In many ways, I love the path I've taken in the tech industry. It wasn't a straight line but it worked for me. And the place I ended up was beautiful. But if I had the option I'd go back and tell myself a few things. What advice do you wish you'd had earlier?
Three things:
a)Don't be like the rabbit from The Rabbit & The Turtle - moral story. If you are good at something, that doesn't mean that you should work little, on the contrary, you should work harder than anyone. Discipline beats talent. Just because right now the people in your environment are not competition for you. It doesn't mean that there is no one better than you.
b)Never tell lies.
c)Always listen to everyone like they know something you don't.
I'd tell me older self that I can program for fun and it's not that big a deal if there are things I don't understand. I don't need to get discouraged if I'm struggling with something, there's plenty more out there!
I would tell young me that the business minor that I got would be really important, and I should do more work in those classes. Also, more importantly, I’d tell myself that my opinions are valid and to express them more. It took me a long time to figure that out, but, once I did, I started liking work more and my career improved.
I definitely undervalued how important my education was at the time in certain classes.
Conversely, I overvalued mine. I've used maybe 2% of what I learned in my two degree programs (first IT/SysAdmin, second Software Dev), and have applied far more of what I learned as a barista, waiter, and retail/service industry manager to my career in tech. I'd like to have those several years and tens of $1000s in tuition back for self-teaching and FOSS project/portfolio building.
"Buy a bunch of bitcoin"! haha
Besides that, I'd tell my younger self "to not worry about it, everything will be ok".
I'll probably say the same thing if my future self came to me right now. :)
I'd tell my past self to take a break from coding and not miss out on some of the happiest moments in life. Sure, you'll learn lots of things in the future but everything will come to you at the right time...
This is one of those posts that triggers me to go on a massive diatribe of all the things I found were wrong, several mistakes I made and all the ways that my younger self (or anyone in that situation) could use to avoid the pitfalls and save himself years on his journey.
But on one comment it wouldn't be worth the time. I'd rather pack it all up and turn it into something that can be more accessible to a wider range of people.
I would tell my younger self that he should start learning programming ASAP to get ahead of everyone else. Then I would give him a path to follow and the languages and frameworks to learn as soon as they become available.
Then I would give him some winning lottery ticket numbers for the next 10 years and tell him to read and learn everything he can so that he will become Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos combined 😎
I would have tell my younger version:
Keep away from coding, study for be lawyer, keep away from the bad friends and the bad girls, don't be discourage, smile, keep trying, Never give up, have faith someday you will be happy.
I don't get it, No coding ?
Yeah, no coding, I like coding but some persons of this community, have been doing my life a hell, mostly opsec community 😉😁👍✌️, thech isn't place for a hippie.
The practice of law, I take it, is?
Yeah law, lawyer 😉😁👍
I would tell to myself:
Don't worry. It will be fine. You'll enjoy the ride!
I need my future self to tell my present self exactly that sometimes, too.
Just remember, this too shall pass. :)
Same here
I'd tell myself that it's ok to say "No", it's okay to take time and decide what you want, there is no rush or a race to knock every opportunity you can find and also take time to understand what I really want.
I’d tell myself to study software engineering AND work. Realized this only during master degree and felt like I threw away 4 years of opportunities to understand better and faster the skills that i would need in the future.
Mr. John, stay away from alcohol. It's momentary pleasures create lifetime woes.
You do have a time machine... Everyday you can send messages to your future self
I'll tell myself some lottery numbers so I can create a start up without needing of third party funds 😂
That's the cleverest comment in the whole comment section.
Tip my hat to you.
Thanks! I hadn't any doubt about the answer TBH, don't know if it's the aging or what but... 😂
I would tell me : Please dont study petroleum engineering, start to code right now.
I'm still young but I would when I was about 12 and 14 and tell never ever use a think of installating windows on your machine
Lol same here
Do not watch The Phantom Menace.
I would not avail myself of such an opportunity. Too many ways to do much more harm than good.
I’d tell ‘nothing will be okay, keep working try to shoot for the stars and set your goal to get a job in a foreign country‘
If I got two chances I’d add following
‘Don’t rely on anyone’
Tell myself, you will encounter bad things and difficult obstacles. That will make sure he prepare for the future.
I'd tell my younger self that everything will be okay.
Don't get held back in high school so you can hold the record for youngest at your company for longer
I would tell younger self that Software Engineering was worth every moment and every penny.
I’d tell myself about the open source community that could have benefited me from the beginning of my college days and I would make myself know about the technical exposure that I didn’t get on time.