Advice for a young me
33 things I wish I knew sooner
Today I’ve been having a particularly reflective day and decided maybe it would be cool to try and write down some things I wish I’d known when I was younger.
Next thing I knew I had a list of nearly 50 things and thought “wow, younger me was an absolute idiot."
And yep, he really was.
But anyway, I’ve condensed it down ever so slightly and rather than making this a 10,000 word essay detailing all the failings and mistakes I’ve made in life and the miraculous ways I’ve somehow gained mild success, instead, you have some bullet points to read.
Aim to get rich slowly, years go by faster than you think and the odds of success are greater
Your biggest wins will come from relentless pursuit of things others can’t comprehend
The competition at the highest level is far smaller than you think
Seek out those who are able to be nuanced with their thinking
Find what you enjoy and work really really hard at it
Do more stuff that takes a long time - reading, writing, conversations
Spend more time with your parents - ask them about life
Take more pictures and especially videos
You’ll draw on your darkest moments as inspiration in the future, nothing bad lasts forever
Try to be kind as a default - being toxic benefits no one
Spend more time in nature - ideally, alone
Try to take things less seriously, we’re all just monkeys in clothes, none of this really matters
Don’t do stuff that doesn’t make you happy, if it’s making you miserable, walk away
Remember, the sunk cost fallacy is just that, a fallacy
Be willing to be vulnerable, it takes courage to do so
Forgive people, and put yourself in the shoes of others
Embrace being weird, if you love something others around you find strange, increase the sample size
Put exercise before almost anything else, you only have one body
If you have conviction in something, play the long game and ignore the short term noise
When you take time off, actually take time off, don’t mix vacation with work. Be present.
Remember, no matter how smart you think you are, you’re still a moron, but everyone else is too
You don’t always have to do what your teachers think is best for you
Spend time learning to think probabilistically - every decision you make is a bet
Remember, basically no one knows what they’re doing
Embrace and seek out discomfort, it’s where the biggest growth takes place
The overton window shifts more frequently than you’d expect, try to be open minded
Always ask the stupid questions
Do what you think you should do, not what others think you should do
People are far less bad than you’d think by watching the news. Switch it off
Look for patterns in everything, successful people, happy people, great businesses, emulate those that make sense
Do more things that scare you - yes, that includes public speaking
The gap between people's perception and reality is where the real money is made, embrace the grey
Extraordinary people are just normal people that have worked extremely hard on weird things
Of course there are about a hundred more things I could add to this list, but without turning into some kind of lifestyle guru motivational speaker I think I’ll leave it here.
I will however write some more detailed posts in future on the ones that are less self-explanatory, or are particularly relevant to crypto.
Have a great weekend!