compiled advice to my past self

this started as a note to younger me. it grew into a general document of things i've learned that i keep coming back to. not all of this is original — some came from pattern-recognition, some from experience, some from friends.

general

• lots of life is about optimization: have a goal and achieve it, have a metric and maximize it
• always variance. just keep working / trying / whatever
• no idea what you can achieve — that's the exciting part
• first draft is always bad. iteration is the game
• first step is removing distractions; second step is being intentional with time
• there's infinite stuff and finite time — the constraint is always time, never options
• be crazy. the people i admire most were all a little unhinged in their ambition

social

• unless you really know a person, they are probably less cool and less smart than you think
• you are cooler and smarter in comparison than you think
• super famous/successful people are often very privileged/lucky. they aren't automatically cool people
• to make friends: literally just talk (and be cool)
• balance between breadth and depth — gotta know people well AND know lots of people
• just reach out. lots of people are very cool. ignore the not cool ones

school

• definitely talk to upperclassmen. super cool, more mature, have all the wisdom
• definitely get to know teachers. even cooler than upperclassmen
• go to social events: networking, direct happiness, people to talk to about hard stuff
• spend time at school socializing, spend time at home working (unless hyper locked in)
• dating: it's chill to not date. don't feel behind
• don't need to always fill time during summers and breaks

technical

• low level CS stuff not that important. syntax super easy. what's important is algorithmic thinking and experience
• for math: not at all important to get super ahead. if you really like it, you can spend 1 month and catch up. most important: get a very solid base
• math competitions are fun and only a bit useful

the meta-advice

most advice is about what to do. the real skill is knowing whose advice to take. my disagreeing-productively evolved from "accept everything from smart people" to "weight advice by how well the person knows my specific situation."

and the most useful advice i ever got wasn't advice at all — it was a question: "what do you want?" asked repeatedly until i had a real answer.

see also: the-stocks-metaphor, social-wins, social-strategy