I asked this same question to my older coworkers back when I was 20. The main answer I got was: travel, travel, travel! “Travel before you have kids.” “Travel before you start a long-term career.” “Travel before you buy a house.”

Naturally, being a Millennial, all three of those things became non-issues. 🙃

So let me give some advice for the ages instead, regardless of what the future may hold for you:

• Never stop learning

• It’s okay to not know what you want to do with life

• And, especially in a post-truth, AI-infested world, question everything!

Take the time to learn what logical fallacies are (at least the common ones.) You WILL encounter them, and knowing when you or someone else is using faulty logic can keep you from harm, whether it be from another person (like what we see in politics) or from yourself (like the “Sunk Cost Fallacy,” which might otherwise lead you to stick with bad jobs, bad relationships, and more.)

Tangentially, it’s okay to say, “I don’t know.” Nobody knows everything. Anyone who expects you to know any given thing (unless you’re known to have studied it, of course) isn’t someone worth the admiration of. People with realistic expectations will see you as genuine, and being genuine can carry you far.

I could probably think of more if given the time, but those are the most important things off the top of my head. I’m open to questions in the comments; I’ve lived quite a peculiar life, so I’ve got a range of experiences, from being a homeless vandweller, to being a pilot, to pivoting 90° to working with kids and making art. I’m more than happy to answer any questions that might help people out!

That’s also possible. I like your phrasing much better.

Every time school gave me an essay or project about “Where do you see yourself in X amount of years?” I’d freeze. How on earth am I supposed to know that?! I don’t know where I’ll be next week, or next year, I can’t know where I’d be in 10, 20, or whatever arbitrary number they assigned.

I never completed one of those assignments. My brain just couldn’t comprehend it. The future is a vast open space that I’m constantly stepping toward. I can’t see what’s there. Planning for long-term has always caused me problems. I couldn’t decide on a major for college and didn’t end up going until I was 22 (and I dropped out a couple years later.)

I absolutely, 100% agree with the “nearsightedness of the future” assessment. I’m just strolling through life, living with what comes. I recently signed a 12 month lease, and that’s the farthest I’ve planned ahead in a really long time.

Lol, wut?

And the etymology of “nice” is that it used to mean “foolish, ignorant, frivolous, senseless”. Does that mean that saying, “Have a nice day” is to tell people to be foolish?

Of course not. Meanings evolve, and if everyone understands “homicide” as meaning “killing a human” (gender-neutrally), then that’s the wisest way to interpret it today, regardless of what it meant when it was first coined in Latin.

By their logic, I’m hoarding Thanksgiving leftovers by planning to eat them over the next couple days. How dare I not go out and buy new food when I already have good food to eat!

Earn 3 times the amount of a proposed rent? You’re golden.

Earn below 3 times the amount of a proposed rent (but still enough to pay it each month)? Now you have to pay a guarantor to back you up. Last estimate I got was $800 for that service. You’ve gotta pay that before a landlord will accept you.

So if you earn less, you’re forced to pay more. It’s so fucking backwards.

Source: currently homeless, on numerous “waitlists” for low-income apartments that can take years to get through, housing lotteries that have 10s of thousands of people also hoping for a home, and attempting to scrounge the bottom of the barrel with tiny studio apartments (which, even if I apply to immediately, I’m behind others who somehow got to them faster.)

The system is absolutely fucked. I’m just grateful I enjoy my job (which, yes, I work full time, and earn above minimum wage for. Modern US society has no mercy for any of us.)

If you’re a more visual person (or have a visual imagination), I find that remembering the context helps recall. Like, where I am, who I’m with, what I was doing, etc.

There’s also classic mnemonics, like acronyms, but done visually. Sometimes I imagine a scene that can immediately recall the thing I want to remember. It’s hard to describe in words, but then again sometimes the thoughts I want to remember aren’t necessarily in “words” anyway.

I have a notebook in my car, specifically for writing down things when I’m out driving somewhere.

Sometimes I spend so long trying to find it under all the rest of the crap in my car, that when I finally get down to writing, I’m lucky if I can recall the thought at all.

I mean, duh? I left the site years ago when it became clear they value making money over making a site I’d want to actually use.

They’re digging a hole in their userbase, even if they’re making money in the meantime. Just as the kid who tries to dig through the Earth can potentially “succeed” for a while, ending up in a hole several times deeper than they are tall, there will come a time when they look back up and realize they can’t get back out of it.

In other words, if Reddit keeps digging, there will come a point where things become untenable. (Although I’m sure those in charge will have their golden parachutes ready to go) the site itself will become so enshittified as to be unrecoverable. There’s no long-term plan to get Reddit out of that situation.

Aww, look at Reddit and its cute little shovel, digging their hole deeper and deeper without any real clue what they’re doing. Yeah, just a few feet more and you’ll dig through the center of the Earth, sweetie! Keep going!

Although Reddit disappoints me so much that I sigh whenever I see it linked, I am somewhat pleased that when GOG had to link a thread, they chose to use an old.reddit page in particular.

I used to think I wouldn’t quit Reddit until they got rid of the “old” style. Then the API debacle happened two years ago, and whelp. Here I am. 🙃

At least GOG knows how to treat its userbase.

How do you choose who the unlucky bastards are that get sent to the field to grow food for the people who don’t have to work?

Preferably, they’d be people without disabilities that prevent them from doing that kind of work. OP didn’t say, “Nobody should work,” just that being able to live shouldn’t be dependent on working.

For millions of people with disabilities, the difference between those two ideas is life-changing. It’s important not to conflate them.

… and if we don’t get a dopamine hit from exercise?

Goddamn, do I feel this. The urge for people-pleasing is real. Establishing boundaries that respect your limits is hard. I keep hearing the voice of ignorant neurotypicals throughout my life, echoing in my head, “You don’t need a break.” “You’re just lazy.” “Answer, answer now! You must speak!”

No! I can say no! I can say, “I need some time alone,” or, “I’ll get back to you tomorrow.” Acknowledging that I have limits IS OKAY. MOST PEOPLE WILL RESPECT THAT. Even if my own freaking parents can’t.

You got it. I can easily assume, but I wanted to know for sure. Ingredient lists would’ve been far more helpful than Quora.

bullshit options with shit ass quora usually at the top. Who dafuq uses quora?

I wonder the same thing. I used it once, and only once, in my life. I had been trying to find vegan birthday candles and having no luck finding sources for the wax (since I was explicitly avoiding beeswax), so I asked Quora where I could find vegan candles. The answer I got?

“Don’t eat birthday candles.”

Uhhh…

Apparently whatever fool worked there had no idea that “vegan” is a lifestyle, that goes beyond food. The question was closed and I had no way to appeal or add information. Fantastic.

My girlfriend has a hobby of growing/propagating/selling desert plants. The grow lights fill her living room, and they are intense. 😭

Thankfully, she knows me, and she turns them off whenever I come over.

I work from home 10-20 hours a day.

That’s fair. Drinking at one’s workplace is usually frowned upon.

This is the way. To cycle through several times may take years, but over time all the bits of practice add up. Until one day, you look at what you’ve created, and realize that you’ve actually gotten quite skilled.

When I started using a camera as a teen, I didn’t let people call me a “photographer.” I was just “a person who likes taking pictures.” To me, being a “photographer” implied possessing skills and purpose beyond what I’d had.

A few years later, I came across some blog about various artistic principles, including ratios and framing. I went back through some of my favorite shots and was surprised to realize they already followed those rules. Apparently, over the years, I’d picked up a bunch of photography skills that people take classes to learn. It just took tons of practice and experimentation, which I returned to in cycles.