24 ms·

Advice

217 points by janvdberg 8y ago

abhiminator 8y ago
>The internet is one of the biggest advantages you have over prior generations. Leverage it. Most powerful statement in there. It's one thing to 'know' about Internet's power and another thing to utilize it to your personal best. Internet can be an incredible personal force multiplier -- if used in a good way -- leading to never-before-imagined opportunities. This truly is an amazing time to be alive. [0] [0] http://www.upworthy.com/4-awesome-how-we-met-friendship-stories-that-will-inspire-you-to-get-online http://www.upworthy.com/4-awesome-how-we-met-friendship-stor...
ArtWomb 8y ago
"Make things". And put them in front of as many people as possible. Locally you gain knowledge. Wisdom comes with scale ;) Oh, and you guys were great on Bloomberg Studio 1.0! https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2018-05-31/john-patrick-collison-on-bloomberg-studio-1-0-video https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2018-05-31/john-patric...
- shafyy 8y ago
  Thanks for sharing this. Great stuff!
- newfocogi 8y ago
  This 100x! Falling in love with "making things" in my mind might the single most important trait to be come a successful entrepreneur. The other trait might be "insatiable curiosity", but I think someone who "makes things" demonstrates a curiosity to identify interesting spaces and the resourcefulness to piece together a solution.
jxub 8y ago
> Status lags by a generation or more. That's a really overlooked point, and perhaps the most contrarian nugget of wisdom in this damn good piece of advice. Point is, whatever successful thing you do, it'll always end up gaining you a certain degree of prestige (which is ultimately a form of bullshit, but that's another topic).
- prmph 8y ago
  The converse also seems to be true: Some currently seemingly prestigious things are long past their relevance, society at large has just not caught on yet; it is good to recognize these and to avoid building your future on them.
voidmain 8y ago
I'm a bit amused by the advice to move to SF because that's what all the other nonconformists are doing.
- lb1lf 8y ago
  "Yes, we are individuals!" Oh, the irony. That being said, I can see how -if you identify as a non-conformist in some way or the other- it makes sense to move to a place with a higher-than-normal ratio of other non-confirmists. After all, even if they are not of the same bent as you, at least they are familiar with the feeling of not fitting in and, hopefully, as a result are more tolerant of other people who deviate from the norm - whatever that norm may be.
- pc 8y ago
  Advice is to visit, not to move!
  - vasilipupkin 8y ago
    do you really think people are that interesting in SF? there are a lot of people trying to make a lot of money by building tech startups in SF, but are those the kind of people that are interesting to meet? Yes, if your aim in life is to build a startup or invest in one, probably no otherwise?
  - sudhirj 8y ago
    I was in SF for the last WWDC, mostly to see and visit these people I keep hearing about. But I couldn’t for the life of me figure out where they were or how to talk to them. I went to WWDC, a couple of meetups, the Computer History Museum, walked through Stanford, ate hummus in Palo Alto, took only public transport or shared Lyft rides. But other than a chance meeting with the CEO of Mode Analytics in one can ride that lasted three minutes, basically zero interaction with the type of people mentioned. Granted, I am an introvert and don’t strike up conversations as much as I should, but it seems like saying visit SF is useless. Is there a club or some secret society or library or bar that everyone hangs out in? I’ll come back and visit if I have an address to go to. SF is way too broad.
smithmayowa 8y ago
What I will like to really know is people thoughts on what they think people 20-30 & 30-40 should do
- mkagenius 8y ago
  Jack Ma of Alibaba had few advice to various age groups: https://youtu.be/__Mz-oxsXAs?t=116 https://youtu.be/__Mz-oxsXAs?t=116
  - doomjunky 8y ago
    < 20 Be a good student. < 30 Follow somebody. It's not which company you go, it's which boss you follow. < 40 Work for yourself, if you realy want to be a entrepeneur. < 50 Focus on things you are good at. < 60 Work for the young people. > 60 Spend time for yourself. ~Jack Ma's Advice to The Young People
- bradfa 8y ago
  20-40: Get married and/or have kids. Both will change your outlook on many topics way more than you expect.
  - AnimalMuppet 8y ago
    And let them do so. Marriage and kids have downsides as well as upsides. Don't be looking at the downsides so much that you miss enjoying the upsides.
eaenki 8y ago
Hackernews, Medium and Slack groups related to what you like are great ways to get to know people in SF that are into tech/startups. Anyone has any other suggestion as to where to meet people that built something interesting? I tried tech/startup meet ups and Startup Grind but they sucked. I had more luck with unrelated events.
Ensorceled 8y ago
This is great advice. Now, I just need a time machine ...
rememberlenny 8y ago
Considering his blog hasn't been updated since 2013, can someone add the proper publish date?
- pc 8y ago
  It was published today.
ebbv 8y ago
As far as "changing the world" goes; the reality is you mostly have to be very lucky. The amount of people setting out to do world changing things vs. the ones that are successful is a staggering ratio. Hitting 40 this year my advice to any young person is do what will make you feel happy and fulfilled. Whatever that is. It's hard to figure that out, but we only live once and the old adage "You'll regret the things you didn't do more than the things you did." is generally true. The one sentence version is; say "Yes!" to more things.
- segmondy 8y ago
  The things that make you feel happy and fulfilled today might be the very things that make you feel unhappy and empty tomorrow. The challenge is that most people can't tell till they find themselves in that unhappy state. My advice for any young person is to learn to think for themselves and figure out things for themselves. There is no magical advice out there that will work for everyone. The same thing that will transform someone's life in an amazing way will ruin someone else life.
  - vasilipupkin 8y ago
    nah. that's just too vague. Let's be more specific. Specifically, you are less likely to feel happy and fulfilled if you do not find something that you really enjoy actively doing. Actively working on something that is yours is more likely to make you feel fulfilled than sitting around the house after 9-5 work. But many people end up mostly sitting around the house, with occasional break for travel and vacations, etc.
    - tonyedgecombe 8y ago
      Actually I think most happy and fulfilled people find that outside of work, risking your wellbeing on the whims of an employer or the current state of the job market is a fools errand.
sneak 8y ago
San Francisco is absolutely not Global Weird HQ.
- magic_beans 8y ago
  Is this guy unaware of New York?
  - sneak 8y ago
    I’m pretty sure Global Weird HQ is not in America. NYC and SF are some of the most uptight places in the world.
    - java_script 8y ago
      SF is subversive and counter-culture... if being a cutthroat capitalist is subversive... ROI is the new karmic energy ;)
timmytwotime 8y ago
I think it takes a bit more time to cultivate lessons learned from the past decade. There were things that made sense to do ten years ago, but twenty years, thirty years, forty years (or more) on it becomes more obvious of the validity of the choices made. EDIT: for life-changing choices
- tonyedgecombe 8y ago
  Yes, I think you need some distance to look back objectively.
themtutty 8y ago
> This probably won't change a lot throughout your life For many people, this is not true. Look at how common a second-act career has become.
baby 8y ago
Instead go visit Bordeaux, drink a lot of wine.
dmitrybrant 8y ago
> If you're 10–20: These are prime years! I lol'd.
- robertk 8y ago
  He should have said 11-19 to give the statement a double entendre.
- JdeBP 8y ago
  Four of them are prime. (-:
- rc_hadoken 8y ago
  Aren't they? If youre on this site you're smart enough to know he doesn't mean holistically but in terms of interest and achieving things relatively young. Most of my interests formed, solidified and shaped me in this range. 20-30 is more so improving aptitude. I am not saying people do not find new lifelong interests past this range.
- swyx 8y ago
  haha im sure he knew that was going to be a bit unrelatable. in general i like that he scoped his advice to his own years though. very humble thing to do despite having done more than most of us will in our lifetimes.
m52go 8y ago
This is probably nit-picking, because I understand the intended message, but the "Aim to read a lot" bit gets me. I've always aimed to read a lot...but rarely manage to actually do it.
- robertk 8y ago
  Try Audible and audiobooks, it’s easier to fill the commute with sound. You can also add the Kindle app to your smartphone top-4 bar.
  - alexanderpetrex 8y ago
    kindle app is better
  - mitchty 8y ago
    I've never been able to get into audiobooks. I listen to podcasts already, and to be honest I find my retention on audible things drastically less than the written word.
- nf05papsjfVbc 8y ago
  I used to read in bed every night. Sometimes it was technical material and at other times, it was entertaining fiction. It helped me in many ways - it made it so that I had an activity that helped me relax before I put the book aside and slept. It also helped me make big leaps in my understanding of certain technical topics. I found that (at least in my case) reading before bed led to high retention. Also, doing it this way, it was an easy ritual -> brush teeth, shower, lie in bed and read, feel tired and can't focus anymore, set book aside, turn off bedside lamp and close your eyes and fall asleep quickly. This adds up to a lot of reading over the months and years.
- lostcolony 8y ago
  Get it on your phone. Use downtime to read. It's not as tactile as a physical book, but you always have your phone on you. Any time you'd pull it out to browse/eff about, read instead. I'll read waiting in line. During unproductive meetings. Riding in any sort of public transport/lyft/etc. In airports. On the toilet.
LeicesterCity 8y ago
At ages 10-20 one has the time to go deep into many different subjects, would that be viable for someone late into the game (20-30s)? Or would they have to narrow the number of subjects they explore?
- robertk 8y ago
  Learning is age invariant. The difference is you will have a day job, but yes, it’s viable.
- tonyedgecombe 8y ago
  That statement is a bit of an oxymoron, you can't go deep into lots of subjects. You pick one and immerse yourself in it or you cover a wide range to a shallower depth.
CPLX 8y ago
One thing that I didn't do at that age and very much regret is to be really conscious of being healthy and physically fit. That's the right time to learn what you should and shouldn't put in your body, and how to be constantly active. There's a million different ways to accomplish that but it's important to find one. People at that age often don't really understand how closely linked physical fitness and mental health are. But if you ignore it there will be consequences.
- pc 8y ago
  That’s a good point; I should probably add it.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- themtutty 8y ago
  And the general, consistent feeling of well-being and attentiveness is seductive - it makes you feel like it'll always be there, without any maintenance.
  - poe876 8y ago
    Health is fleeting. Human life is short and brutal, so eat away while sitting on your lazy arse, I say.
    - WJW 8y ago
      It's pretty much a self fulfilling prophecy, yes.
      - sireat 8y ago
        As Aristotle said everything in moderation including cigars and pizza. Going into a full blown mega health nut phase is not very helpful either because the end result is not going to be pretty anyways. Now if/when we start making serious life extension progress beyond 120 years with high quality of life then we can start talking.
mugsie 8y ago
> Why San Francisco? San Francisco is the Schelling point for high-openness, smart, energetic, optimistic people. Global Weird HQ. This could describe Seattle, Portland, Austin, Denver (from my experience) in the US, and a myriad of other places worldwide.
- gfodor 8y ago
  Note: optimism in SF more easily sighted when the preferred political party is in power
  - nostrademons 8y ago
    Nah, there are still plenty of optimistic people in SF. Many of them right now are working on a blockchain something-or-other or an AI-powered something-or-other. The type of folks you want to meet, if you're interested in doing something that will be seen as important in a generation, are generally fairly apolitical. Politics (at least the hyper-partisan variety pursued in the U.S. today) consumes a lot of energy for the purpose of opposing other people who are expending a lot of energy. It makes sense that neither one of them makes much progress, though they generate much heat and noise in the process. Real change comes from people working on stuff so weird that nobody bothers to oppose them.
  - ritchiea 8y ago
    Note: optimism in SF more easily sighted when you’re a well off tech worker
- SEMW 8y ago
  By definition only one place can be the Schelling point: the one that, in the absence of any coordination, a plurality of people think would be picked as the one that a plurality of people think would be picked as... etc.
- seathrowaway 8y ago
  Seattle is (or was) great at many things but as someone who has lived here all my life, I disagree with this categorization. From what I know of Portland, it describes that city even less well. We're politically liberal (sometimes to a fault), not any more optimistic than average (and quite possibly less), and definitely not what I'd call "energetic". It'd be more accurate to say the PNW has positioned itself as the laid-back alternative to SF. I've known a couple companies who have left the area because they couldn't find enough people here in their particular field who wanted to really work hard. On these particular axes (which may or may not be important to you), Seattle/Portland simply aren't in the same league as San Francisco or New York City. People in those cities are mercilessly open, optimistic, and energetic.
B1narySunset 8y ago
If you're 10–20 you should also set aside some time to have fun!
- rufius 8y ago
  I’d contend you should set aside time to have fun at all ages.
janvdberg 8y ago
"People who did great things often did so at very surprisingly young ages". This is very true, Gates was 19 (BASIC), Linus was 21 (Linux), Wozniak 25 (Apple I), Ada Lovelace 27 (first algorithm), Bill Joy 21 (vi), Andreessen 21 (Mosaic), Turing 24 (Turing machine) and so on.
- joaomacp 8y ago
  Yeah, I think 'ageism' exists both ways: if you're 20 you're considered too young, but at 45 you're already too old for certain things. You can create complex things while young, but also you can pick up skateboarding at 40.
- tonyedgecombe 8y ago
  Babbage 41 (Babbage machine), John Backus 30 (Fortran), Tim Berners-Lee 34 (World Wide Web), Fred Brooks 30 (IBM S/360), George Bool 32 (Symbolic Logic), Vannevar Bush 55 (memex, forerunner to hypertext), Vint Cerf 29 (TCP/IP), Alonzo Church 36 (Entscheidungsproblem) and so on.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- HiroshiSan 8y ago
  I would love to see data on the age they decided to master a given field. For instance if you decide to master programming (w.e that means) and it takes roughly 10 years to achieve mastery then you should expect a great accomplishment 10 years after you've started diving deep in a field. My assumption that it's rarer for those who are older is probably due to the fact that they have to worry about making a living and there aren't as many resources where you can engage with your peers outside of university, and also the fact that as a kid, making mistakes is not frowned upon but merely a process of discovery, whereas when you're older there is a lot of negative emotions associated with failure.
- wilsonnb2 8y ago
  Of course it sounds true if you only list the data points that fit the position.
sus_007 8y ago
> In particular, try to go deep on multiple things...deep on languages, programming... I fall under the target audience for this piece and by now I've dabbled with at least half a dozen of programming languages and their celebrated frameworks/libraries- from Front to the Back. I tried my best to go deep on all of them just for the sake of learning. But, now I feel lost and can't figure out which path am I supposed to pursue in this vast CS space. Where did I mess up ? Edit: spelling errors
- newfocogi 8y ago
  I can only speak from personal experience, but I have noticed that I easily get excited to learn a shiny new tool or skill, but once I have basic familiarity with it, my eagerness dries up because all that was driving my desire to learn was the intrigue of an unknown experience. Times where I felt like I actually went deep (and it didn't require superhuman discipline to spend time on something I had lost interest in) were when I was working on a problem I was passionate about that required deep knowledge of a certain set of tools or skills. Then I had reason to keep pushing and along the way I realized I had become halfway decent at that tool/skill set.
  - sus_007 8y ago
    Thanks for sharing your thoughts. True, it is in fact the desire to learn was the intrigue of an unknown experience sensation that makes me jump from one ship to the other, frequently. I guess I need to work on my discipline and focus on a single tech stack for a considerable period.
    - svilen_dobrev 8y ago
      Languages are just ...tools, instruments. So desire to learn a language (or framework, whatever tool-kit) for the sake of learning .. isnt going to hold far. BUT.. once u have that half-tool, and the half-transparent-new-window that comes with it, u can use it (and bunch of others) to be able to desire to learn something completely different... AND then use that as a stepping stone for the next.. (repeat..) until u find what u want to do, and all those stones either become the polished fundaments or just mark your steps searching around for the way. There's saying.. if u fall on your face, dont forget to take something as a souvenir... have fun
carusooneliner 8y ago
I like this point in particular -- "Don't stress out too much about how valuable the things you're going deep on are." The general stance of people is to stick to the practical stuff -- knowledge or skills that you can use right away. But, it's important to have a long view and given enough time the impractical could turn into something practical. Serendipity is underrated, and in my experience the impractical stuff is what enables serendipity.
alexggordon 8y ago
Something I've thought a lot about is how to educate people, specifically on a larger scale. In general I think it's a really underrated thought-space for tech people, probably because it's a hard problem that most likely won't make you a billionaire. However, in my thinking/reading about this issue, I've discovered that especially at the 10-20 age a lot of time you have to work towards making kids curious and encouraging this behavior without explicitly demanding it. In other words, I think this article is almost better read by parents than the kids themselves. The average 10 year old will most likely not go out of their way to "aim to read a lot" if it is hard to get books. Fortunately, I had a set of parents that highly valued education, and they really worked towards opening access to books for me and my siblings (we could go to the library whenever we wanted, and they prioritized driving us there). Obviously there will be the occasional 10 year old that will do anything to get more books but I don't think that is average, as are most things on this article. This follows for most things on this list. Curiosity, taking hobbies you enjoy way way way too far (read that as "becoming an expert"), and "making things" are all things that I think happen better or exclusively under parental guidance. In addition to that, something I think I noticed (and I'd be curious if Patrick experienced this too) but doing most of these activities with my siblings significantly encouraged my habits. I built my first computer with the help of my siblings, and have read dozens of books I never would have without the suggestions of my siblings. All these slightly random thoughts combine into the fact that my "resume education" did very little to get me to the point that I am today. I didn't learn how to program at school. I didn't write my first program at school. I didn't develop my love of reading at school. I didn't build my first quad-copter there, etc. So, rounding this out, I'd ask the question; what portion of these activities (listed here, or on Patrick's blog) should I have done at school vs at home? Should education move to a more Montessori[0] style to encourage this exploration? Should teachers merge more into parents as is the case in a lot of public schools? How can a company (non-profit?) garner enough of a child's time to encourage these behaviors? On a more tangential note, have you done anything in the education/parenting space Patrick? [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montessori_education https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montessori_education
- tonyedgecombe 8y ago
  specifically on a larger scale It's scale that seems to kill education, in fact I sometimes wonder if there might just be too much of it.
gfodor 8y ago
> If you think something is important but people older than you hold don't hold it in high regard, there's a decent chance that you're right and they're wrong. Status lags by a generation or more. I winced a little bit at this one, though it's worded strangely so I may be misinterpreting it. The way I took it is poor advice -- when there is a mismatch between yourself and another in terms of "what's important" or what should be kept in "high regard", do not immediately assume the other person is a moral failure. This is the kind of thinking that leads to division and mistrust between people. The proper way to react to this is to make a good faith effort to understand why the person doesn't care about the issue you do, and be conscious that you may also change your mind one day. "Strong opinions, weakly held."
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- dkrich 8y ago
  Agreed. The older I get the more I’ve learned to listen to other people and to question my own ideas. I’ve gotten to the point where I actually view people who listen to others and are open to changing their opinions when confronted with good advice as being much more intelligent than those who are sure they are right about everything all the time. As the Bob Dylan song goes, “I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now.”
  - mcguire 8y ago
    Are you the co-founder and CEO of Stripe? Were you a millionaire at 19 and now, at 29, worth north of a billion dollars? Why would anyone want to listen to your advice? (/s Be careful about listening to people who are obviously statistical outliers, who are young and apparently have succeeded at everything they've touched.)
    - eldavido 8y ago
      I find it interesting that it's accepted in our culture, that "Having money" means "Someone worth listening to". I see this all the time and just wanted to point it out.
Swizec 8y ago
And remember: if you're not 10-20, you can still do all these things! The best time to plant a tree is 10 years ago, the second best time is now. When you feel old and curmudgeonly, that's the perfect time to take a deep breath and become a beginner in something new.
- petercooper 8y ago
  Exactly. I'm almost 40 and I feel all of this advice is just as relevant to me.
- jimmies 8y ago
  After being trapped in a rut at 30, I decided to rethink many aspects of my life just 4 months ago. I made a major overhaul of myself, and it worked out so well I couldn't imagine. It's never ever too late to do anything, the important thing is whether someone's willing to admit they didn't know as much as they thought.
  - Swizec 8y ago
    As a fellow rut feeling 30 year old I would love to hear more about your experience. If you’re okay sharing of course :)
    - jimmies 8y ago
      I totally would share it. I do write my blog at my profile. It will take a while for me to organize my thoughts to write this down (in a month maybe?), but it is coming :)
ritchiea 8y ago
I wish someone would write a useful version of this for the question “what should I do to make the most of my life when my family is poor or somehow less fortunate?” A lot of this would still apply but there’s a huge percentage of the population that has to deal with major difficulties in life before they can heed the kind of advice Patrick offers.
- tonyedgecombe 8y ago
  there’s a huge percentage of the population that has to deal with major difficulties in life Do you or is this just some lefty privileged angst?
  - ritchiea 8y ago
    Yea I did, what is it to you? Do you take joy in asking that question? Does it make you feel better to know my mom was a single parent without very much money? Do you feel like you productively added to the conversation?
    - tonyedgecombe 8y ago
      I'm sorry if I offended you, that wasn't my intention.
      - java_script 8y ago
        Hahaha that was one of the most ridiculous (and succinct) 180's I've ever seen online.
        chrisfosterelli 8y ago
        It's OK for people to realize they made a mistake and change accordingly.
        java_script 8y ago
codingdave 8y ago
"Go be an autodidact iconoclast, and hang out with everyone else does that, too." is a great recipe for being an interesting person. But changing the world requires not just being interesting, but understanding the status quo, and finding ways to bridge them. This advice won't give you both sides. Also, there is nothing wrong with living a pedestrian life. Millions (billions?) of people do so, happily. And there are many small changes you can make in the world even while walking a typical path. The world changes over time, as many people make those small changes. Feel free to pursue large changes, but don't reject the power of incremental improvements.
- jschwartzi 8y ago
  Agreed. I'm quite happily pedestrian, and I've met too many people who "went deep" only on a few subjects but were very boring people unless you talked to them about their chosen subjects. Some of my best friends are boring from an economic standpoint because they're poor. But they're wonderful people and I wouldn't trade them for any of the learning I could get from someone who makes more money. I think Hunter S. Thompson's advice for young people is much better, because in it he makes the point that anyone seeking to give you advice can't possibly know enough about your situation to give good advice. https://fs.blog/2014/05/hunter-s-thompson-to-hume-logan/ https://fs.blog/2014/05/hunter-s-thompson-to-hume-logan/ If who you are is pedestrian, don't hesitate to be the most pedestrian you can be.
  - eshwar 8y ago
    Wrong, don't be anything. Pedestrian or Deep. Labels do NOT matter. San Francisco has got this wrong. And most of the world is following San Francisco, that is wrong. Be and do what must be done, not get advice from Collison or Musk et al. This is something I have learned along the way. Sure, respect achievements. Please for God's sake do not try to become like someone or be something or change the world. It is not worth it. Others can label you. It doesn't count.
staunch 8y ago
Seems less like an answer to "How do I change the world?" than a rough description of what almost any intelligent person does in an idyllic environment. It's very common for successful people to over-analyze their specific behavior rather than acknowledge the harsh reality of what actually separates them from others. A description of reality is both less flattering and seemingly less useful. But it does have the virtue of at least being real. IMHO there are three major factors in changing the world: #1 High general intelligence and ambition (genetics) #2 Highly educated well-off parents (environment) #3 Support of powerful people (opportunity) You probably can't do much without at least one of these factors. Most people that do big things have all three.
mychael 8y ago
As a Stripe Customer: Less life advice, more focus on making Stripe a better, easier to use product.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
java_script 8y ago
Advice for SF people: Stop talking about changing the god damned world when what you're actually working on is a middleman payment processor. You sound like your head is planted so far up into your ass you can see daylight again. E: Just to point out what I actually believe so I’m not just doing a drive-by insult - let capitalism and self interest be just that, like how a pizza delivery guy or payday loan provider probably isn’t deluding themselves about making an impact. Leave talk of societal impact to actual politics.
- TAForObvReasons 8y ago
  That's the magic of the whole setup. When you present the situation as "making the world a better place", it's easier to swallow ethical transgressions and other illegal or immoral behaviors (Uber is a great example of this)
  - java_script 8y ago
    My favorite is how if you check out any oil companies website, pretend you knew nothing about them and you’d think they were green peace by the messaging on their site.
  - java_script 8y ago
    The most basic form of this is undermining or exploiting a group of people as your core business model, and then donating a small portion to charities that help that same group. Or even better, the ceo’s unrelated pet cause, an astroturf group, or a foundation where they hire family members as a way to skirt gift taxes. Compassionate capitalism is lovely ;)
- wj 8y ago
  I agree with you in theory but I feel that Stripe is an exception in that they have made it vastly easier for people to start businesses that will change the world. Related to this is the talk the founder of Asana gave at Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders. If you can make the people that are on the front lines of doing good a bit more efficient then you are doing good yourself.
- 8y ago
andy_adams 8y ago
> If you think something is important but people older than you hold don't hold it in high regard, there's a decent chance that you're right and they're wrong. Status lags by a generation or more. I feel like I'm missing the point of this one. For basically 100% of the things I thought were important between 10-20 years old, as I got older I realized I was wrong and older folks were right. Conversely, if someone older than you thinks something is important and you do not, you should probably reserve judgement until you're older...
- sincerely 8y ago
  Yea if I followed these instructions I would have flunked out of high school playing Team Fortress. Someone 20-30 disagreeing with the previous generation is much more likely to be right imo.
yla92 8y ago
For some of us who are in 20~30, I recommend Sam Altman's "The days are long but the decades are short"[0]. [0]: http://blog.samaltman.com/the-days-are-long-but-the-decades-are-short http://blog.samaltman.com/the-days-are-long-but-the-decades-...
- loco5niner 8y ago
  > The days are long but the decades are shot Typo - "Shot" should be "short" Although I have to admit, that word might fit in some cases...
  - yla92 8y ago
    Fixed. Thank you! It indeed might be fitting in some cases :D
- prawks 8y ago
  > 30) Existential angst is part of life. Definitely a 20-30 thing, never even crossed my mind before I was 25.
hguhghuff 8y ago
I’m more open to advice from ordinarily successful people rather than the most successful people in the world.
pkaler 8y ago
So, funny story. I was in YVR waiting for a flight when I decided to get my shoes shined. The shoe shine had been reading a manga take on the bible. Just a regular guy that in another life could be a computer programmer if the circumstances were different. He asked me what I do: mobile apps. And he went on and on about how his favourite iPhone app downloaded all of Wikipedia but it didn't work on the latest version of iOS anymore. That app was Patrick Collison's Encyclopedia app: http://radar.oreilly.com/2009/07/oscon-preview-how-patrick-co.html http://radar.oreilly.com/2009/07/oscon-preview-how-patrick-c...
- mgummelt 8y ago
  The timing on this is odd. Patrick says he built the Wikipedia app over a few weeks in Japan in late 2007, which would have been soon after founding Auctomatic: https://venturebeat.com/2007/10/22/auctomatic-launches-better-tools-for-ebay-powersellers/ https://venturebeat.com/2007/10/22/auctomatic-launches-bette... It seems like a strange decision take take a month off after founding your startup to build a side project in Japan.
  - tedmiston 8y ago
    From the article: > Then in November of 2007, I went to visit my friend in Japan for a month. And in Japan they have all of this incredibly advanced cellular technology and all of the rest. And so because of that, they had very few wireless networks, and my phone didn’t work. As a result, I actually had very little access to the Internet. I sort of realized without Wikipedia how little I really knew. And I had just got an iPhone, so I decided to try basically putting a copy of Wikipedia on the phone, so that I’d have it as I was walking around in Japan.
renjimen 8y ago
I would suggest travel over most of these. Particularly if you live in a fairly inward looking society like the US. Forget SF - live in another country, learn another language while your brain is still plastic enough to become truly fluent, understand your own culture by spending time among others, realise how fortunate you are to be born in a developed country.
- tedmiston 8y ago
  +1 even if just briefly Study abroad was my favorite part of college. Spending just a few weeks each in Taiwan and Costa Rica was pretty enlightening.
jakecrouch 8y ago
> But having good social skills confers life-long benefits. So, don't write them off. Get good at making a good first impression, being funny (if possible... this author still working on it...), speaking publicly. I would be careful with this point. Young people who don't have great social skills already tend to feel that they are somehow missing out on something important. But those who have good social skills in our culture will have a hard time forming new and unique ideas, and will often get talked into believing big, fundamental ideas that are wrong or crazy. I'd compare it to being a smoker in the 1960s. In exchange for being cooler, you suffer irreducible risk, that is made more dangerous by the fact that few people realize it's there. Until our culture changes, it's probably better to encourage people to learn about human nature than about "social skills".
- hluska 8y ago
  > But those who have good social skills in our culture will have a hard time forming new and unique ideas, and will often get talked into believing big, fundamental ideas that are wrong or crazy. I'd compare it to being a smoker in the 1960s. I can assure you that having good social skills is absolutely nothing like being a smoker in the 1960s. And, there is no absolute relationship between having good social skills and getting talked into believing crazy ideas. I have absolutely no idea where you get those ideas, but they are completely and demonstrably wrong.
- fiveoak 8y ago
  I don't really think there are any negative effects to having good social skills. If anything, being able to effectively communicate with others probably helps with coming up with new/unique ideas. Very few great ideas are created in a vacuum. But, I do agree it's important that people don't feel afraid to be an independent thinker, and it's easy to fall into the trap of forced conformity in order to feel more socially accepted.. but I don't think that is really necessarily a product of having good social skills.
nextstep 8y ago
>>>Figure out a way to travel to San Francisco Hahahahahahaha is this for real?
- dang 8y ago
  Please don't do this here.
madrox 8y ago
When I was a teenager, I listened to "Everybody's Free (to wear sunscreen)," which prompted me to read the essay "Advice, like youth, probably just wasted on the young." Probably one of the only real bits of advice I listened to in my teens, thought about, and then attempted to follow. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-schmich-sunscreen-column-column.html http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-schmich-su... I'm actually old enough to write a 20-30 column. My only advice is to know the different between wanting something and how you want something to happen. In my 20s, I despised the idea of luck, but I've learned so much of what happens in life is outside your control. The only thing reliably in your control is your attitude.
archagon 8y ago
I was scratching my head at the popularity of this article before seeing the author. In my opinion, it's a rose-tinted picture of success as filtered through Patrick Collison's extremely unusual life experiences, and comes off as terribly naive without that context.
- kreetx 8y ago
  Definitely, it's popular because of its author, but it's good advice. And what if the way to success is in not giving up on your naivety?
jimmies 8y ago
One thing I'd love to add is that is to make friends with people: People who are older than you, people that don't do stuff you do, people with radically different ideas and lifestyles, people in different countries/cultural backgrounds, people who are successful and unsuccessful. If it is possible, you should find ways to talk to people you adore. Many people will spend the time to talk back to you. They will be the fuel in your life when you need advice, help, inspirations. If you're a person in STEM, you should listen carefully to/date people studying arts, literature, social studies, education, politics... Never ever look them down as not as smart as you are. Think of people who don't think the way you do as being different rather than inferior to you. This is easier said then done, if you have a good job and in general, probably have a higher position in the food chain compared to them.
- Viliam1234 8y ago
  > If it is possible, you should find ways to talk to people you adore. This. I was often surprised to find out that a famous person whom I admire is actually a very nice person, replies to my e-mails, and sometimes even agrees to meet and talk in person. Sometimes you may even be able to help them with something, and that feels really awesome. > you should listen carefully to/date people studying arts, literature, social studies, education, politics... But you should always listen to more than one person in each category, and compare what they said.
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wilsonnb2 8y ago
Why is this kind of vague advice popular? Just because the author is famous? If someone else had written this would anyone care? Personally, I got tired of hearing famous people tell me I should read more, work on things I love, be an expert (or don't be an expert), "make things", blah, blah, blah many years ago.
- hymenopter4 8y ago
  Hey, dude, you know, you should learn to relax a little bit. You know what would make you more successful? A good tan! Get some sun, bro!
tobbe2064 8y ago
There was a survey done at a home for the elderly that asked them what they would do differently. All of them, 100%, gave the same answer: Spend more time with their family.

217 points by janvdberg 8y ago

>The internet is one of the biggest advantages you have over prior generations. Leverage it. Most powerful statement in there. It's one thing to 'know' about Internet's power and another thing to utilize it to your personal best. Internet can be an incredible personal force multiplier -- if used in a good way -- leading to never-before-imagined opportunities. This truly is an amazing time to be alive. [0] [0] http://www.upworthy.com/4-awesome-how-we-met-friendship-stories-that-will-inspire-you-to-get-online http://www.upworthy.com/4-awesome-how-we-met-friendship-stor...

ArtWomb 8y ago

"Make things". And put them in front of as many people as possible. Locally you gain knowledge. Wisdom comes with scale ;) Oh, and you guys were great on Bloomberg Studio 1.0! https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2018-05-31/john-patrick-collison-on-bloomberg-studio-1-0-video https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2018-05-31/john-patric...

shafyy 8y ago
Thanks for sharing this. Great stuff!
newfocogi 8y ago
This 100x! Falling in love with "making things" in my mind might the single most important trait to be come a successful entrepreneur. The other trait might be "insatiable curiosity", but I think someone who "makes things" demonstrates a curiosity to identify interesting spaces and the resourcefulness to piece together a solution.

jxub 8y ago

> Status lags by a generation or more. That's a really overlooked point, and perhaps the most contrarian nugget of wisdom in this damn good piece of advice. Point is, whatever successful thing you do, it'll always end up gaining you a certain degree of prestige (which is ultimately a form of bullshit, but that's another topic).

prmph 8y ago
The converse also seems to be true: Some currently seemingly prestigious things are long past their relevance, society at large has just not caught on yet; it is good to recognize these and to avoid building your future on them.

voidmain 8y ago

I'm a bit amused by the advice to move to SF because that's what all the other nonconformists are doing.

lb1lf 8y ago
"Yes, we are individuals!" Oh, the irony. That being said, I can see how -if you identify as a non-conformist in some way or the other- it makes sense to move to a place with a higher-than-normal ratio of other non-confirmists. After all, even if they are not of the same bent as you, at least they are familiar with the feeling of not fitting in and, hopefully, as a result are more tolerant of other people who deviate from the norm - whatever that norm may be.
pc 8y ago
Advice is to visit, not to move!
- vasilipupkin 8y ago
  do you really think people are that interesting in SF? there are a lot of people trying to make a lot of money by building tech startups in SF, but are those the kind of people that are interesting to meet? Yes, if your aim in life is to build a startup or invest in one, probably no otherwise?
- sudhirj 8y ago
  I was in SF for the last WWDC, mostly to see and visit these people I keep hearing about. But I couldn’t for the life of me figure out where they were or how to talk to them. I went to WWDC, a couple of meetups, the Computer History Museum, walked through Stanford, ate hummus in Palo Alto, took only public transport or shared Lyft rides. But other than a chance meeting with the CEO of Mode Analytics in one can ride that lasted three minutes, basically zero interaction with the type of people mentioned. Granted, I am an introvert and don’t strike up conversations as much as I should, but it seems like saying visit SF is useless. Is there a club or some secret society or library or bar that everyone hangs out in? I’ll come back and visit if I have an address to go to. SF is way too broad.

smithmayowa 8y ago

What I will like to really know is people thoughts on what they think people 20-30 & 30-40 should do

mkagenius 8y ago
Jack Ma of Alibaba had few advice to various age groups: https://youtu.be/__Mz-oxsXAs?t=116 https://youtu.be/__Mz-oxsXAs?t=116
- doomjunky 8y ago
  < 20 Be a good student. < 30 Follow somebody. It's not which company you go, it's which boss you follow. < 40 Work for yourself, if you realy want to be a entrepeneur. < 50 Focus on things you are good at. < 60 Work for the young people. > 60 Spend time for yourself. ~Jack Ma's Advice to The Young People
bradfa 8y ago
20-40: Get married and/or have kids. Both will change your outlook on many topics way more than you expect.
- AnimalMuppet 8y ago
  And let them do so. Marriage and kids have downsides as well as upsides. Don't be looking at the downsides so much that you miss enjoying the upsides.

eaenki 8y ago

Hackernews, Medium and Slack groups related to what you like are great ways to get to know people in SF that are into tech/startups. Anyone has any other suggestion as to where to meet people that built something interesting? I tried tech/startup meet ups and Startup Grind but they sucked. I had more luck with unrelated events.

Ensorceled 8y ago

This is great advice. Now, I just need a time machine ...

rememberlenny 8y ago

Considering his blog hasn't been updated since 2013, can someone add the proper publish date?

pc 8y ago
It was published today.

ebbv 8y ago

As far as "changing the world" goes; the reality is you mostly have to be very lucky. The amount of people setting out to do world changing things vs. the ones that are successful is a staggering ratio. Hitting 40 this year my advice to any young person is do what will make you feel happy and fulfilled. Whatever that is. It's hard to figure that out, but we only live once and the old adage "You'll regret the things you didn't do more than the things you did." is generally true. The one sentence version is; say "Yes!" to more things.

segmondy 8y ago
The things that make you feel happy and fulfilled today might be the very things that make you feel unhappy and empty tomorrow. The challenge is that most people can't tell till they find themselves in that unhappy state. My advice for any young person is to learn to think for themselves and figure out things for themselves. There is no magical advice out there that will work for everyone. The same thing that will transform someone's life in an amazing way will ruin someone else life.
- vasilipupkin 8y ago
  nah. that's just too vague. Let's be more specific. Specifically, you are less likely to feel happy and fulfilled if you do not find something that you really enjoy actively doing. Actively working on something that is yours is more likely to make you feel fulfilled than sitting around the house after 9-5 work. But many people end up mostly sitting around the house, with occasional break for travel and vacations, etc.
  - tonyedgecombe 8y ago
    Actually I think most happy and fulfilled people find that outside of work, risking your wellbeing on the whims of an employer or the current state of the job market is a fools errand.

sneak 8y ago

San Francisco is absolutely not Global Weird HQ.

magic_beans 8y ago
Is this guy unaware of New York?
- sneak 8y ago
  I’m pretty sure Global Weird HQ is not in America. NYC and SF are some of the most uptight places in the world.
  - java_script 8y ago
    SF is subversive and counter-culture... if being a cutthroat capitalist is subversive... ROI is the new karmic energy ;)

timmytwotime 8y ago

I think it takes a bit more time to cultivate lessons learned from the past decade. There were things that made sense to do ten years ago, but twenty years, thirty years, forty years (or more) on it becomes more obvious of the validity of the choices made. EDIT: for life-changing choices

tonyedgecombe 8y ago
Yes, I think you need some distance to look back objectively.

themtutty 8y ago

> This probably won't change a lot throughout your life For many people, this is not true. Look at how common a second-act career has become.

baby 8y ago

Instead go visit Bordeaux, drink a lot of wine.

dmitrybrant 8y ago

> If you're 10–20: These are prime years! I lol'd.

robertk 8y ago
He should have said 11-19 to give the statement a double entendre.
JdeBP 8y ago
Four of them are prime. (-:
rc_hadoken 8y ago
Aren't they? If youre on this site you're smart enough to know he doesn't mean holistically but in terms of interest and achieving things relatively young. Most of my interests formed, solidified and shaped me in this range. 20-30 is more so improving aptitude. I am not saying people do not find new lifelong interests past this range.
swyx 8y ago
haha im sure he knew that was going to be a bit unrelatable. in general i like that he scoped his advice to his own years though. very humble thing to do despite having done more than most of us will in our lifetimes.

m52go 8y ago

This is probably nit-picking, because I understand the intended message, but the "Aim to read a lot" bit gets me. I've always aimed to read a lot...but rarely manage to actually do it.

robertk 8y ago
Try Audible and audiobooks, it’s easier to fill the commute with sound. You can also add the Kindle app to your smartphone top-4 bar.
- alexanderpetrex 8y ago
  kindle app is better
- mitchty 8y ago
  I've never been able to get into audiobooks. I listen to podcasts already, and to be honest I find my retention on audible things drastically less than the written word.
nf05papsjfVbc 8y ago
I used to read in bed every night. Sometimes it was technical material and at other times, it was entertaining fiction. It helped me in many ways - it made it so that I had an activity that helped me relax before I put the book aside and slept. It also helped me make big leaps in my understanding of certain technical topics. I found that (at least in my case) reading before bed led to high retention. Also, doing it this way, it was an easy ritual -> brush teeth, shower, lie in bed and read, feel tired and can't focus anymore, set book aside, turn off bedside lamp and close your eyes and fall asleep quickly. This adds up to a lot of reading over the months and years.
lostcolony 8y ago
Get it on your phone. Use downtime to read. It's not as tactile as a physical book, but you always have your phone on you. Any time you'd pull it out to browse/eff about, read instead. I'll read waiting in line. During unproductive meetings. Riding in any sort of public transport/lyft/etc. In airports. On the toilet.

LeicesterCity 8y ago

At ages 10-20 one has the time to go deep into many different subjects, would that be viable for someone late into the game (20-30s)? Or would they have to narrow the number of subjects they explore?

robertk 8y ago
Learning is age invariant. The difference is you will have a day job, but yes, it’s viable.
tonyedgecombe 8y ago
That statement is a bit of an oxymoron, you can't go deep into lots of subjects. You pick one and immerse yourself in it or you cover a wide range to a shallower depth.

CPLX 8y ago

One thing that I didn't do at that age and very much regret is to be really conscious of being healthy and physically fit. That's the right time to learn what you should and shouldn't put in your body, and how to be constantly active. There's a million different ways to accomplish that but it's important to find one. People at that age often don't really understand how closely linked physical fitness and mental health are. But if you ignore it there will be consequences.

pc 8y ago
That’s a good point; I should probably add it.
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themtutty 8y ago
And the general, consistent feeling of well-being and attentiveness is seductive - it makes you feel like it'll always be there, without any maintenance.
- poe876 8y ago
  Health is fleeting. Human life is short and brutal, so eat away while sitting on your lazy arse, I say.
  - WJW 8y ago
    It's pretty much a self fulfilling prophecy, yes.
    - sireat 8y ago
      As Aristotle said everything in moderation including cigars and pizza. Going into a full blown mega health nut phase is not very helpful either because the end result is not going to be pretty anyways. Now if/when we start making serious life extension progress beyond 120 years with high quality of life then we can start talking.

mugsie 8y ago

> Why San Francisco? San Francisco is the Schelling point for high-openness, smart, energetic, optimistic people. Global Weird HQ. This could describe Seattle, Portland, Austin, Denver (from my experience) in the US, and a myriad of other places worldwide.

gfodor 8y ago
Note: optimism in SF more easily sighted when the preferred political party is in power
- nostrademons 8y ago
  Nah, there are still plenty of optimistic people in SF. Many of them right now are working on a blockchain something-or-other or an AI-powered something-or-other. The type of folks you want to meet, if you're interested in doing something that will be seen as important in a generation, are generally fairly apolitical. Politics (at least the hyper-partisan variety pursued in the U.S. today) consumes a lot of energy for the purpose of opposing other people who are expending a lot of energy. It makes sense that neither one of them makes much progress, though they generate much heat and noise in the process. Real change comes from people working on stuff so weird that nobody bothers to oppose them.
- ritchiea 8y ago
  Note: optimism in SF more easily sighted when you’re a well off tech worker
SEMW 8y ago
By definition only one place can be the Schelling point: the one that, in the absence of any coordination, a plurality of people think would be picked as the one that a plurality of people think would be picked as... etc.
seathrowaway 8y ago
Seattle is (or was) great at many things but as someone who has lived here all my life, I disagree with this categorization. From what I know of Portland, it describes that city even less well. We're politically liberal (sometimes to a fault), not any more optimistic than average (and quite possibly less), and definitely not what I'd call "energetic". It'd be more accurate to say the PNW has positioned itself as the laid-back alternative to SF. I've known a couple companies who have left the area because they couldn't find enough people here in their particular field who wanted to really work hard. On these particular axes (which may or may not be important to you), Seattle/Portland simply aren't in the same league as San Francisco or New York City. People in those cities are mercilessly open, optimistic, and energetic.

B1narySunset 8y ago

If you're 10–20 you should also set aside some time to have fun!

rufius 8y ago
I’d contend you should set aside time to have fun at all ages.

janvdberg 8y ago

"People who did great things often did so at very surprisingly young ages". This is very true, Gates was 19 (BASIC), Linus was 21 (Linux), Wozniak 25 (Apple I), Ada Lovelace 27 (first algorithm), Bill Joy 21 (vi), Andreessen 21 (Mosaic), Turing 24 (Turing machine) and so on.

joaomacp 8y ago
Yeah, I think 'ageism' exists both ways: if you're 20 you're considered too young, but at 45 you're already too old for certain things. You can create complex things while young, but also you can pick up skateboarding at 40.
tonyedgecombe 8y ago
Babbage 41 (Babbage machine), John Backus 30 (Fortran), Tim Berners-Lee 34 (World Wide Web), Fred Brooks 30 (IBM S/360), George Bool 32 (Symbolic Logic), Vannevar Bush 55 (memex, forerunner to hypertext), Vint Cerf 29 (TCP/IP), Alonzo Church 36 (Entscheidungsproblem) and so on.
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HiroshiSan 8y ago
I would love to see data on the age they decided to master a given field. For instance if you decide to master programming (w.e that means) and it takes roughly 10 years to achieve mastery then you should expect a great accomplishment 10 years after you've started diving deep in a field. My assumption that it's rarer for those who are older is probably due to the fact that they have to worry about making a living and there aren't as many resources where you can engage with your peers outside of university, and also the fact that as a kid, making mistakes is not frowned upon but merely a process of discovery, whereas when you're older there is a lot of negative emotions associated with failure.
wilsonnb2 8y ago
Of course it sounds true if you only list the data points that fit the position.

sus_007 8y ago

> In particular, try to go deep on multiple things...deep on languages, programming... I fall under the target audience for this piece and by now I've dabbled with at least half a dozen of programming languages and their celebrated frameworks/libraries- from Front to the Back. I tried my best to go deep on all of them just for the sake of learning. But, now I feel lost and can't figure out which path am I supposed to pursue in this vast CS space. Where did I mess up ? Edit: spelling errors

newfocogi 8y ago
I can only speak from personal experience, but I have noticed that I easily get excited to learn a shiny new tool or skill, but once I have basic familiarity with it, my eagerness dries up because all that was driving my desire to learn was the intrigue of an unknown experience. Times where I felt like I actually went deep (and it didn't require superhuman discipline to spend time on something I had lost interest in) were when I was working on a problem I was passionate about that required deep knowledge of a certain set of tools or skills. Then I had reason to keep pushing and along the way I realized I had become halfway decent at that tool/skill set.
- sus_007 8y ago
  Thanks for sharing your thoughts. True, it is in fact the desire to learn was the intrigue of an unknown experience sensation that makes me jump from one ship to the other, frequently. I guess I need to work on my discipline and focus on a single tech stack for a considerable period.
  - svilen_dobrev 8y ago
    Languages are just ...tools, instruments. So desire to learn a language (or framework, whatever tool-kit) for the sake of learning .. isnt going to hold far. BUT.. once u have that half-tool, and the half-transparent-new-window that comes with it, u can use it (and bunch of others) to be able to desire to learn something completely different... AND then use that as a stepping stone for the next.. (repeat..) until u find what u want to do, and all those stones either become the polished fundaments or just mark your steps searching around for the way. There's saying.. if u fall on your face, dont forget to take something as a souvenir... have fun

carusooneliner 8y ago

I like this point in particular -- "Don't stress out too much about how valuable the things you're going deep on are." The general stance of people is to stick to the practical stuff -- knowledge or skills that you can use right away. But, it's important to have a long view and given enough time the impractical could turn into something practical. Serendipity is underrated, and in my experience the impractical stuff is what enables serendipity.

alexggordon 8y ago

Something I've thought a lot about is how to educate people, specifically on a larger scale. In general I think it's a really underrated thought-space for tech people, probably because it's a hard problem that most likely won't make you a billionaire. However, in my thinking/reading about this issue, I've discovered that especially at the 10-20 age a lot of time you have to work towards making kids curious and encouraging this behavior without explicitly demanding it. In other words, I think this article is almost better read by parents than the kids themselves. The average 10 year old will most likely not go out of their way to "aim to read a lot" if it is hard to get books. Fortunately, I had a set of parents that highly valued education, and they really worked towards opening access to books for me and my siblings (we could go to the library whenever we wanted, and they prioritized driving us there). Obviously there will be the occasional 10 year old that will do anything to get more books but I don't think that is average, as are most things on this article. This follows for most things on this list. Curiosity, taking hobbies you enjoy way way way too far (read that as "becoming an expert"), and "making things" are all things that I think happen better or exclusively under parental guidance. In addition to that, something I think I noticed (and I'd be curious if Patrick experienced this too) but doing most of these activities with my siblings significantly encouraged my habits. I built my first computer with the help of my siblings, and have read dozens of books I never would have without the suggestions of my siblings. All these slightly random thoughts combine into the fact that my "resume education" did very little to get me to the point that I am today. I didn't learn how to program at school. I didn't write my first program at school. I didn't develop my love of reading at school. I didn't build my first quad-copter there, etc. So, rounding this out, I'd ask the question; what portion of these activities (listed here, or on Patrick's blog) should I have done at school vs at home? Should education move to a more Montessori[0] style to encourage this exploration? Should teachers merge more into parents as is the case in a lot of public schools? How can a company (non-profit?) garner enough of a child's time to encourage these behaviors? On a more tangential note, have you done anything in the education/parenting space Patrick? [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montessori_education https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montessori_education

tonyedgecombe 8y ago
specifically on a larger scale It's scale that seems to kill education, in fact I sometimes wonder if there might just be too much of it.

gfodor 8y ago

> If you think something is important but people older than you hold don't hold it in high regard, there's a decent chance that you're right and they're wrong. Status lags by a generation or more. I winced a little bit at this one, though it's worded strangely so I may be misinterpreting it. The way I took it is poor advice -- when there is a mismatch between yourself and another in terms of "what's important" or what should be kept in "high regard", do not immediately assume the other person is a moral failure. This is the kind of thinking that leads to division and mistrust between people. The proper way to react to this is to make a good faith effort to understand why the person doesn't care about the issue you do, and be conscious that you may also change your mind one day. "Strong opinions, weakly held."

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dkrich 8y ago
Agreed. The older I get the more I’ve learned to listen to other people and to question my own ideas. I’ve gotten to the point where I actually view people who listen to others and are open to changing their opinions when confronted with good advice as being much more intelligent than those who are sure they are right about everything all the time. As the Bob Dylan song goes, “I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now.”
- mcguire 8y ago
  Are you the co-founder and CEO of Stripe? Were you a millionaire at 19 and now, at 29, worth north of a billion dollars? Why would anyone want to listen to your advice? (/s Be careful about listening to people who are obviously statistical outliers, who are young and apparently have succeeded at everything they've touched.)
  - eldavido 8y ago
    I find it interesting that it's accepted in our culture, that "Having money" means "Someone worth listening to". I see this all the time and just wanted to point it out.

Swizec 8y ago

And remember: if you're not 10-20, you can still do all these things! The best time to plant a tree is 10 years ago, the second best time is now. When you feel old and curmudgeonly, that's the perfect time to take a deep breath and become a beginner in something new.

petercooper 8y ago
Exactly. I'm almost 40 and I feel all of this advice is just as relevant to me.
jimmies 8y ago
After being trapped in a rut at 30, I decided to rethink many aspects of my life just 4 months ago. I made a major overhaul of myself, and it worked out so well I couldn't imagine. It's never ever too late to do anything, the important thing is whether someone's willing to admit they didn't know as much as they thought.
- Swizec 8y ago
  As a fellow rut feeling 30 year old I would love to hear more about your experience. If you’re okay sharing of course :)
  - jimmies 8y ago
    I totally would share it. I do write my blog at my profile. It will take a while for me to organize my thoughts to write this down (in a month maybe?), but it is coming :)

ritchiea 8y ago

I wish someone would write a useful version of this for the question “what should I do to make the most of my life when my family is poor or somehow less fortunate?” A lot of this would still apply but there’s a huge percentage of the population that has to deal with major difficulties in life before they can heed the kind of advice Patrick offers.

tonyedgecombe 8y ago
there’s a huge percentage of the population that has to deal with major difficulties in life Do you or is this just some lefty privileged angst?
- ritchiea 8y ago
  Yea I did, what is it to you? Do you take joy in asking that question? Does it make you feel better to know my mom was a single parent without very much money? Do you feel like you productively added to the conversation?
  - tonyedgecombe 8y ago
    I'm sorry if I offended you, that wasn't my intention.
    - java_script 8y ago
      Hahaha that was one of the most ridiculous (and succinct) 180's I've ever seen online.
      - chrisfosterelli 8y ago
        It's OK for people to realize they made a mistake and change accordingly.
        java_script 8y ago

codingdave 8y ago

"Go be an autodidact iconoclast, and hang out with everyone else does that, too." is a great recipe for being an interesting person. But changing the world requires not just being interesting, but understanding the status quo, and finding ways to bridge them. This advice won't give you both sides. Also, there is nothing wrong with living a pedestrian life. Millions (billions?) of people do so, happily. And there are many small changes you can make in the world even while walking a typical path. The world changes over time, as many people make those small changes. Feel free to pursue large changes, but don't reject the power of incremental improvements.

jschwartzi 8y ago
Agreed. I'm quite happily pedestrian, and I've met too many people who "went deep" only on a few subjects but were very boring people unless you talked to them about their chosen subjects. Some of my best friends are boring from an economic standpoint because they're poor. But they're wonderful people and I wouldn't trade them for any of the learning I could get from someone who makes more money. I think Hunter S. Thompson's advice for young people is much better, because in it he makes the point that anyone seeking to give you advice can't possibly know enough about your situation to give good advice. https://fs.blog/2014/05/hunter-s-thompson-to-hume-logan/ https://fs.blog/2014/05/hunter-s-thompson-to-hume-logan/ If who you are is pedestrian, don't hesitate to be the most pedestrian you can be.
- eshwar 8y ago
  Wrong, don't be anything. Pedestrian or Deep. Labels do NOT matter. San Francisco has got this wrong. And most of the world is following San Francisco, that is wrong. Be and do what must be done, not get advice from Collison or Musk et al. This is something I have learned along the way. Sure, respect achievements. Please for God's sake do not try to become like someone or be something or change the world. It is not worth it. Others can label you. It doesn't count.

staunch 8y ago

Seems less like an answer to "How do I change the world?" than a rough description of what almost any intelligent person does in an idyllic environment. It's very common for successful people to over-analyze their specific behavior rather than acknowledge the harsh reality of what actually separates them from others. A description of reality is both less flattering and seemingly less useful. But it does have the virtue of at least being real. IMHO there are three major factors in changing the world: #1 High general intelligence and ambition (genetics) #2 Highly educated well-off parents (environment) #3 Support of powerful people (opportunity) You probably can't do much without at least one of these factors. Most people that do big things have all three.

mychael 8y ago

As a Stripe Customer: Less life advice, more focus on making Stripe a better, easier to use product.

deleted 8y ago

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java_script 8y ago

Advice for SF people: Stop talking about changing the god damned world when what you're actually working on is a middleman payment processor. You sound like your head is planted so far up into your ass you can see daylight again. E: Just to point out what I actually believe so I’m not just doing a drive-by insult - let capitalism and self interest be just that, like how a pizza delivery guy or payday loan provider probably isn’t deluding themselves about making an impact. Leave talk of societal impact to actual politics.

TAForObvReasons 8y ago
That's the magic of the whole setup. When you present the situation as "making the world a better place", it's easier to swallow ethical transgressions and other illegal or immoral behaviors (Uber is a great example of this)
- java_script 8y ago
  My favorite is how if you check out any oil companies website, pretend you knew nothing about them and you’d think they were green peace by the messaging on their site.
- java_script 8y ago
  The most basic form of this is undermining or exploiting a group of people as your core business model, and then donating a small portion to charities that help that same group. Or even better, the ceo’s unrelated pet cause, an astroturf group, or a foundation where they hire family members as a way to skirt gift taxes. Compassionate capitalism is lovely ;)
wj 8y ago
I agree with you in theory but I feel that Stripe is an exception in that they have made it vastly easier for people to start businesses that will change the world. Related to this is the talk the founder of Asana gave at Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders. If you can make the people that are on the front lines of doing good a bit more efficient then you are doing good yourself.
8y ago

andy_adams 8y ago

> If you think something is important but people older than you hold don't hold it in high regard, there's a decent chance that you're right and they're wrong. Status lags by a generation or more. I feel like I'm missing the point of this one. For basically 100% of the things I thought were important between 10-20 years old, as I got older I realized I was wrong and older folks were right. Conversely, if someone older than you thinks something is important and you do not, you should probably reserve judgement until you're older...

sincerely 8y ago
Yea if I followed these instructions I would have flunked out of high school playing Team Fortress. Someone 20-30 disagreeing with the previous generation is much more likely to be right imo.

yla92 8y ago

For some of us who are in 20~30, I recommend Sam Altman's "The days are long but the decades are short"[0]. [0]: http://blog.samaltman.com/the-days-are-long-but-the-decades-are-short http://blog.samaltman.com/the-days-are-long-but-the-decades-...

loco5niner 8y ago
> The days are long but the decades are shot Typo - "Shot" should be "short" Although I have to admit, that word might fit in some cases...
- yla92 8y ago
  Fixed. Thank you! It indeed might be fitting in some cases :D
prawks 8y ago
> 30) Existential angst is part of life. Definitely a 20-30 thing, never even crossed my mind before I was 25.

hguhghuff 8y ago

I’m more open to advice from ordinarily successful people rather than the most successful people in the world.

pkaler 8y ago

So, funny story. I was in YVR waiting for a flight when I decided to get my shoes shined. The shoe shine had been reading a manga take on the bible. Just a regular guy that in another life could be a computer programmer if the circumstances were different. He asked me what I do: mobile apps. And he went on and on about how his favourite iPhone app downloaded all of Wikipedia but it didn't work on the latest version of iOS anymore. That app was Patrick Collison's Encyclopedia app: http://radar.oreilly.com/2009/07/oscon-preview-how-patrick-co.html http://radar.oreilly.com/2009/07/oscon-preview-how-patrick-c...

mgummelt 8y ago
The timing on this is odd. Patrick says he built the Wikipedia app over a few weeks in Japan in late 2007, which would have been soon after founding Auctomatic: https://venturebeat.com/2007/10/22/auctomatic-launches-better-tools-for-ebay-powersellers/ https://venturebeat.com/2007/10/22/auctomatic-launches-bette... It seems like a strange decision take take a month off after founding your startup to build a side project in Japan.
- tedmiston 8y ago
  From the article: > Then in November of 2007, I went to visit my friend in Japan for a month. And in Japan they have all of this incredibly advanced cellular technology and all of the rest. And so because of that, they had very few wireless networks, and my phone didn’t work. As a result, I actually had very little access to the Internet. I sort of realized without Wikipedia how little I really knew. And I had just got an iPhone, so I decided to try basically putting a copy of Wikipedia on the phone, so that I’d have it as I was walking around in Japan.

renjimen 8y ago

I would suggest travel over most of these. Particularly if you live in a fairly inward looking society like the US. Forget SF - live in another country, learn another language while your brain is still plastic enough to become truly fluent, understand your own culture by spending time among others, realise how fortunate you are to be born in a developed country.

tedmiston 8y ago
+1 even if just briefly Study abroad was my favorite part of college. Spending just a few weeks each in Taiwan and Costa Rica was pretty enlightening.

jakecrouch 8y ago

> But having good social skills confers life-long benefits. So, don't write them off. Get good at making a good first impression, being funny (if possible... this author still working on it...), speaking publicly. I would be careful with this point. Young people who don't have great social skills already tend to feel that they are somehow missing out on something important. But those who have good social skills in our culture will have a hard time forming new and unique ideas, and will often get talked into believing big, fundamental ideas that are wrong or crazy. I'd compare it to being a smoker in the 1960s. In exchange for being cooler, you suffer irreducible risk, that is made more dangerous by the fact that few people realize it's there. Until our culture changes, it's probably better to encourage people to learn about human nature than about "social skills".

hluska 8y ago
> But those who have good social skills in our culture will have a hard time forming new and unique ideas, and will often get talked into believing big, fundamental ideas that are wrong or crazy. I'd compare it to being a smoker in the 1960s. I can assure you that having good social skills is absolutely nothing like being a smoker in the 1960s. And, there is no absolute relationship between having good social skills and getting talked into believing crazy ideas. I have absolutely no idea where you get those ideas, but they are completely and demonstrably wrong.
fiveoak 8y ago
I don't really think there are any negative effects to having good social skills. If anything, being able to effectively communicate with others probably helps with coming up with new/unique ideas. Very few great ideas are created in a vacuum. But, I do agree it's important that people don't feel afraid to be an independent thinker, and it's easy to fall into the trap of forced conformity in order to feel more socially accepted.. but I don't think that is really necessarily a product of having good social skills.

nextstep 8y ago

>>>Figure out a way to travel to San Francisco Hahahahahahaha is this for real?

dang 8y ago
Please don't do this here.

madrox 8y ago

When I was a teenager, I listened to "Everybody's Free (to wear sunscreen)," which prompted me to read the essay "Advice, like youth, probably just wasted on the young." Probably one of the only real bits of advice I listened to in my teens, thought about, and then attempted to follow. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-schmich-sunscreen-column-column.html http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-schmich-su... I'm actually old enough to write a 20-30 column. My only advice is to know the different between wanting something and how you want something to happen. In my 20s, I despised the idea of luck, but I've learned so much of what happens in life is outside your control. The only thing reliably in your control is your attitude.

archagon 8y ago

I was scratching my head at the popularity of this article before seeing the author. In my opinion, it's a rose-tinted picture of success as filtered through Patrick Collison's extremely unusual life experiences, and comes off as terribly naive without that context.

kreetx 8y ago
Definitely, it's popular because of its author, but it's good advice. And what if the way to success is in not giving up on your naivety?

jimmies 8y ago

One thing I'd love to add is that is to make friends with people: People who are older than you, people that don't do stuff you do, people with radically different ideas and lifestyles, people in different countries/cultural backgrounds, people who are successful and unsuccessful. If it is possible, you should find ways to talk to people you adore. Many people will spend the time to talk back to you. They will be the fuel in your life when you need advice, help, inspirations. If you're a person in STEM, you should listen carefully to/date people studying arts, literature, social studies, education, politics... Never ever look them down as not as smart as you are. Think of people who don't think the way you do as being different rather than inferior to you. This is easier said then done, if you have a good job and in general, probably have a higher position in the food chain compared to them.

Viliam1234 8y ago
> If it is possible, you should find ways to talk to people you adore. This. I was often surprised to find out that a famous person whom I admire is actually a very nice person, replies to my e-mails, and sometimes even agrees to meet and talk in person. Sometimes you may even be able to help them with something, and that feels really awesome. > you should listen carefully to/date people studying arts, literature, social studies, education, politics... But you should always listen to more than one person in each category, and compare what they said.

deleted 8y ago

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wilsonnb2 8y ago

Why is this kind of vague advice popular? Just because the author is famous? If someone else had written this would anyone care? Personally, I got tired of hearing famous people tell me I should read more, work on things I love, be an expert (or don't be an expert), "make things", blah, blah, blah many years ago.

hymenopter4 8y ago
Hey, dude, you know, you should learn to relax a little bit. You know what would make you more successful? A good tan! Get some sun, bro!

tobbe2064 8y ago

There was a survey done at a home for the elderly that asked them what they would do differently. All of them, 100%, gave the same answer: Spend more time with their family.