Ask HN: What is something you wish you were taught at a younger age?

That it is possible to do something with your life.

That sounds a bit obnoxious but when I was younger I (and my peers) was told constantly that I would not get through college, or fail on that project, or not get a good job, fail at starting a company, on and on.

The guy (or girl) that good grades was told they could do anything of course. But what I learned growing up is that is relatively easy to ace a high school test if you put some effort in. In doesn’t tell you anything about what you will be able to do in later life. That A you got on Bio isn’t going to help you with your job now (even if you are a Bio engineer).

Life is so much more complicated than a few tests. People achieve great things all the time from a diverse set of backgrounds.

Sure you probably won’t become the next Steve Jobs but there are so many great things to do that are very achievable for an average person with a little work ethic and passion, and who knows maybe you will do something that connects with other people and you do end up changing the world!

Experiment more! Try clothes on that you can't afford. Try loosing 10 pounds. Try being super lazy. Stop doing all the normal things you do every day. Try living somewhere else. Try not watching TV/Movies for a month. Try reading 2 hours a day. Try calling your parents every day. Try staying off the internet for a week. Try volunteering. Try traveling alone. Try waking up at 5 AM.

It is very very easy to do what comes naturally and never deviate from that. Break the pattern.

How to make connections with other people;

How to figure out a long term objective by myself and stick to it;

How to lead;

Basically all soft skills that make one more comfortable when navigating in the dark and dangerous sea that is one's life. Without them one would be anxious for all life. Yeah, you can train yourself on each of the skills, but usually 1) It's already too late, and 2) Sometimes you get the wrong ideas so the more you train the worse the situation becomes.

Keep away from cheap treats. Better to have something extravagant rarely than shitty chocolate daily.

Find a daily exercize and keep with it.

That party friends don't last. It's kind gross to be the oldest person at a party.

If you have any inkling that you might want to have a romantic partner and kids, lock that partner in by the end of university or at the very latest by the time you're 25. The pickings get slim after that.

Note-taking. I was good at understanding stuff, but the only example of note-taking I had has been religiously copying everything the teacher was writing, and school was always about memorizing. I distrusted that heavily because it feels so alien to me. Now I've learned about proper note-taking and learning new stuff is effortless.

How to learn--speficically the six strategies identified by cognitive scientists:

1. Spacing 2. Retrieval practice 3. Interleaving 4. Dual coding 5. Concrete examples 6. Elaborative interrogation

www.learningscientists.org/ is a good place to start learning about these techniques.

To keep a journal. My long term memory is awful, I have no idea what I was like 10 years ago.

The Trivial: How to properly tie my shoes. Half the time, by chance, I'd be tying them wrong, and they'd come undone.

How people think, and especially the fact that nobody has it figured out. We're all guessing at how to do things. If you think you do have it figured out, you're likely very wrong.

The value of curation. I picked up a lot of hoarding habits along the way that are so destructive, so much waste and loss. I wish someone had taught me about picking and choosing, instead of just collecting more and more stuff.

Everything but more. When somebody tells you that child has to be busy with rest and/or consuming kids content this is bullshit leading to a stupid adult. I can not forget when I visited a library first time (6yo) I was even not allowed to take any Physics/Chemistry books, all I could take was only silly literature for kids.

That trans men exist.

Best case it could have saved me twenty thousands dollars in medical expenses and given me a body that doesn't look like it was stitched together by Frankenstein due to transitioning as an adult. I might also have been able to start a career I enjoy at a younger age, instead of wasting four years of college and five years of my career on a job I hate.

Worst case, it would still have made me a less obnoxious and sexist child. Once I understood how I was different, I was a lot nicer to the people around me.

(I know this is controversial and maybe bordering on flame bait - even though that is not my intention, so I'll try to ignore any responses.)

Brush your teeth. Buy shoes that fit. Walk 2-3 miles every day. Dont eat until you feel full. Feeling full comes 10 minutes after eating.

Invest for the long term. You may get lucky and have an exit, but you’re more likely to get rich by saving and investing over a long time period.