Skip Navigation
108 comments

  • -- Acquire new skills that will pay off in the long run.

    -- Build habits like exercising, eating well, and prioritizing mental health which can set you up for lifelong well-being.

    -- Build deep friendships, relationships, and connections. It’s the decade where many lifelong bonds are formed.

    -- Learn about budgeting, saving, investing, and managing credit. Financial literacy will greatly benefit you in the future.

    -- Failing in your twenties is part of growth. Embrace failure and learn from it.

    -- Focus on collecting experiences, such as concerts, festivals, road trips, or spontaneous adventures, rather than material goods. For memories, don’t collect shot glasses, you’ll regret it later.

    -- Learn to enjoy your own company, reflect on your goals, and become comfortable with solitude.

    -- Work on understanding your emotions, how to manage them, and how to empathize with others.

    -- Expand your mind with literature, self-development books, and works that challenge your worldview.

    -- Spend an extended period in another part of the world which can give you an appreciation for different cultures and provide life altering experiences.

    -- Learn how to prepare your own meals- a valuable life skill which can help you live healthier.

    -- Understand the importance of looking after your mental, physical, and emotional well-being.

    —Spend time thinking about where you want to go in life, and set both short-term and long-term goals.

  • Get a service industry job to learn a healthy sense of misanthropy

    • I don't recommend it, but it can definitely give you a perspective of the kind of shit people have to put up with

  • “So live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart. Trouble no one about their religion; respect others in their view, and demand that they respect yours. Love your life, perfect your life, beautify all things in your life. Seek to make your life long and its purpose in the service of your people. Prepare a noble death song for the day when you go over the great divide. Always give a word or a sign of salute when meeting or passing a friend, even a stranger, when in a lonely place. Show respect to all people and grovel to none. When you arise in the morning give thanks for the food and for the joy of living. If you see no reason for giving thanks, the fault lies only in yourself. Abuse no one and no thing, for abuse turns the wise ones to fools and robs the spirit of its vision. When it comes your time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with the fear of death, so that when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way. Sing your death song and die like a hero going home.”

    • Tecumseh

  • Have sex with as many different attractive people as you can, using protection. You'll understand when you're older, feel older, and look older. It's a window that doesn't stay open.

  • Figure out how to make and keep friends. It only gets more difficult as people are out of school, have their own families, have less time for short-notice adventures, etc.

    At the same time, figure out what you want in a friend that is worth investing in to you. Not every friend is worth keeping as we all naturally grow in different directions.

  • Have fun. As I got older, I deeply regret not going out or doing fun activities now that I am in high school. I had so much fucking time, but I wasted them all on stupid bullshit. Now I have only like 7 hours of freetime, and I can imagine that my freetime will be even less the moment I start working.

    • I had the opposite experience. Once I started working full time after college, I felt like I had SO MUCH FREE TIME!

      I did have a part-time job during college, though. That might have skewed things for me.

  • Live way below your means, but still go out and have fun. For cheap. Dont cheap out money or time wise on things that need to last, like education, health, and shoes.

  • Take care of your body. It's only getting worse after that age, so you need to ensure that it doesn't go too fast.

    Take care of your mind. Culture yourself, have fun, rest properly, cut off from your social life people who cause you psychological harm.

    Set your own values. It's fine if you change them later on, but you need some way to ground your actions that is not "do what other people tell you to".

    Learn your limits. Some are higher, some are lower, than the average person; just don't assume that you can handle vodka, work nonstop, or scale cliffs as well as someone else does. Stop punishing yourself for those limits being too low, and stop abusing the limits that are higher.

    Learn how to budget. "Economise money" is easier said than done, I know; but once shit hits the fan, it's best if you know which expenses you can cut, temporarily or permanently, as well as the impact of doing so in your life.

    Find people whom you can rely on. Even if you're an introvert, even if you hate dealing with people. Family, friends, you call it. And make sure that they can rely on you, it's give-and-take.

  • Don't drift through this phase or you'll regret it later. If you go to college have a plan to graduate in 4-5 years. College isn't the place to find yourself, it's a place where you trade money for knowledge. You will learn about yourself, but you can get more self discovery in other environments for far less expense.

    This is the time to establish a career and not just a job. It doesn't have to happen at 22, but you need to know what you want and work towards it by 30.

    If you want kids younger is generally better, but not so early you have no means to support them. There's never a perfect time, but there are bad times for kids. Aim for a good enough time. It's a lot easier to chase a toddler at 25 than 35.

    Your life will likely significantly change several times in this period, embrace it and enjoy it. Single life, dating life, married life, college life, full time job life, and parent life ate all very different. You'll experience many of these in this period.

    • I disagree with your having kids sentiment. I didn’t find the right woman until I was 33 and didn’t have kids til 39. I worked hard, got promoted and accumulated wealth before then. I started from nearly nothing. Now, my kid (hopefully) won’t have to struggle as much as I did.

      And I chase that kid for 30 minutes until she gets worn out.

      …

      My advice, in your 20s: travel, make friends, make mistakes.

      Get a job that has growth potential or become a rockstar in a small pond.

      Find some hobbies, work out. Even better, find a hobby that also is a workout. Sock away 5% of your income towards retirement if you can handle it. Volunteer. Habits are formative in your 20s, you’ll find them easier to maintain (or avoid) in your 40s.

      Don’t spend all of your time chasing tail or trying to find a mate. That’s a trap. instead, open yourself up to experiences, events and places where those things can naturally happen. And make memories along the way so you have fun things to share with that person when you do find them.

      Get out of your comfort zone, get off of your comfort phone. Read a bit, learn to weld or sculpt or play an instrument. Take a dancing class, even if you go alone, there are usually people around to partner up.

      Learn 5 or 10 jokes. Don’t be embarrassed to tell them often. Anyone from politicians to public speakers to hey, even comedians, will tell the same jokes over and over and over.

      Get an Education, even if it’s a community college or a few professional certifications. It will demonstrate that you can learn. Absorb as much as you can while you’re young, because it’s true, learning does get harder as you age.

      Take a course or two in psychology. Avoid people who bring you down, find people who build you up but are honest enough to keep you grounded when you need it.

      Don’t live for anyone else, live for you. That isn’t to say be selfish, you’ll need people in your corner. But know that, no one else can experience how can experience. No one else lives through your eyes; no one else loves through your heart; no one else dreams how you dream. We have so few precious years on this tiny rock, so make them tell the story of you.

  • Learn how to be happy alone. Simple!

    Really though, if you figure this out, a lot of other things click into place. I used to think it was impossible. Just words miserable people said to make themselves feel less lonely.

    Okay, sometimes it's still that, but I've come to enjoy being able to focus on whatever I want to focus on without the distractions, drama, and/or gnawing desperation.

  • Make a budget. Live by that budget for a month. On the first of the next month, make another budget.

    You don't actually have to do this forever, but long enough to get the basic ebb and flow of money into your head. Planning to put more into x category means having less for y category.

    Build up savings, a little at a time. Get used to dipping into that for emergencies.

    Disregard if you're a billionaire or entirely living off the land.

108 comments