algebraic number fields; but I was never fully satisfied with it, since it was
only applicable to fields spanned by low-degree algebraics. My supervisor
encouraged me to publish it nonetheless, and in hindsight I should have done
so -- if nothing else, so that the two Master's students who extended it over
the following years would have had something to cite.

In your case, you're interested in programming rather than mathematics or
computer science, but the same principle applies: Don't hesitate to release
something because it's "not quite perfect". If you've built something cool,
release it -- you can always improve it further and do another release later.

Oh, and I'd give my 16 year old self one other piece of advice: Where girls
are concerned, don't waste your time. Wait until your friends are partnered
and decide they want to help you. It's much easier once you have a circle of
friends who can offer help and advice and encouragement.

------
zachlatta
I'm a bit younger than you, but the biggest hurdle for me was just starting.
Don't teach yourself Objective-C. Make an app.

I'd love it if you'd shoot me an email at zchlatta (at) gmail.com. I'm always
interested to talk to other passionate people.

------
cup
Listen to dad. Hes right about everything, you'll realise when you're older.
Be kind to mum, you owe everything to her.

~~~
milesf
When I was 16, my parents were idiots. I'm 44 now, and they sure have
smartened up a lot :D

~~~
lutusp
> When I was 16, my parents were idiots. I'm 44 now, and they sure have
> smartened up a lot

"When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to
have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much
the old man had learned in seven years." –Mark Twain

------
fusiongyro
The most important attribute that young programmers lack is empathy. All of
the weird-sounding miscellaneous advice you get really flows from it.
Commenting the "why" rather than the how, documentation, adhering to coding
conventions, these are all just manifestations of being kind to the
maintenance programmer, which is empathy. Making the user interface attractive
and usable, providing helpful support and performing rigorous testing are just
manifestations of being kind to the user, which is empathy. Cultivating
articulate expression, in code, speech and writing, is empathy for those who
must start from scratch to understand you and what you've done. Egoless
programming is empathy for your coworkers. So you can throw away almost all of
the specific advice I have mentioned and instead focus on being empathetic,
and you won't go astray.

------
lutusp
> What advice would you give your 16 year old self?

I'm 68 and I know exactly what I would tell my 16-year-old self:

1\. Learn more math and science, and don't delay -- the longer you put them
off, the harder they are to absorb. Math and science are the real deal --
nearly everything else is contentless opinion, much more heat than light.

2\. Try to minimize time and energy spent on dating and sexual behaviors --
they're the most overrated waste of energy ever invented.

3\. Learn how compound interest works, and avoid as many discretionary
purchases as possible. "Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world.
He who understands it, earns it ... he who doesn't ... pays it." \-- Albert
Einstein

I literally spent decades recovering from bad decisions made when I was young,
all having to do with the above points. If I were able to confront my 16-year-
old self today, I would kick myself down the stairs.

------
regis
I would tell myself to not be afraid of publicly failing. I had, and sometimes
still do have, a really hard time putting myself out there. So, do not be
afraid of the judgment of others; if you are proud of what you're doing then
that's all that matters.

------
Jach
Don't put anything on the shelf for "later". Do as much as you can now, even
if it means less than perfect grades. Beware of psychological burnout if
you're feeling discomfort with doing stuff. Don't go to college if you're
having any doubts about its utility, but look at the course sequence for a
candidate school and degree and acquire the books used for the core classes.
Look for free lectures online too. If you don't have any, make at least one
friend whom you can talk technical with anytime. Consider going to interesting
Meetup.com meetups in your area -- especially when you're looking for a job.

------
michaelpinto
1\. Broaden your interests as much as you can. When I was 16 the filed of
information architecture and usability didn't exist, so as time goes on tech
will be less about code.

2\. Actually play with putting together hardware. The era of building your own
PC is coming to an end and you should experience that before it's gone.

3\. Life advice: Treasure your older relatives while they're still alive and
tell them that you love them. Try to capture as much family history as you can
and write it down.

------
gdubs
Really try to finish projects when you start them. It will be tempting to drop
what you're working on when you get a new idea, or things aren't turning out
the way you saw them in your mind; keep a journal for those new ideas. Keep
things simple. Keep working the broad strokes before getting too wrapped up in
the details. Do things in drafts, and refine in subsequent passes. Try to find
like-minded people to collaborate with.

------
plessthanpt05
Study (& enjoy) math ...that's what I'd tell my 16 year old self.

------
marquis
Never, ever drop out of advanced math class. You will live to rue the day.

~~~
dil8
Yes, learn as much maths as you can...

------
gmuslera
Many of the advices that i would give to myself i'm giving them to my nieces,
is good to have internet to back up some of them.

* be aware of its own cognitive bias (there is a nice listing in wikipedia)

* studying is not a waste of time, is forming a culture to better communicate with others and gaining a toolchain that will prove useful. And is not something passive, teachers guide, but is your responsibility to learn in a way or another.

* the boring math proofs worth at the very least as a training for better, more rigorous thinking, no matter if you ever see math again.

Regarding programming, recommended them to play with Scratch when were
younger, and probably would recommend them to play with python as the next
step, if they were interested in programming, at least.

But if I really could had given something to my younger self, probably would
be the Grays Sport Almanac 1950-2000

------
anigbrowl
Go to college anyway even if some of the material seems boring or irrelevant.
Always own at least one musical instrument. Money is quite useful but is
ultimately an instrumentality. Learn enough about law and economics to
appreciate the limitations of formal systems and statistical methods.
Subscribe to _The Economist_. Don't smoke tobacco, but do brush your teeth
regularly. Find some physical activity you enjoy a lot, which will save you
from having to exercise. Don't be afraid to admit you don't know, but don't
underplay your ability to find out either. Employ adjectives sparingly. Read
books that you find difficult to understand.

------
chrismealy
It's okay to quit things you don't like.

------
teamonkey
1) Don't worry too much about your future, follow your interests.

2) Don't panic about needing to learn everything at once. Take your time.

3) Learn how to finish things, even if that means taking on smaller tasks than
you'd like.

------
dmunoz
This exact question was recently asked. Many comments from seven days ago [0].

[0]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6153368](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6153368)

------
bdreadz
Tell myself to finish a lot of the ideas I had started. That they were
excellent ideas. It's what actually drives me a lot now when I have ideas and
at points doubt what I'm doing.

------
treme
Learn to learn. Find out and become aware of how your focus & energy level
shifts through out the day and allocating those time in well spent manner.

Deciding on what experience will likely increase % of you working with high
quality people on hopefully, meaningful work. Check out one of gazillion on
going opensource projects that interest you.

Read books, learn to find good books, repeat

and of course do allow some balance in life, not everything should be about
being 100% productive man.

gl

------
datalus
Don't try to be someone you're not. I spent a lot of time in my mid to late
teens trying to be what I thought others wanted me to be.

------
lifeisstillgood
1\. Do a hard degree at a good school

2\. Sleep around more

3\. Try new stuff, but it's ok to say no to somethings

4\. Make enough money that you have 6 mths savings and a few months lying
around to invest - when an opportunity arises it will hit you that day and its
great to just say yes.

5\. Don't worry if you can't do all this now - time your life in decades not
weeks.

6\. Sleep around more. Seriously. Don't be a jerk about it but just have fun.

7\. See 6. :-)

------
chrisrickard
"You can do it".

Sounds super lame, but I've always suffered from from self-doubt and anxiety -
especially as a young dude. If I knew at 16 that I was just about to fall in
love with computers, get into university, travel the world, have a string of
great jobs, then become my own boss, AND marry an amazing girl... I would be
pretty fricking happy.

------
subsection1h
I would advise myself to use search engines[1] when they're available so my
younger self could find relevant information[2].

EDIT: dmunoz beat me to it.

[1] [https://www.hnsearch.com/](https://www.hnsearch.com/)

[2]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6153368](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6153368)

------
threeseed
Work in as many different countries as possible.

IT is one of the few jobs where you can travel/work easily. So do it.

------
spc476
Advice to me at 16? Forget [girl A], and instead, go for [girl B] or even
[girl C]. Do whatever it takes to convince your parents/grandparents to buy,
in your name, 100 shares of Microsoft stock _and never sell it_ (because by
the time they start paying dividends, you'll never have to work).

For a 16 year old, now, interested in programming computers, learn assembly
language, even if it's just for a 6502 or Z80 [1]. It will give you a feeling
for how the computer works.

Also, learn how to learn. What you learn now will change drastically over the
next twenty years (when I started college, Fortran was still taught, you had
actual _multiuser_ systems, and there was no such thing as a "webmaster," and
Perl had just been released into the wild).

Another thing to keep in mind---there really is nothing new under the sun.
Arguments about writing an application in Python over C++? Old hat (C vs.
assembly). Languages targeting a virtual machine? Old hat (UCSD Pascal, and
before that, various IBM computers from the 60s and 70s). It just takes new
forms, which need to be learned (see previous lesson).

And one lesson that might be unorthodox---never cut-n-paste code. Take the
time to type it out. That's how an entire generation of programmers who grew
up in the late 70s/80s learned---by typing programs in (from books and
magazines) by hand. It's hard to see how this helps, but it does. It forces
you to _look_ at a program as you type it in, to see how it's constructed. No,
really. In fact, if you read up on successful authors, you'll find a good
portion of them actually copied (long hand, or typewriter, or computer) entire
books by authors they liked.

Never be afraid of trying something out. It may not work, but now, you'll know
a way of _not_ doing something. Or _why_ a certain approach won't work. Or
will. You might surprise yourself. Don't let your lack of knowledge keep you
from trying something, because you might in fact do something that so call
experts said couldn't be done.

Oh, and keep this quote from H. L. Mencken in mind: "No one in this world, so
far as I know-and I have searched the record for years, and employed agents to
help me-has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great
masses of the plain people."

That's all I have for now.

[1] Personally, I'd lean towards CPUs made by Motorola, as they're a bit more
sane in the assembly language department, but really, _any_ CPU assembly
language will help. Well, maybe not the Intel 80x86 family. The 8086, 80186,
80286, 80386, 80486, Pentium ... it's just an insane family of CPUs.

------
sebastianavina
get more friends and leave the computer alone from time to time

------
Claudus
Don't waste time in grad school unless you want to be a professor.

Work out a little, girls like muscles.

~~~
glifchits
Don't get hung up on the girls who are only looking for guys with muscles.

------
hardwaresofton
1\. Get involved with open source software.

2\. DO something with your skill

3\. Be well mannered.

4\. Be very careful what you put on the Internet. When I was young, I barely
put my real first/last name anywhere, and the word 'avatar' meant 'cool
picture of something I like, because there is no way I would put a picture of
my face on the internet'.

------
cafard
i. Study as much math as you can handle. ii. Put effort into learning foreign
languages; at least one well enough for easy reading and non-painful
conversation. iii. Be wary of alcohol.

------
andrewgjohnson
Actively pursue girls and recreational drugs more than you are.

~~~
milesf
What horrible advice. Be yourself, and learn to be friends with women. If you
want to marry just one lady for the rest of your life, you're going to have to
be "just friends" with every other woman on the planet anyway.

And recreational drugs? Learn to deal with life on your own without having to
rely on crutches. I've seen too many people destroy their lives with drugs
(including alcohol) and many more who need a hit/taste/boost/shot in order to
deal with the stresses of life.

~~~
mr_spothawk
Sobriety can be a crutch as well. If you can't trust yourself to make
reasonably sane decisions when you're totally loaded, how do you know you can
trust yourself when it matters?

For the OP: Don't trust people who tell you drugs are bad when they haven't
used them extensively. There are lots of ways to hurt yourself. I've seen
plenty of people hurt themselves with drugs, but I've seen more of them hurt
themselves in cars and on bikes and with crummy jobs. But don't over-do the
drugs thing. And don't do drugs if you're not interested.

------
sytelus
* Get PhD. Everyone should know at least something inside and out and have contributed to that little a bump to the human knowledge. At minimum stay in school as long as you possibly can.

* Take a year off before you decide to be a corporate employee or start a corporation of yours. Go see world. There has never been time like these to experience literally 100s of cultures that has evolved during past 1000s of years. If you postpone this to later age, most likely it's not going to happen because you will have job with limited vacation or partner who has different preferences or kids who can't travel safely to wild places. You are living Marco Polo's dream. Don't waste it.

* If and when you decide to seek employment, give money the least priority. A lot of young people are fixated on money in initial years either because they want to feel safe or want to prove themselves. This puts them on path to become corporate slaves that you see all around you and get disgusted. A lot of non-profits, pure science/art organizations and academic jobs has higher possibility to unlock your potential and give you enjoyment and satisfaction than initially higher paying jobs in big corporations and likes of wall street.

* When you are young (which I mean by less than 30 years old), involve in as many physical activities as possible. Mountaineering, rock climbing, kayaking, hiking, backpacking, swimming, marathons... Pick an activity, set a yearly goal and train for it. For example, swim a mile in open ocean or run a marathon or climb a 14000 footer or do your first 5.10 rock climb. Subscribe to local groups that does these so you have motivation. All these are going to get much harder to pick up as you age. If you had started training for at younger age, you would continue to enjoy it in your 40s, 50s and sometime even in 60s. There is absolutely nothing more important than to be physically fit in your old age and you likely won't get there unless you are active through your life.

* Make _physical_ things! Have something non-trivial to show for each year that you _made_ by your own hands. This would require to learn electronics, carpentry, machine tools, automobile engineering, plumbing, sewing, cooking and so on. Pick one of these skills, enroll in to real course at community/professional colleges and set a target to make something. These are skills takes years to perfect and unless you start at early age, chances are that you are not going to master it.

* Don't rush to get married. A lot of times you will find a person who you think is perfect for you. You might even have anxiety to lose her/him. Take as much time as you possibly can without getting married. This is essentially to get to know person and them to know you. Once you get married, life is very different. You will take less risk and you will have far less time for anything else and your choices will be governed by mutual agreements instead of your own will. It's not a waste of time but it's different. If one you or both decides you have children, your life will change even more dramatically again. With even less risk taking, even less hard core exploration and even less time for anything else. Having children is rewarding but while you are young, do things and invest your time in things you can't do later.

------
lvturner
Create.

------
lsh123
Invest in some kind of fruit company

------
rooshdi
Launch cheap, build value.

------
keefe
join the army after college

~~~
Jach
Why after? Most do it before, I think that's the better strategy if you're
going to do it at all. Easier to get fit when you're younger, the army will
happily fund your college costs after, and if you're smart you might get to
work with some neat tech in the army you wouldn't otherwise...

~~~
keefe
well for me I was finished with college when I was 20... maybe it would have
been better to do it right after high school. Based on my personal life I
think after college at 20 would have been a solid time to hit it, also noting
that I graduated high school in 99 and college in 02, so I considered it
during the nationalistic wave of that time period.

