Ask HN: What is it like to be old? What advice would you give to younger people?

Re:Ask HN: What is it like to be old? What advice would you ... by austincheney on Saturday September 19, 2020 @11:37AM (#24528137)

Be cognizant of phony social pretexts. I can remember everybody saying I needed to go to college. I did but I don’t college to be a software developer. Go to college not because of some bullshit social pretext but because you honestly want an expanded education.

Do the hard things first. Hard things get easier with practice but practice takes time. The easy things remain easy regardless of practice and just rob you of the time required by the hard things.

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Re:Ask HN: What is it like to be old? What advice would you ... by summitsummit on Saturday September 19, 2020 @02:17PM (#24529402)

survivorship bias

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Re:Ask HN: What is it like to be old? What advice would you ... by karlh on Saturday September 19, 2020 @06:37PM (#24530771)

Good point. But really, all advice from older persons to younger persons carries a strong element of survivorship bias. The data are biased but RCT studies are not practical so it's reasonable to use what we have (recognizing the limitations of our data, as you pointed out).

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Re:Ask HN: What is it like to be old? What advice would you ... by austincheney on Saturday September 19, 2020 @08:09PM (#24531103)

I don’t believe survivorship bias applies... yet. Even though I do have a bachelors degree (not computer science) I barely graduated high school. Even still I am doing well as a senior developer having surpassed many of my peers. Yet many of the strongest developers I have worked with personally are also self taught. I believe that once I take my peers into consideration there is a frequent reproducible pattern.

It becomes survivorship bias when I become more specific and speak to what works versus what does not, particularly in contrast to common faulty social expectations.

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