25 things I’ve learned about life the hard way before turning 25(ednevsky.substack.com)
ednevsky.substack.com
25 things I’ve learned about life the hard way before turning 25
https://ednevsky.substack.com/p/25-things-ive-learned-about-life
53 comments
AI may be. But current neural nets are simply an advanced template generators, unable to "solve" any unsolved problem. I guess this would be featured on his list of "50 things I've learned the hard way before 50" :)
Overall the list reads exactly how I would expect an ambitious 25 year old would write. A little bit of generic health advice, a little bit of latest hyped tech (5 years ago he would have wrote decentralized finance, or DAOs I guess), a little bit of bragging (here I'm founding companies at 25 and teach people to do so properly). This is a like every intro to a self help books or modern biographies.
Overall the list reads exactly how I would expect an ambitious 25 year old would write. A little bit of generic health advice, a little bit of latest hyped tech (5 years ago he would have wrote decentralized finance, or DAOs I guess), a little bit of bragging (here I'm founding companies at 25 and teach people to do so properly). This is a like every intro to a self help books or modern biographies.
I'm glad you spent the time to read it. Would love to read yours if you ever make one!
I feel like we are in the 40s when everyone was talking about the “atomic age”, or the late 90s with internet. Fission technology did change the world, but not the way people expected, and not to the extent they were hoping in the areas they thought about most (energy prices). Internet has honestly lived up to expectations and more, but it took longer than people expected, and at least right now it’s way more centralized than anybody had ever guessed it would become.
Personally I think AI is going, over decades, to lead to huge changes on par with the invention of the computer and Internet, but like the computer and internet, it will be more gradual than we think. It’s already happening and we aren’t at the beginning, we’re just near some kind of dotcom-style inflection point IMO. Don’t get too caught up in the hype!
Anyway, the problem I have with posts like these is they simplify and confidently state things that take asymmetrically large amounts of text to refute or refine, because there are several other points (like blanket suggesting 2meals/day) I take issue with, and others I really like (renting/going carless) but are presented without the context or reasoning to justify them. Most of these points would require their own post to do them justice IMO
Personally I think AI is going, over decades, to lead to huge changes on par with the invention of the computer and Internet, but like the computer and internet, it will be more gradual than we think. It’s already happening and we aren’t at the beginning, we’re just near some kind of dotcom-style inflection point IMO. Don’t get too caught up in the hype!
Anyway, the problem I have with posts like these is they simplify and confidently state things that take asymmetrically large amounts of text to refute or refine, because there are several other points (like blanket suggesting 2meals/day) I take issue with, and others I really like (renting/going carless) but are presented without the context or reasoning to justify them. Most of these points would require their own post to do them justice IMO
Thank you for the comment. I see what you mean and by no means my point is dismissive of the potential threats of AGI gone rogue. By the way, I didn't say "AI is good". I said that it would change the world the most.
Whether that involves the current humanity's status-quo or not, I'm not sure. I would even say that given where the world is heading right now, I would love to try and take a shot at some form of AGI governing us (making decisions etc) and establishing the world order. I'm not sure we can escape this future unless we go back into the medieval era.
In general, I guess I'm an optimist at heart and I'm more focused on the amazing things we would be able to do with the infinite compute and infinite resources rather than the doomsday scenario, but I'm supportive of thinking of both.
Whether that involves the current humanity's status-quo or not, I'm not sure. I would even say that given where the world is heading right now, I would love to try and take a shot at some form of AGI governing us (making decisions etc) and establishing the world order. I'm not sure we can escape this future unless we go back into the medieval era.
In general, I guess I'm an optimist at heart and I'm more focused on the amazing things we would be able to do with the infinite compute and infinite resources rather than the doomsday scenario, but I'm supportive of thinking of both.
It's also a really strange thing to suggest because there are a lot of physical problems with the world that AGI won't be able to solve without access to extremely advanced robots (or some way to control humans to do its bidding which is even more terrifying). And then there's even more human problems such as getting people to agree on such as immigration or gun rights. Regardless of where you stand on the issue it's laughable to claim that AGI will be able to get people to agree on an action there.
Isn't all of this a question of the timescale?
The claim is that AGI will solve all these problems. But AGI alone cannot solve any problems. AGI needs other advancements before it can get close to solving the problems. Additionally many human problems cannot be solved with AGI unless AGI has control over humans.
It's okay to write down one cliche for each year of your life, it's not okay to have so little self awareness that you make it a blog and post it on HN yourself.
> Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work. A good critical comment teaches us something. [0]
We all experience life differently, come from varied backgrounds, start our careers with varying levels of life skills, carry defaults passed on from our parents (for good or bad), etc.
What seems cliche to you may be revolutionary to someone else. I would have benefited from a list like this earlier in my career.
[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
We all experience life differently, come from varied backgrounds, start our careers with varying levels of life skills, carry defaults passed on from our parents (for good or bad), etc.
What seems cliche to you may be revolutionary to someone else. I would have benefited from a list like this earlier in my career.
[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
These points go from extremely mundane and generic to downright wrong.
The post is already flagged, but the general point here is: then directly challenge what’s wrong.
And it’s helpful if you look at this through the lens of “Things I’ve learned”, emphasis on the author’s journey. To claim that what others have learned about how they live their own lives is downright wrong…strikes me as a rather limited way of thinking about the spectrum of situations we all find ourselves in.
If the author was claiming that all readers should alter their lives according to his own discoveries, I’d have more issues with it.
And it’s helpful if you look at this through the lens of “Things I’ve learned”, emphasis on the author’s journey. To claim that what others have learned about how they live their own lives is downright wrong…strikes me as a rather limited way of thinking about the spectrum of situations we all find ourselves in.
If the author was claiming that all readers should alter their lives according to his own discoveries, I’d have more issues with it.
Thank you for putting all of this out, I couldn't have said it better.
Would love to read on what you think is wrong and why. Happy to contemplate on your worldview :)
My bad. How come have I dared to post something on the internet. How unthoughtful of me...
Er… why not?
Before you make fun of this, realize that while to the older HN crowd a 25 year old imparting life advice may seem laughable, to 20 year old college students this is likely very interesting and informative, while being more “fresh” in terms of applicability to the contemporary world than what us older folk could give. Even if we might think it’s inaccurate or lacks perspective for other reasons, it has benefits we can’t give.
It’s also just interesting to read what kind of advice younger people would give to those younger than themselves!
It’s also just interesting to read what kind of advice younger people would give to those younger than themselves!
Really enjoying the feedback so far.
PS This wasn't meant to be an advice per se. That's why the list features "ing" most of the time :)
PS This wasn't meant to be an advice per se. That's why the list features "ing" most of the time :)
I think one of the things I noticed about a lot of Asian tech newbies (both East Asia and South Asian) is how different they were to be in terms of money and wanting to "live it large" in a place such as Los Angeles. Obviously these people were attracted to tech because of the money, but this blog does show me that even these tech newbies will eventually realise the errors of their ways. I rarely drive and never place too much value on money, and realise that a lot of the "socially warm" cultures that some people rave on about are a little pointless.
I'm not sure I got what you meant here. Would you clarify on what exactly is the "error" and in whose ways? Genuinely curious.
> If you have a deviated septum, undergo septoplasty
Really? If you have a severely deviated septum you'll likely have a benefit. Talking as someone who has undergone a septoplasty, the ENT wanted to make me perfect and the surgery was horribly painful. What actually helped was treating my allergies.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6616214/
Really? If you have a severely deviated septum you'll likely have a benefit. Talking as someone who has undergone a septoplasty, the ENT wanted to make me perfect and the surgery was horribly painful. What actually helped was treating my allergies.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6616214/
This worked for me and a number of people I know, but that isn't to say that everyone needs to do this. The post is a reflection and not a call-to-action.
My surgery wasn't horrible. It was nothing at all because I was out. The first few days were really bad because I was unable to use my nose to breathe and my brain was glitching because of that. I still think it was worth it.
My surgery wasn't horrible. It was nothing at all because I was out. The first few days were really bad because I was unable to use my nose to breathe and my brain was glitching because of that. I still think it was worth it.
>Working in tech, you're likely able to save >50% of your earnings.
is this naivety or privilege?
is this naivety or privilege?
The average "technology professional" in the US made about $104,566 in 2021. Certainly not bad, but not "save half your money" good, if you have... like, a life, and a family. Maybe if you're single and don't do much, and live in a low COL area.
People in the SV/fintech sphere tend to have a really skewed idea of what typical salaries are for people "working in tech". What they really mean is "FAANG(-alike) and fintech", not "tech". They're in the third hump of the trimodal distribution of developer salaries, and may have some inaccurate ideas about the rest of the market, as a result.
(BLS gives me a median of ~$97k in 2021, if you're wondering if there's a big difference between the average and the median)
People in the SV/fintech sphere tend to have a really skewed idea of what typical salaries are for people "working in tech". What they really mean is "FAANG(-alike) and fintech", not "tech". They're in the third hump of the trimodal distribution of developer salaries, and may have some inaccurate ideas about the rest of the market, as a result.
(BLS gives me a median of ~$97k in 2021, if you're wondering if there's a big difference between the average and the median)
My savings rate is about 50%. I think this is accurate for any reasonably-paid job in tech.
Which one is "assuming most other people are like me"? That one.
He dismissed a need for a car, for a formal education, for keeping friends, for owning a place to live. all on the same page of text. We don't even need to guess about that question :)
ehh, to be fair he basically said that cars sucks
and I do agree with him, I'd rather do not have car, they're annoying and costly.
and I do agree with him, I'd rather do not have car, they're annoying and costly.
This is a perspective from my end, and not meant to be applicable to everyone. There are about 8 bil people in the world, for god's sake!
PS: I'm in Europe.
PS: I'm in Europe.
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I’m sure for part of the privileged bubble the author is in, but it’s super common for 20-something US tech workers to save >50% of take home.
Some certainly choose to take on more expenses like living by themselves, choosing luxury housing, having a nice car, spending on nice clothes and vacations. But it’s pretty common for people to live with roommates and otherwise not “ball out” while eschewing most of that - it’s very common for tech college graduates to follow the money mustache/boglehead financial strategy of avoiding lifestyle inflation and living like college students for a while. And if you do that, you could easily have living expenses at 40k/y or less even in an expensive city like SF, Seattle, LA, NYC.
And you don’t need an outlier income to save 40k+ per year (including 401k) on 40k of expenses either. The 401k contribution limit is 22.5k. Per smartasset’s calculator, you’d only need an income of about $100k to save $40k on $40k of expenses while living in California, (that’s without employer matching while maxing 401k). And $100k is a totally reasonable figure for new grad tech TC in California.
Some certainly choose to take on more expenses like living by themselves, choosing luxury housing, having a nice car, spending on nice clothes and vacations. But it’s pretty common for people to live with roommates and otherwise not “ball out” while eschewing most of that - it’s very common for tech college graduates to follow the money mustache/boglehead financial strategy of avoiding lifestyle inflation and living like college students for a while. And if you do that, you could easily have living expenses at 40k/y or less even in an expensive city like SF, Seattle, LA, NYC.
And you don’t need an outlier income to save 40k+ per year (including 401k) on 40k of expenses either. The 401k contribution limit is 22.5k. Per smartasset’s calculator, you’d only need an income of about $100k to save $40k on $40k of expenses while living in California, (that’s without employer matching while maxing 401k). And $100k is a totally reasonable figure for new grad tech TC in California.
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Por qué no los dos?
> Fashion is mostly made up. No one cares what you wear as long as you're a cool person.
Cool. I'll wear my giant veiny penis hat to the office from now on.
Cool. I'll wear my giant veiny penis hat to the office from now on.
I think that being a "cool person" aligns with not wearing things that others would find offensive.
Unless you know the target audience well enough that it would be well received. Carry on then.
Unless you know the target audience well enough that it would be well received. Carry on then.
You missed the caveat back in his point #4,
> as long as you don't cross societal norms
> as long as you don't cross societal norms
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still waiting for substack to put its paywall so we won't have to be subjected to this
What were your specific criticisms of the post? Items 1-5,7-11,24,25 seem useful to me; the rest subjective or questionable.
I'm not the commenter that you responded to (ftxbro) but any listicle screams clickbait to me. I suspect he feels the same way.
Sure, but much of Substack/Twitter/LinkedIn is clickbait. I thought this one at least contained a couple of useful items, along with some questionable ones. Which in my book would make it slightly above-average; although marginally on-topic on HN. Maybe the time has come to split HN's page or use tags: tech, language-specific, business, life, economy, knowledge etc. At least to keep the softer posts from pushing out harder ones.
Since you've read the post and are not downright dismissive, would love to hear your perspective on what you've found questionable and why!
Does this mean that listicle is "banned" forever or how does that work? Genuinely curious.
i am 50 but loved every bit of it; you are so wise man
welcome to hacker news you are going to love this new kind of stories we got here with less hacking and more stream of consciousness blogspams and upvote and comment bots
Welcome to you too! If dive into the archives, you'll find that this sort of story isn't new to the site at all. Nor is the complaining about things not being about computers, or about writing style, or even "this is too basic for this site".
Stick around for a while and you'll see that the sorts of story, the topics, and even some specific articles go in cycles of popularity. It's kind of interesting in and of itself.
Stick around for a while and you'll see that the sorts of story, the topics, and even some specific articles go in cycles of popularity. It's kind of interesting in and of itself.
> you are
Don't you mean "your?"
Don't you mean "your?"
Appreciate the sarcasm :)
> AI will be the single most significant driving factor of change in the world. If we solve AGI (or achieve intelligence close to AGI), we'll likely solve most of the world's problems.
I literally don't get the confidence in this statement. I'm not an AI-doomer by any means, but AGI (if possible) will likely be the most powerful technology humankind has ever invented. Just in terms of possible impact, why would we assume it will solve more problems than it will create (or the opposite)?
Think of recent super-powerful technologies we've invented. Sure, there's the potential for fantastic fixes to many problems that come out of nuclear tech. But there's also... the threat of nuclear annihilation? Is that all net positive? Do we even really have a way to evaluate on the timescale of 100 years? How can we know the net impact of nuclear tech in the next century, or millennium?
How can we call this sort of rhetoric anything other than blind optimism? Why would we have any priors about how AI will go? Why do we say things that make us blindly rush forward?
I'm not being sarcastic, or trying to argue one way or another. I'm genuinely asking. How does anyone have confidence in "AI is good" or "AI is bad" claims? Is confidence even good in this case?
For me, these questions lead into such deep and treacherous waters it's probably best to stop the comment there. There are limits to what even interested HN addicts can ask of each other.