If I knew when I was 20 what I know now....

[I am DIL]

I'm 20. You're all wrong.

 

[foodguy]

BOMP
thought this was a really cool piece by kareem abdul jabbar. Well, probably not BY him ... i've talked to him a couple of times and this does not sound like him at all. But I'm sure he approved the text and I approve the messages.

 

[rellison]

1. Don't be a math major! You suck at it and employers don't value it because it's too academic and esoteric for them. Suffering grades will **** you more than if you were an English major with a 4.0.

2. Get your major depression treated while in college. Stop feeling shame, embarrassment, and worthlessness.
3. Realize that "you can do anything you want if you put your mind to it" is utter bullshit. There are some things you just can't do, and stop trying and move on to something else when you find out what that is (in your case, stop trying to be an actuary).

 

[mkarim]



1. Don't be a math major! You suck at it and employers don't value it because it's too academic and esoteric for them. Suffering grades will **** you more than if you were an English major with a 4.0.

2. Get your major depression treated while in college. Stop feeling shame, embarrassment, and worthlessness.
3. Realize that "you can do anything you want if you put your mind to it" is utter bullshit. There are some things you just can't do, and stop trying and move on to something else when you find out what that is (in your case, stop trying to be an actuary).

Don't go after just money. Do what you love and are good at and the money and personal satisfaction will come.

 

[mkarim]



Stay single as long as you can.

 

[amathew]

1. Don't be a math major! You suck at it and employers don't value it because it's too academic and esoteric for them. Suffering grades will **** you more than if you were an English major with a 4.0.

LOL, While I don't suck at it, I've been learning ^^^ over the past two months. Business people really don't value math or statistics at all. Of course, they all claim that "we make data driven decisions" but it's all bs. I remember a presentation I made on using a naive bayesian classifiers for 'grading' items we purchase and sell in a first-price sealed bid auction system and the ceo, cto, and coo all had that 'glazed over' look in their eyes and ended up claiming that nb's was so complicated that we couldn't implement it. Yeah, because conditional probabilities are so difficult to understand

I also get sick of trying to explain basic stuff to our business development and product management people, and constantly having to dumb things down for the business team (got a lengthy lecture about this from our director of business operations on friday)

 

[Gibonius]



Don't go after just money. Do what you love and are good at and the money and personal satisfaction will come.

I think there needs to be an important caveat here "If there's any kind of market for what you love to do.' Or: "Find ways to apply what you love to a real marketable skill." Way too many kids have been hearing this their whole life and they think that explicitly pursuing whatever hobby or interest gets their juices flowing as a kid will lead to a decent life. A lot of times it won't. But if you examine why you like those things, you can find something satisfying to do and make enough money doing it.

 

[mkarim]



I think there needs to be an important caveat here "If there's any kind of market for what you love to do.' Or: "Find ways to apply what you love to a real marketable skill." Way too many kids have been hearing this their whole life and they think that explicitly pursuing whatever hobby or interest gets their juices flowing as a kid will lead to a decent life. A lot of times it won't. But if you examine why you like those things, you can find something satisfying to do and make enough money doing it.

Well said.

 

[foodguy]



I think there needs to be an important caveat here "If there's any kind of market for what you love to do.' Or: "Find ways to apply what you love to a real marketable skill." Way too many kids have been hearing this their whole life and they think that explicitly pursuing whatever hobby or interest gets their juices flowing as a kid will lead to a decent life. A lot of times it won't. But if you examine why you like those things, you can find something satisfying to do and make enough money doing it.

amen. in my particular field, these days following your "passion" seems inevitably to lead to unpaid blogging or a minimum wage gig peeling carrots.

 

[Pennglock]

Fat girls need love too.

 

[thinman]



BOMP
thought this was a really cool piece by kareem abdul jabbar. Well, probably not BY him ... i've talked to him a couple of times and this does not sound like him at all. But I'm sure he approved the text and I approve the messages.

Nice article. Thanks for posting.

 

[Thearkly]

Thirty is not the new twenty.

"be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves."

Never reveal all your cards

Always have a contingency plan. Always.

Have a back up plan, if your back up plan fails.

 

[mkarim]



Thirty is not the new twenty.

"be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves."

Never reveal all your cards

Always have a contingency plan. Always.

Have a back up plan, if your back up plan fails.

+1000.

Also, never ever let them see you sweat.

Make sure you train people on how to treat you.