Ask HN: If you could redo your 20s, what would you do differently?

I would ruminate less and act more, instead of driving myself into anxiety and depression through overthinking how to 'optimize' life.

I would focus on the guitar, start the band, and give it my all, in stead of talking myself into something safe and sensible and selling the guitar.

I would stick with electrical engineering in college, instead of abandoning it halfway through because I thought I 'wasn't smart enough'.

I would stop worrying about trying to control how others see and think of me, instead of driving myself into anxiety, depression, and obesity through trying to convince others I was something I wasn't.

Say "yes" more, try more things, try things at least 3 times before giving up.

Also, I had so many ideas that I didn't get around to trying until my 30s, and it was mostly because instead of just going for it, I would share them with others first, and get talked out of it for various fear-related reasons.

I would tell more people more things about what I've already done, and fewer people fewer things that I haven't done yet but am planning, unless they themselves were good at those things or involved in my plans.

Probably not a thing. My 20s were hard. I am who I am because of my life experiences, and I like who I am. If I could go back, the only thing I’d hope to do is hidden investments that would mature around now. Early retirement sounds pretty good.

- Ratio between thinking and doing. People call it overthinking, I don't, because in some cases, I prevented myself some nasty situations (e.g. any form of addiction, scams and similar things). So it has been beneficial as well, but I think it took more than it gave me back.

- Less relationships and more dating. Though, it might be the case that I'd want it the other way around since I did this once in my life and got tired about it after 5 weeks (traveling, having intimacy -- kissing and/or sex -- with one woman per week). I think this points serves to show that even if I could redo life, it doesn't mean it'd be better at all points.

- Not study as much and get a job ASAP. I started a first serious freelance job around 27 (being a TA before). In retrospect, I should've ditched my extracurricular study stuff and started making money at 22 and invest 50% of it. Preferably, I'd have gotten a job at 16 (20 hours per week) and started investing 50% of that. I don't regret investing late, despite the fact that I don't have the amazing compound interest of a 16 year old. But I do regret not having any focus on building up some capital. Especially because I don't have access to high paying jobs, despite being a programmer and despite delivering good work (I am terrible at job interviews as I'm simply myself and find it hard to apply to one role). I have some now and have needed to rely on it at times and it saved me a ton of stress and related mental health issues (potentially caused by stress [1]).

[1] I know because there has been one time where I did get hit by stress for a bit too long (6 months). If it would go unchecked for a couple of years, then a moderate depression might be what you're looking at.

If I had to stick with technology, I would have forced myself to master either of one of the following programming languages, that is C++ or Java.

After all these years, here I am trying to master my craft (in web development), because this thing was told to me that is the job of the future, but no one told me that it evolves so fast that whatever you learn today, in 3 months time becomes obsolete, let alone ancient!

Now, if I had to choose between technology and anything else, I would choose the latter 100 times!

It would be nice to become 16 to 20 again and give myself the chance to choose a much more traditional job, something that involves hands and creativity.

I know it's never too late, but there are not so many opportunities anymore I'm afraid...

I would unapologetically be myself more and give less weight to whether that would be considered normal among my peers. Had I just relaxed and only cared about what I actually cared about, I’d be much further along into my 30’s.

I wish I would have gone to work at an actual tech company instead of being stuck where I am today. I would not get married or have kids. I would try to make as much money as possible so I could retire early and buy land.

Start traveling and living outside the USA earlier (was 27 when I first left North America). I'm happy I started when I did, but would've loved to have started when I was in my early 20's. Working fully remote along the way.

Nothing and everything. I had several very clear life changing decisions - choosing to move to Germany, choosing to stay here permanently. Those were conscious choices which I made and they drastically changed the course of my life in a very exacting way. So a recap of my 20s was: finished my degree, moved to Germany, my girlfriend moved with me from France, got a job here, bought a house, and bunch of small stuff but those are the big ones. I always think about what would have been/could have been had I not made the choices I did. But I am happy with where I'm at, feels right.

I'd start a disco band, hire Donna Summers as my lead singer, get rich, and retire at 30.

Hired an ADHD coach to help me through the administrivia required for getting treatment.

I would have gotten help with my mental health problems earlier

I would start a ketogenic diet and practice intermittent fasting

If I could do it over, I would find a good mentor.

buy more Bitcoin