
Ask HN: What advice would you give yourself looking back on your journey? - good_vibes
Got a lot to learn, unlearn, relearn. No time to waste.
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pcunite
"Stop being so arrogant! You need people!", that would be one thing I would
tell my past self, right after I smacked him upside the head.

Be humble, trust win, trust lose, trust again. Adapt to the market, don't
think it'll adapt to you!

Also, the real meaning of life is to find your creator, not make millions of
dollars. When they bury your sad fat rear end in the ground, all you've made
goes to someone else. The afterlife is a part of life. Read Acts 2:38.

~~~
rabidonrails
This reminds me of the story of dying wish of the billionaire(?) Edward
Reichmann:

He died in Jerusalem after a long illness at the age of 80 years old. He was a
real estate tycoon who had become a billionaire. When he passed away, he left
a vast fortune worth billions of dollars. He left 2 wills directing that one
be opened immediately and that the other one to be opened 30 days later. Among
the instructions left in his first will was the request that he be buried with
a certain pair of socks he owned. The Reichmann children immediately brought
the socks to the (religious) burial group, requesting that their father be
buried in them. Of course the group refused, reminding the family that it is
against Jewish law. They pleaded explaining that their father was a very pious
and learned man, and he obviously had a very good reason to make this request,
but the group remained firm in their refusal.

The family frantically summoned the burial group to the religious courts where
the great Rabbi explained to them "Although your father left that request when
he was in this world, now that he is in the world of truth, he surely
understands that it is in his best interests to be buried without the socks."

Mr. Reichmann was buried without his socks.

30 days later, the second will was opened and it read something like this: "My
dear children, by now you must have buried me without my socks. I wanted you
to truly understand that a man can have a billion dollars, but in the end, he
can't even take along one pair of socks!"

~~~
greenhouse_gas
It was Paul (Moshe) Reichmann and his children said that the story never
happened

~~~
rabidonrails
Mythbuster! :)

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trcollinson
A few things.

* Don't necessarily trust, without thorough vetting, those who made money extremely quickly and claim to truly understand business. Being successful at business and understanding business can and often are very different achievements.

* You can entirely do it on your own, you don't need anyone else. [1]

* You cannot entirely do it on your own, you need a partner. [1]

* Maybe my greatest business insight: the longer it takes to find revenue to less likely you will be to find revenue or profitability.

[1] These are not mutually exclusive. For me, I needed to realize that I did
not have to be trapped by a partner. And I also needed to realize I should not
be trapped by doing things by myself. Picking the right partner is essential
whether in business or just in life. I have been lucky to find them in both
cases.

------
amerkhalid
Stop working on random side projects after work.

Do what you enjoy in the evenings.

And if you still want to do a side project then work on it and market it for
maximum of an hour every day but for, at least, a year before starting a next
project.

~~~
nul_byte
Ack. I had this thing where I would feel guilty in the evenings for not
working on side projects.

I was getting up at 6am and doing the dad thing for my two kids getting them
fed and ready for school. Walking the dog at 8am and then working from 9am to
5-6pm. Then I would do the dad thing again, until the kids went to bed at 7-8
pm. Spend an hour or so with my wife and then stare bleary eyed at a load of
terminals and code until 11-12pm, feeling guilty that I was not the next
greatest individual creating cutting edge tech.

Now I have a no work policy in the evening. I still spend time on learning new
tech, but I do this for short periods during the working week / hours.

------
psyc
"Don't waste time. Don't abuse alcohol. You wouldn't shoot heroin, so for the
same reasons, don't 'fall in love' either. You think of yourself as frugal,
but you aren't even close. Save your money. Don't speculate on stocks. Buy the
smallest house you can find. Meditate. Don't interact with people at all while
emotional."

~~~
mythrwy
Very good.

I'd add don't smoke weed much either. Ya I know, it makes you more creative
and no one has ever overdosed on it etc. etc. But not many who achieve a lot
smoke it habitually either. Except Snoop Dog maybe but that's probably not the
career you are going for. The "creativity" is often not quite as valuable as
it seems at the time. You'll spend a lot of time down dead end paths before
you realize how dead end they actually are.

Don't speculate is huge. If I had the money back from when I was younger and
thought I was very clever and going to make a quick mint through this or that
I'd be quite pleased.

I may disagree about falling in love. The effects can indeed be bad but it can
also be more than worth it. This reality is about a lot more than how much we
can accumulate in life.

------
Mz
One of my college professors once said "I am the primitive of my way." It has
taken me a long time to realize that people who are currently "successful" are
not necessarily people I should try to follow in the footsteps of. It is
better to try to stand on their shoulders and see farther than they could, so
to speak.

They aren't where they are because everything they do is brilliant. A lot of
what they do can be improved upon. Admiring their accomplishments is fine.
Trying to understand their success is fine. But assuming that they are
unequivocally _better_ than me in every way is problematic and simply not
true.

I wish I had gotten the memo sooner that other people in positions of
influence or whatever don't necessarily know more than me or have better
answers than I have. It is a lot more complicated than that.

------
mythrwy
-People are more important than anything else but they come and go. They are still more important than anything else.

-Don't get lost in the weeds. It's easy to let small things that are immediately interesting take precedence over more important things.

-You won't be what you are now in 10 or 20 years. You'll think differently and have different abilities. Age comes before you know it. Remember this always and don't think you have it all figured out because you never do.

-Work hard but take it easy. Don't let stress over little shit destroy your long term productivity (see lost in the weeds section). It's a marathon not a sprint.

-Things change fast. Plan for the future but do so loosely because you are probably going to have to re-asses shortly enough.

-A little a day for 10 years is worth more than a lot for 1 year in terms of what it gets you. Saving, learning, all those thing. Don't plan on big windfalls.

~~~
pcunite
_It 's a marathon not a sprint._

That is a good one. Very true.

~~~
Lordarminius
It's a marathon not a sprint; so start now

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taway_1212
Learn about yourself - what motivates you, what are your limits etc. This way
you'll know if some goals are realistic or just pipe dreams.

To expand on that, let's say that you want to become an uber-programmer, like
John Carmack. In his own words (paraphrasing), "everyone can do it, all
resources are available online, you just need sit and do it". While this is
technically true, the reality is that he seems to be extremely gifted when it
comes to sustaining focus when working on abstract/technical tasks (while your
average developer starts checking out after 4-5 hours). If you're like that
and read about people like him, the conclusion is that you're like a short
person trying to compete in NBA - technically feasible, but the odds are
against you.

------
mchan
Taking something personally - e.g. what happens to you, or how someone treats
you - is a choice. Choose not to take everything personal, because things
rarely are.

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alltakendamned
Find the right people with who you enjoy working instead of assimilating
corporate culture.

Stand up for your real values and stay true to them.

Don't just learn something, but publish, write, talk, demonstrate what you
have learned. It helps build a public profile.

------
kamphey
Direction of energy is more important than anything else.

Who do you give energy and to what tasks? Make sure it's good.

------
AnimalMuppet
Your kids should have priority over your side projects. Yes, you're going to
get interrupted a lot. Welcome it rather than resenting it - you are
privileged to be able to now spend your time on something more important.

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Mushi_0
Whatever energy you have left to feel guilty about "not doing enough",
reinvest it into letting go. Don't take being bored, in the moment, and
content. We've unlearned these very basic things in this contemporary age.

Make a goal because it's a good exercise to start the journey. But just follow
your heart after you start walking because if it was meaningful, you will find
some way to incorporate it into your life.

Go slower. Enjoy the things you could only in university; there's no need to
graduate earlier; you can work while going to school, but you cannot go back
to thinking like a student after you've started working.

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touchysubject
Well-roundedness is overrated. Focus focus focus.

Invest as early as possible. Don't throw away money on flashy material crap.

------
oldmancoyote
Few worthwhile efforts are ever successful on the first attempt. Failure is
just another useful metric. It has nothing to do with guilt.

------
tmaly
You don't always have to know the answer, just understand the question.

------
pasbesoin
Trust yourself.

Take care of your health.

If it's not working for you, walk away.

Have fun. If you're not having fun, change things.

Deal with fear and anger. They're useful, but only if you take positive
action. Let them fester, and they will destroy you.

There are no guarantees.

TANSTAAFL

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ParameterOne
It's ok to set impossible goals as long as you get going in that
direction....like walking toward the horizon, you can always see farther the
more you walk.

------
danschumann
Rather than looking forward to the next big thing, and trying to hype myself
up over a random idea, look back: what are your greatest memories, successes,
and create more of them.

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anoncof
Move to the US for work. I'm Canadian and have probably given up hundreds of
thousands of dollars because of not moving sooner.

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nul_byte
"Just say no."

------
taf2
Relax

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dmitripopov
1\. Set up priorities

2\. Focus

3\. Take a break

------
dpeck
eat healthier.

