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Comment by ldjkfkdsjnv | Hacker News Reader

I disagree, the energy you have at that age is unparalleled. If you spend it on entrepreneurship, your chances of success are much higher. People consistently underestimate what it takes to build an innovative new company, young very bright people can do it. If they wait til 25/30, they will have lost some of the spark required. It can also take a decade, so start at 25, you are looking at success by 35. Start at 19, by your mid 20s you are in a very good place.

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Energy isn't everything. Having worked for (and known others that worked for) younger founders, the judgement of young founders can be terrible. They're more prone to hype and more likely to panic if something doesn't go as expected. A lot of effort gets wasted on bad decisions.

Early 20s energy is really something else. I can’t even begin to imagine what would be possible if I could somehow send to my 22 year old self my present day 35 year old brain.

Energy vs wisdom. Young people like to take 10 actions when only one is needed. Sometimes that works out and other times all those actions are expensive

One huge advantage of being young is the unparalleled ability to take risks. There's nothing more anti-fragile (that gains from losses) than a 20-year-old living with his parents.

Only if you are born rich with unlimited retry attempts

Why do you need to be rich to develop software?

Cause food and housing ain’t free.

> the energy you have at that age is unparalleled.

Energy is useless without the skills, knowledge, network, money, economy etc. Look at all the 25 year olds in India who never went to college and is having trouble even making 100$s a month.

> if you spend it on entrepreneurship, your chances of success are much higher. as nice as this sounds, considering that vast majority of new businesses fail, I'm not sure that this is true

Those darned over-the-hill 25 year-olds! It's about time that they, too, were marginalized by techbro ageism.

Take care of your health, and maybe this mystical spark will last longer. Giving you the benefit of increasing knowledge and experience, to direct that energy most usefully (i.e., towards a viable business, not towards a ZIRP/hype VC investment scam powered by the confidence of coked-up 20 year-olds).

Avoid drugs, avoid bad stress, get good nutrition, good exercise, good sleep, keep learning.

This made me laugh! My point is that there are 18 year olds, rare as they are, that are ready to start companies and navigate that level of complexity.

Nonsense. Go look at this very site’s startups and you will see it’s not true

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