Hindsight & Regret: Valuable Advice People Wished They'd Taken Sooner

We've all received advice we chose to ignore, only to look back years later with a twinge of regret. A Hacker News discussion invited users to share these pivotal moments, revealing a treasure trove of wisdom gleaned from hindsight. These reflections span career strategies, financial planning, technology adoption, and personal decisions, offering valuable lessons for us all.

Career Lessons: Beyond Technical Prowess

Many early-career professionals focus heavily on technical skills, but experience often teaches a broader lesson.

The Indispensable Role of People Skills in Software Engineering: One commenter lamented not focusing on people skills earlier in their software engineering career. They emphasized that while coding competence is "mere table stakes," true success hinges on coordinating, negotiating, communicating effectively, and working with diverse personalities. Improving these skills alongside technical abilities leads to greater career advancement.
The Enduring Value of a College Degree as a Social Signal: Another user shared the advice, "Don’t drop out of college to work, even if you have to go into debt." The regret stemmed from realizing that people often value the social signal of a degree more than one might think. Even with amazing skills, someone with a degree might be chosen "9 times out of 10" because it's a 'Cover Your Ass' (CYA) move for employers, highlighting that hiring isn't always purely meritocratic.

Financial Wisdom: Building a Secure Future

Financial regrets often revolve around missed opportunities for simple, consistent strategies.

The Simple Power of "Pay Yourself First": This age-old advice involves taking about 10% of any income received and putting it into a safe, hard-to-access place. The rationale is that most people can live on 10% less without a significant lifestyle hit. Starting this early allows compound interest to work its magic for "Future You."
Passive Investing: The S&P 500 Advantage: A commenter wished they had heeded advice to consistently "drip into an S&P 500 index fund." While they still did alright financially over 30+ years, it involved significantly more work, mistakes, and emotional stress from active stock picking (battling "weak hands"). Passive index fund investing could have achieved similar or better results with less effort.
Navigating Emerging Assets like Bitcoin: One individual shared a story of creating their own rudimentary digital currency with PNG files around fifteen years ago. At the time, they heard about Bitcoin (then worth ~$1) but didn't pursue it, partly due to practical difficulties like not having a dollar bank card in Russia. Now, circumstances have changed, and they use Bitcoin due to international banking restrictions, highlighting how early adoption of novel ideas can be impactful, and utility can change over time.

Technology Choices: Overcoming Bias and Embracing Efficiency

Initial frustrations or misunderstandings can lead to long-term avoidance of potentially valuable tools.

Revisiting Python: From Early Frustration to Prototyping Power: A developer recounted trying Python twenty years ago to make a network sniffer, encountering an error in the Python implementation, and subsequently rewriting it successfully in C. This led to a two-decade avoidance of Python. However, recently, while researching effective programming under time constraints, they tried Python for prototyping and was impressed by its speed for testing ideas. Their new plan is to test ideas in Python and then translate them to C, possibly even creating an automatic translator. This underscores the value of re-evaluating tools as they mature or as one's needs change.

Personal Crossroads

Some advice touches deeply personal aspects of life, with regrets felt profoundly.

The Weight of Personal Commitments: One commenter simply stated the advice they ignored was "Don't get married." The brevity implies a significant personal story where this ignored advice led to later regret, a reminder of how impactful major life decisions can be.

In conclusion, the shared experiences on Hacker News emphasize that often the best advice is simple and consistent, whether in developing soft skills, saving money, or choosing the right tools. Learning from the hindsight of others can help us make more informed choices today.