What do you wish you knew before graduating from college?

All the staff/counselors said that university would be different from high school: that the tests wouldn't be stupid, that the smart would love it, that it was all about merit and ideas and intellectual curiosity.

It wasn't.

Its a place where you pay money and show you're willing to waste a few years of your life for a piece of paper that lets you pass a certain firewall in societal hiring practices, shows you largely fit in to corporate and societal norms, and depending on where you went, lets you network with others while excluding those who don't jump through the hoops.

Because of that, don't stress about what you're studying. Just get the piece of paper, or network, its what you're there for.

And don't get me wrong, the piece of paper does let you earn more money and opens doors. Mines financially paid itself off by now, but I resent the process and society that means I had to get it.

That doing something you're good at and love is more important than doing something you're good at, not really passionate about, but makes a crap ton of money.

When I was younger, money is all I cared about (I come from fairly modest means). But when my friends and I started making decent money we started to think, what's next? Why are we doing what we're doing right now...

And ditto on the connections part (not just for space you're interested in, but also all across everywhere/anywhere. You never know when those connections will come in handy, especially if you're in the startup space.)

That networking and building contacts is an important part. Being smart and learning the material while skipping all the classes and social events won't give you all the benefits.

My assumption in college was that graduating mattered, and my major didn't. Thankfully I was right, but it stressed me out at the time.

On a personal level, I wish I'd heard Derek Sivers talk about doing one thing at a time sooner. I spent years trying to be too many things, and I see now how I couldn't help but half-assed all of it.

That we really were just kids and we'd look back and laugh at how young and, frankly, stupid we were. That it was better to get through it and move on than to let it consume you and get stuck in it.

Also that in the programming field grades didn't matter, but having great taste and passion did.

That it was largely irrelevant to my work. University is for life, not technical knowledge.