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I hate these kinds of articles because they can put tremendous pressure on people. There isn't a "right" way to spend your twenties (or thirties, or any decade

by acabal 14y ago

I hate these kinds of articles because they can put tremendous pressure on people. There isn't a "right" way to spend your twenties (or thirties, or any decade) and comparing yourself to Einstein and Newton and Kepler like this article does is worse than counterproductive. The only way you should concern yourself with living is to try to be happy every day, whatever that means to you. Listening to pundits showing you charts and graphs and science about how you're wasting your life will just invite stress and pressure.

nakedrobot2 14y ago
Exactly. Save the serious stuff for later. When else will you be able to have the most fun? When are you the prettiest, the strongest, the wildest? Enjoy yourself in your twenties. Isn't that what life is really all about? Sex, drugs, and rock n roll. Friends. Your tribe. You can recover in your thirties and get serious, work long hours, enjoy your children, and watch the wrinkles on your face grow.
LatvjuAvs 14y ago
Of course, but someone have to pay for adds. Someone presents an opinion and you have someone else who presents his opinion and that is how we start a discussion. "I work hard to enjoy my twenties" "I discipline myself to enjoy my twenties" "Or I do something else that others have came up how to enjoy my twenties"
moe 14y ago
Especially idiotic are the random references to successful people. As if not "wasting" your 20s (whatever that means) would somehow improve your odds to become the next Einstein. If you happen to be the next Einstein then I firmly doubt reading baseless self-improvement drivel makes a difference towards realizing or not realizing your potential.
- pjbrunet 14y ago
  Keep in mind what's really important.
- dualogy 14y ago
  > If you happen to be the next Einstein then I firmly doubt reading baseless self-improvement drivel makes a difference towards realizing or not realizing your potential. Thanks. My quote of the day!
- 3rd3 14y ago
  With the given comparisons the message should have been "don’t waste your childhood" (which is an even more ridiculous statement).
- tylermauthe 14y ago
  Great point! :) My quote of the day too!
VSerge 14y ago
Way to confuse nurture and nature. This is just very bad pop science. As if curiosity wasn't something that could be nurtured, or evaluating risk something that came with life experience..
jessriedel 14y ago
> The only way you should concern yourself with living is to try to be happy every day, whatever that means to you. Barf. There's a lot more to life and human flourishing than just making yourself happy.
- ak39 14y ago
  No need for the barf response. It's actually the truest and best advice one can get. Genius does what genius knows will make him/her happy[1]. That's it. Simple as that. ___ [1] Of course we know and appreciate the difficulty of defining that. Or that we've appreciated that happiness is probably only "achievable" obliquely. Or that happiness isn't what we are after ... after all, and that it's meaningfulness that we seek. Or that even after searching for meaning we come to the absurd conclusion that our existence is devoid of any meaning! Doesn't matter really, just be happy. FFS.
- theorique 14y ago
  Clearly. We should strive to be miserable and frustrated because that's a lot better.
  - jessriedel 14y ago
    We should strive for something greater than ourselves.
    - theorique 14y ago
      Fair point. Chasing happiness (esp. short term pleasure) as an end in itself, rather than as a side effect of doing valuable things, is unlikely to result in happiness. But I think a strategic view of "what big choices in life will contribute to long term happiness?" is a still good thing to consider.
      - jessriedel 14y ago
        Isn't that the opposite of the original sentence I quoted?
firefoxman1 14y ago
Seinfeld advice: GEORGE: They always make me take stock of my life. And how I’ve pretty much wasted all of it, and how I plan to continue wasting it. JERRY: I know, and then you say to yourself, “From this moment on, I’m not gonna waste any more of it.” But then you go, “How? What can I do that’s not wasting it?” ELAINE: Is this a waste of time? What should we be doing? Can’t you have coffee with people?
graeme 14y ago
Some people do need to hear this though. I spent ages 15-23 playing video games for hours. I could have learned programming in that time. (Probably would have, if someone had told me that programming existed) It was fun at the time, but not really fun to reminisce on (unlike partying, which I don't regret). If I could say two things to my younger self, 'ditch video games and do something with more value' would be the second.
- bad_user 14y ago
  When speaking about learning stuff, some people are more ready to learn than others. Programming is tough. If you lack the patience and the passion and the resources, you aren't going to learn programming, no matter how many self-improvement articles you may read. I tried hard to learn programming since I was 12 years old. This was in 95 and I didn't have an accessible Internet connection or books and Linux was awful back then so I was working with QBasic and a pirated Turbo Pascal and 1 or 2 shitty books. I was also not ready for it, as I was lacking the necessary knowledge or the patience for doing things bigger than bubble-sort and hello-world. Only in high-school I managed to get more serious about it, but even then I lacked the resources and good teachers and I also had lots of other problems on my mind, as any other teenager. Of course, for you playing video games was probably a waist of time, but if you wouldn't have had played those games than you have no idea how you would have filled that surplus of time. And really, where's the rush? I admire 12 year-olds that hack on stuff, but they do so because that makes them happy and because we live in a different age. Not because they are rushing to get somewhere. I fucking hate this trait of western culture.
  - leoedin 14y ago
    I completely agree. I didn't really do much programming until I was perhaps 17 or 18 because I found it tediously dull until then. In the time since then, I've taught myself a whole range of programming languages because I started to enjoy doing it. I'm not sure if I had to mature a little to get there, or whether the little forced programming I did in college gave me enough of a knowledge boost to make it fun. Now I do programming and electronics projects in my spare time because I enjoy them. I also go to clubs because I enjoy them. Is one of those a waste because it's not seen externally as constructive? I don't think so.
spennino 14y ago
This article isn't trying to promote the "right way" to spend your twenties. It ends with asking the question, "But what kinds of things should you channel [20s brain power] towards?" It's just trying to highlight many of the advantages young brains have that are often overlooked. Especially in traditional careers where the 20s are consumed by degrees and climbing corporate/professional ladders.

by acabal 14y ago

nakedrobot2 14y ago

Exactly. Save the serious stuff for later. When else will you be able to have the most fun? When are you the prettiest, the strongest, the wildest? Enjoy yourself in your twenties. Isn't that what life is really all about? Sex, drugs, and rock n roll. Friends. Your tribe. You can recover in your thirties and get serious, work long hours, enjoy your children, and watch the wrinkles on your face grow.

LatvjuAvs 14y ago

Of course, but someone have to pay for adds. Someone presents an opinion and you have someone else who presents his opinion and that is how we start a discussion. "I work hard to enjoy my twenties" "I discipline myself to enjoy my twenties" "Or I do something else that others have came up how to enjoy my twenties"

moe 14y ago

Especially idiotic are the random references to successful people. As if not "wasting" your 20s (whatever that means) would somehow improve your odds to become the next Einstein. If you happen to be the next Einstein then I firmly doubt reading baseless self-improvement drivel makes a difference towards realizing or not realizing your potential.

pjbrunet 14y ago
Keep in mind what's really important.
dualogy 14y ago
> If you happen to be the next Einstein then I firmly doubt reading baseless self-improvement drivel makes a difference towards realizing or not realizing your potential. Thanks. My quote of the day!
3rd3 14y ago
With the given comparisons the message should have been "don’t waste your childhood" (which is an even more ridiculous statement).
tylermauthe 14y ago
Great point! :) My quote of the day too!

VSerge 14y ago

Way to confuse nurture and nature. This is just very bad pop science. As if curiosity wasn't something that could be nurtured, or evaluating risk something that came with life experience..

jessriedel 14y ago

> The only way you should concern yourself with living is to try to be happy every day, whatever that means to you. Barf. There's a lot more to life and human flourishing than just making yourself happy.

ak39 14y ago
No need for the barf response. It's actually the truest and best advice one can get. Genius does what genius knows will make him/her happy[1]. That's it. Simple as that. ___ [1] Of course we know and appreciate the difficulty of defining that. Or that we've appreciated that happiness is probably only "achievable" obliquely. Or that happiness isn't what we are after ... after all, and that it's meaningfulness that we seek. Or that even after searching for meaning we come to the absurd conclusion that our existence is devoid of any meaning! Doesn't matter really, just be happy. FFS.
theorique 14y ago
Clearly. We should strive to be miserable and frustrated because that's a lot better.
- jessriedel 14y ago
  We should strive for something greater than ourselves.
  - theorique 14y ago
    Fair point. Chasing happiness (esp. short term pleasure) as an end in itself, rather than as a side effect of doing valuable things, is unlikely to result in happiness. But I think a strategic view of "what big choices in life will contribute to long term happiness?" is a still good thing to consider.
    - jessriedel 14y ago
      Isn't that the opposite of the original sentence I quoted?

firefoxman1 14y ago

Seinfeld advice: GEORGE: They always make me take stock of my life. And how I’ve pretty much wasted all of it, and how I plan to continue wasting it. JERRY: I know, and then you say to yourself, “From this moment on, I’m not gonna waste any more of it.” But then you go, “How? What can I do that’s not wasting it?” ELAINE: Is this a waste of time? What should we be doing? Can’t you have coffee with people?

graeme 14y ago

Some people do need to hear this though. I spent ages 15-23 playing video games for hours. I could have learned programming in that time. (Probably would have, if someone had told me that programming existed) It was fun at the time, but not really fun to reminisce on (unlike partying, which I don't regret). If I could say two things to my younger self, 'ditch video games and do something with more value' would be the second.

bad_user 14y ago
When speaking about learning stuff, some people are more ready to learn than others. Programming is tough. If you lack the patience and the passion and the resources, you aren't going to learn programming, no matter how many self-improvement articles you may read. I tried hard to learn programming since I was 12 years old. This was in 95 and I didn't have an accessible Internet connection or books and Linux was awful back then so I was working with QBasic and a pirated Turbo Pascal and 1 or 2 shitty books. I was also not ready for it, as I was lacking the necessary knowledge or the patience for doing things bigger than bubble-sort and hello-world. Only in high-school I managed to get more serious about it, but even then I lacked the resources and good teachers and I also had lots of other problems on my mind, as any other teenager. Of course, for you playing video games was probably a waist of time, but if you wouldn't have had played those games than you have no idea how you would have filled that surplus of time. And really, where's the rush? I admire 12 year-olds that hack on stuff, but they do so because that makes them happy and because we live in a different age. Not because they are rushing to get somewhere. I fucking hate this trait of western culture.
- leoedin 14y ago
  I completely agree. I didn't really do much programming until I was perhaps 17 or 18 because I found it tediously dull until then. In the time since then, I've taught myself a whole range of programming languages because I started to enjoy doing it. I'm not sure if I had to mature a little to get there, or whether the little forced programming I did in college gave me enough of a knowledge boost to make it fun. Now I do programming and electronics projects in my spare time because I enjoy them. I also go to clubs because I enjoy them. Is one of those a waste because it's not seen externally as constructive? I don't think so.

spennino 14y ago

This article isn't trying to promote the "right way" to spend your twenties. It ends with asking the question, "But what kinds of things should you channel [20s brain power] towards?" It's just trying to highlight many of the advantages young brains have that are often overlooked. Especially in traditional careers where the 20s are consumed by degrees and climbing corporate/professional ladders.