Thing I Wish I Knew When I Was 16

The following comes from a comment from username qgyh2 on Reddit. The question was basically “I’m 16…What did you wish you knew at my age?” Here’s qgyh2’s phenomenal answer…

1. Enjoy your youth, don’t wait till body parts fall off/stop working/have to be removed. In other words, have a LOT of sex. True, you probably will be able to have sex as you grow older, but you will be limited by age, strength, and pliability. Also, your choice of hot partners decreases as time goes.
2. Have fun, because by the time you are older, everything you want to do which constitutes fun will be either illegal, immoral, or downright stupid. Note: There are some things you can put off till later. For example, if you have a favorite TV series which you want to watch, but don’t have much time, its better to concentrate on your studies now because ten years later, you can buy the HD DVD and watch that TV series you missed on your brand new 300 inch TV (DRM permitting).
3. Be careful of cigarettes, alcohol, don’t overdo anything. They can make you end up in hospital. Which is, in some cases, worse than death. Look after your body. Don’t do things that make it worse off, after all, you only have one body - try not to abuse it too much as, when you are older, health tends to become the number one issue. And, the way things are going, pretty soon nobody will be able to afford healthcare. If you must experiment with drugs, try less harmful drugs, not the ones which can kill you, and make sure you do drugs in a safe responsible manner, with someone you can trust near you. Or, better yet, just don’t do drugs/don’t drink (excessively). As crazy as it may seem, this is probably the best attitude you can take, after all, the less chemicals you stuff into your body, the better. Your liver, for example, will thank you if you stay clear of alcohol.
4. BE CAREFUL OF DEBT: When you are young, you tend to think “hey, I’ll be rich when I’m old, so no problem. Thing is, when you are older, it sucks to have a ton of debt and belong to banks. You wind up having to make twice the amount of money you need to live - as half your earnings go to pay debts. never ever spend more than you earn - never have a negative net worth
5. Think about your old age. You will, eventually grow old. So, save money, invest, and so on.
6. Be nice to people around you.. family members… siblings.. friends. Later on, when you are old, you will need them.
7. Make good friends. Hang around smart intelligent educated ‘moral’ people. Form networks - these networks matter to get jobs, etc. Remember, 90% of the good things you get in life (jobs, stock tips, hot dates) will be informally, via your network of friends/colleagues.
8. Plan your life actively. If you want to have kids, realize that each kid will need anything from half a million to a million bucks. So first, earn shitload’s of money, otherwise, don’t have kids. The biggest problem with being young is that one tends not to ’see’ the future, assuming that it will take care of itself. Not necessarily. **Yes you will probably keep living but your quality of life will be deeply impacted by the choices you make
9. Try to recognize trends - see what careers, technologies, ideas are ‘hot’ and learn about them. Surf reddit a lot. It’s a great place to pick up new ideas ;)
10. As far as education goes:
1. FIRST, Choose your career Try to decide as early as possible, the career you want. First research it out fully. Talk with people in that field. Try to find the newest trends, and do a college degree in those areas. These days, you have to specialize to an extreme level. So choose your field and specialization wisely.
2. read (learn new things everyday)
3. try to grasp the overall big picture in everything you study. This is better than studying specifics, as when you ‘understand’ a topic you are better off than just knowing specific facts.
4. study something you like. Pick careers in areas you like.
5. plan in advance. Select your career with a lot of careful thought, because it’s hard to change careers.
6. try to have a working knowledge of everything around you - i.e. if you have a car, have a basic understanding of automobiles. If you have a computer, know how computers work, how to fix them, etc. Extend this general idea to everything around you. It’s better to know a little bit about everything than be a specialist in one thing (except as far as careers go where you probably will have to specialize)
7. Get to know your lecturers/professors. Chat with them occasionally, participate actively in class. They will appreciate you for this and tend to be more generous when grading your work. Ask questions, after all, thats what you are paying for. Get the best out of your education.
11. Don’t let anyone convince you to do something you don’t want to do. Choose your friends wisely. Remember, you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do.
12. Stand out in a positive way. among friends, peers, colleagues, be the one who is remembered (in a positive way!)
13. Invest in people. Develop good friendships and relationships - But choose the people you invest in, wisely. By invest I don’t necessarily mean money, it could be time, help, whatever.
14. Buy smart: Before you buy anything, first research your options. e.g. if you are buying a car, buy one that will last you at least a few years. This saves you money. if you are going to buy a TV, spend a week and research options available, technologies etc.