I hate to contradict this since it's all so subjective: but I am massively better at my job than I was during grad school and the immediate aftermath. I am emba

I hate to contradict this since it's all so subjective: but I am massively better at my job than I was during grad school and the immediate aftermath. I am embarrassed at how many stupid mistakes I made in my early career because (1) I hadn't accumulated a library of technical experience between my ears, and (2) I was generally younger and tended to be overconfident without realizing it. Regarding the second point, correcting this required decades of experiences where I felt absolutely confident about some technical point, only to find out that I was wrong. This teaches you humility, which is an incredibly valuable asset. I wish I could carry my current brain back in time to my younger self: I would be incredibly productive. You will learn these lessons in the future, and then you'll be sad that you also face aging and loss of that hard-won knowledge.