"Things I wish I’d known when I was younger"

Adrian Savage at Lifehack.org:

Most people learn over time, but often learning comes too late to be fully useful. There are certainly many things that I know now that would have been extremely useful to me earlier in my life; things that could have saved me from many of the mistakes and hurts I suffered over the years—and most of those that I inflicted on others too.

I don’t buy the romantic notion that my life has been somehow richer or more interesting because of all the times I screwed up; nor that the mistakes were “put” there to help me learn. I made them myself—through ignorance, fear, and a dumb wish to have everyone like me—and life and work would have been less stressful and more enjoyable (and certainly more successful) without them. So here are some of the things I wish I had learned long ago. I hope they may help a few of you avoid the mistakes that I made back then.

His list strikes me as wise.

Comments

[Russell Lutz]

This reminds me of the "Sunscreen Speech", which is perhaps less profound, but much funnier, and far more specific.

"Live in New York once, but leave before it makes you hard. Live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft."