What are your biggest regrets?
What are your biggest regrets?
Listening to the well-intended advice of (unqualified) adults who told me there was little opportunity in pursuing the one subject I'd cared about all of the time I was growing up. Instead, find the people who are already doing it, wherever that takes you.
Probably not networking or trying out different activities in university. Basically just took on the classes and got my degree, and that was that.
Unfortunately, I realised afterwards that who you know is a lot more important than what you know, as well as that university is one of the best times to both meet interesting new people and get involved in new hobbies. Not knowing anyone afterwards probably made it much more difficult to get my first job afterwards, as well as to find startup cofounders and what not.
Also regret shutting down my first major internet community/forum site, since it was pretty damn popular at the time (about 300,000 posts/a few thousand users), and when merged with my later ones, could have become the base for a much larger community.
Also regret not jumping on a few internet bandwagons/gold rush scenarios too. Seeing how successful some channels became on YouTube/Twitch/whatever kinda makes me wish I'd made the investment and gone all in on one of these platforms back when they were starting out. Writing doesn't exactly pay anymore, and those who made the transition to video earlier have sometimes built entire careers out of it.
Not getting divorced sooner. Too much misery for too long.
Not raising capital when it would've been easy.
Not understanding my customer despite having a #1 market position.
Not spending enough time with my daughter when she was younger.
Pouring into a side project time and attention that I should have given to my kids.
I’ve only regretted what I’ve held back, never what I’ve done.
Be kind, but also be bold. Don’t live in fear, we’re all dead eventually.
Spending too much time with computers.
Not transitioning into a non-binary gender in my teens and instead in my mid-to-late-twenties where I am now.
I internalized a lot of rhetoric from other people that I simply had to accept myself or feel comfortable with a narrative of being "natural". Ultimately, after having a breakdown and taking effort to change my body/appearance did that prescribed self-acceptance finally happen. It just didn't happen on other people's terms.
The biggest takeaway I learned was not to lie to myself and not to accept other people's convictions too much. It was a lesson in individualism and boundaries.
Not marrying my high school sweetheart and having kids right out of high school. Now I'm 38, never married and it's increasingly unlikely I ever will.
Getting a dog. It's been two years now and she's a lovable dog but the reward has not been worth the effort for me and I regret it.
Using personal time to work for my employer instead of investing it in myself.
In hindsight, concentrating on finding a side hustle or a business of my own instead of just trying to be a better engineer. 90% of new ventures fail, but everyone thinks they will be the exception. I was basically broke with no savings and no job when I was 32. I'm 40 and bounced back a bit, but I feel so behind in my career and saving for retirement.
- Took some big decisions purely based on emotions, not my brain.
- Wasted a hell lot of time doing nothing meaningful.
- Held back myself, when I should not have.
Didn’t buy 1000btc @ $5 times. I’d have probably sold at $100 though!
At 0x39 I regret:
- I never had a honeymoon.
- I said a hurtful thing to someone a decade ago (she lost a son and I said something insensitive). The sort of thing you say when you don't have a good "filter" between your brain and your mouth.
- That back then, nobody told me I didn't have a good "filter".
All of the actions I didn't take.
Not getting vasectomy sooner!
Not studying enough to get tuition or to short the duration of college. Now I have a substantial debt because it took me too long to finish.
Not understanding time-value of money in my early 20's and paying-down low interest debt instead of investing.
Spending time trying to convince investors of what I already know and just building the damn thing without them.
Wasting time on browsing Internet without purpose.
wasting years at an outsourcing firm
Not going to school, not doing anything for most of my late teenage years, going into software engineering.