Ask HN: What would you do if you could start over?
Does anyone here feel like they took steps that ended up unexpectedly slowing their career/progress? If you could go back 10 years with the knowledge you have now, with the sole goal of having an idea that could be a successful startup, what would you do different?
I'm looking for things such as: -College major -Career field -Bad life decisions -Relocation -Finances -General personal development (Not work/startup related, such as working out) -Career development
Please feel free to add anything you think is fit, even if it isn't on that list
142 comments
[ 3.3 ms ] story [ 245 ms ] threadI also wish I'd left the tech industry sooner. Now that I'm in a field that's a better fit for me, I just wish I could have the same length of career as some of my coworkers in it.
I have horrible sleep hygiene and it worries my sometimes. I’ve had bad sleep habits starting as a teen so it’s been hard to break out of them.
I lift heavy weights for 1-2 hours every other day. My body forces me to sleep 8-9 hours/day to recover.
The tipping point was going to bed only when sleepy and forcing myself up at the same time every day as much as possible. Problem is, some weeks will be super rough, but I kept trying and even with an imperfect execution that made me sleepy again at bedtime, which I thought was something I had lost forever. To lay down and sleep.
What helped you the most with the chronic insomnia? Do you have any advice?
Thanks
For me, it was a combination of things, here's the order I've tried: 1. Lift weights 2-3 times a week. 2. Avoid caffeine after 10:00am. 3. Stop eating like an idiot. 4. Go to the doctor and get blood work done. Turns out my hormones were all screwy. I had to get three different opinions before I found a doctor who gave me more info than "go to sleep sooner" and actually gave me some vitamins and hormone pills that helped a lot. 5. Therapy (CBT). It took me going to 3-4 therapists before I found one that jived with me.
For some people you just need to do step 1 or 2. For me it took all five. My biggest lesson is that doctors are just people to who are trying their best. Don't be afraid to see more than one or push them if you're not getting results. They can only help you as much as the feedback you give them.
It was totally worth doing all this though.
Also: Avoid caffeine for the first 90 minutes of your day.
The lifting did it with me. And going to bed at 10 every night for two years in my early 30s, because there was someone next to me I wanted go be like.
Jokes aside, I feel like the last 10 years have largely been like that. The more you took massive nonsensical risks, the more likely you were to be handsomely rewarded. So, basically, everything I did that I considered "prudent" 10 years ago, I'd do the opposite.
I was into the silly subreddit at the time, when they sponsored the racecar. Seemed like a fun time. Turns out they actually hit the moon after all...
I worked in games ~20 years ago at my first job, and then got a huge increase when I moved outside the games industry
Games just don't pay well. I respect people who do it for the love and art of it. As far as I can see, low pay is part of the deal.
There is the outside chance of a massive hit, but most game devs aren't owners, and risk is proportional to reward
At 30, I wish I was doing this stuff at 20. Health and fitness were a priority, focusing time on things that bring ROI into life including more career oriented, less booze and idiotics.
I married and we had two kids in our 20’s, probably the best thing either of us ever did. Wish I could shift this earlier a few years as well so we’ll have more years together as they grow old and have their own families.
Sorry if confusing, on mobile.
Helps me get through some bs.
Turns out I'm capable of less than I realized.
I was training yesterday and had the same conversation. I am a 48 1-strip blue belt and my body is starting to give on the wear and tear.
I learned the wrong lessons from the ~1994-2001 dotcom bubble era (as a teenager) and I wasted a bunch of years correcting various wrong ideas about business that I had picked up.
I think my upbringing focused a lot on “stick it out” and “work hard and you will get recognized exactly like you deserve.” It was a passive laborer mentality from a blue collar area.
I took a sabbatical and after some soul searching realized it was more like “sharks that stop swimming drown.” Career and compensation took off after that.
In an index fund for 40 years with an average rate of return, after inflation, it would be worth about $35k.
Not enough money to make any difference at all, and to save any more would have probably had a negative rate of return because it would have negativity impacted my job prospects.
Now that I make more than enough money to save for an early retirement, I’m glad I had the experiences I did rather than save every penny I could through my 20s.
Why did you quit those?
it took me years to understand that i am driven by human interaction. what i am struggling now is how to translate that into advice. i mean yes, i should have looked for jobs that do pair programming. but every personality is different. how would a 25 year old know if that advice applies.
the best i can come up with is to try a few different jobs and pay attention what it is that that is fun.
but even there you can mislead yourself. i did a programming internship while studying and figured that i hated 9-5 office work. then i did foss development with roxen and pike and i absolutely loved it. but i thought it was the programming language, when in truth it probably was that i was working closely with the people that used the website i built. so i stumbled from one experience to the next without really understanding what made work fun.
i can work on side projects all alone for months at a time because i was solving problems for myself. or i can do the utmost boring work with a hands-on client. we worked together for 10 years. the most wonderful person i have ever worked with. working together made the dullest task enjoyable.
i suppose the common element is that there was a need that had to be filled. in one case it was my own, in another it was someone elses.
but how does that translate into actionable advice?
Perhaps, be aware of what you need in coworkers / end-users, and look for that?
Something that many in the tech industry completely neglect, thinking it's all about tech.
I think your comment is gold dust BTW, basically all of us need to figure out how to be HAPPY. And you've clearly stated what you need, which I think a lot of us need but don't always realise we do, which is to be important/helpful to other people. Much more important than making huge $$$$$$$$/ ££££££££££££ or being an expert in mega-cool-language-or-framework-X-which-will-inevitably-one-day-be-oboslete-however-much-we-pretend-it-wont
I'd have coded up a BitGrid and had chips done a decade ago, instead of just starting on it now
I want to go back to the 1980s, after high school, but before life wore me down. Marry the same girl, but 15 years sooner.
Missing that time with my kids was so... amazingly... stupid.
Wasted a lot of time being sick for no good reason that I can’t get back.
Opportunities to get in on something like the dot-com boom having ~all the relevant skills? Far fewer per lifetime.
Let's start with the simple one, we don't know that the OP is a guy interested in women.
Or is that a joke? Not very funny anymore. I have met a lot of smart women. My wife is definitely one of them. I wish I have met her in my 20.
You're creating drama where should have none. His life advice to himself is to not focus too much/too early in women (or sex, love, ...), this is a great advice.
Are we reading the same thread? "What would you do if you could start over?"
I would commit to things more fervently rather than trying to decide if it's good value to commit. There is a lot of value to be had in commiting that can outweigh flexibility
Smoke less
Waste less time
Explore more of the world
Arrange certain finances earlier.
But strictly in career terms, I wish that ten years ago I had taken full advantage of my legal right to work part-time, and gone to get a doctorate in a non-tech field. A couple years of living cheap would have given me career-mobility superpowers that I wish I had now that I'm older.