I like the idea, some thoughts..<p>Every year seems a little much? Maybe at young age, but 21/22/23 doesn't really make that much of a difference, or even 40/45<p>The advice should be written for the perspective of the reader not the writer:<p>"Hey 13 year old, don't stop learning how to play piano"<p>How would that help a 13 year old? Something like "Hey 13 year old, I stopped playing the piano at your age and now I'm regretting it very much. I often dream how well I could play if I didn't stop and I also could teach my kids"<p>Obviously you do not control the text. A short description with tips would maybe help.
Nice idea, but who is to say the future advice is any good? The TNG episode <a href="http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Tapestry_(episode)" rel="nofollow">http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Tapestry_(episode)</a> is a poignant counterpoint to the idea that your hindsight perspective is always best.
It is shocking how much of this advice assumes that the world will be a similar place even a few years from now.<p>There is a constant set of themes, for each of the years I scanned but especially my age which is 23, to travel, invest for the future, and start businesses and I am increasingly skeptical of each.<p>I am just starting out, and I am here because I used to think that my future involved travel and startups, but recent news has made it clear to me that travel is one of the human obsessions that is destroying this world and that the future will not happen: <a href="http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2017/07/climate-change-earth-too-hot-for-humans.html?gtm=bottom" rel="nofollow">http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2017/07/climate-change-earth-...</a><p>My advice, for all age groups, is to enjoy what you have now and don't have kids- the world even 10-20 years from now isn't one worth living in.
Interesting concept in this regard - Croatian artist Dalibor Martinis interviewed his future self, asking questions in 1978 and answering in 2010 on national TV.<p>Has english subtitles.<p><a href="https://youtu.be/3SCQiKDxmhk" rel="nofollow">https://youtu.be/3SCQiKDxmhk</a>
This reminds me very much of the video How To Age Gracefully [1].<p>One thing I think is missing is a "From: a x year old" for each bit of advice. I think the advice to someone in their 20's would be quite different coming from someone in their 30's vs 70's, and that in itself could be very interesting.<p>[1] <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sycgL3Qg_Ak" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sycgL3Qg_Ak</a> 4m40s
How about upvoting by age group. For example take advice from a 40 yo to a 20 yo, the 20 yos may not upvote but many other 40 yos may upvote the advice.<p>Would love to see the distribution of up votes. Do 60 yos agree with the advice the 40 yo is giving the 20 yo?
> Hey 32 year old, Even if it’s not in your budget, buy yourself a nice (>$20) bottle of wine and toast to your good health :)<p>Uhmmm, rrrright.
Amazing. I started this 10+ years ago, called WishIKnew. It was a project to learn Rails. I learned Rails, but never launched it.<p>Glad to see it's real - with curation, I think it could be hugely valuable. I'm 42 and wonder what people who were 50 or 60 would tell me they wished they knew at 42 as I don't have a lot of folks those ages in my life.
Things are newer than you perceive. What I mean is, look around at technology. You'll find it looks "already done" but it's not—it should require a second and third look by you to see what you can add. Be strong.<p>Secondly and related, I'd do a quick study of every single bit of general tech around you as for how long it's been in use. This will open your eyes to what has been and ready for what is coming. Mentally track how long this and that has been in play—you'll be surprised and more importantly, you'll see opportunities. Go!<p>-Edit- Misread that title and added mine here. ^_^
I clicked on a few ages and saw advice from someone that was the exact age. To me, those are pointless in this context. Maybe restrict posting to posters that are >= 10 years older than the age?
I think age groups would be better than individual years. Is there any advice that applies at 13 but not 14?<p>I do love the idea of collecting wisdom. The hard part is getting the 14 year olds to believe it!
IMO the most valuable sections are always going to be < 19 years old.<p>Unfortunately, the hard thing is that when you're < 19 years old you don't want to listen to anyone because either you know everything already or they wouldn't understand.<p>It's a paradox.
"Hey 37 year old, Remember it’s never easier on the other side of the fence no matter how green it is."<p>Welp, thanks for the inspiration :D
"sleep around in high-school, the opportunity cost will never be lower so you better get it out of your system while you're young."<p>Well that certainly flies in the face of everything everyone is told as a kid.
Some feedback:<p>1. Registration form is too long. Lower the barrier to entry. Maybe only ask for email and username? Or just email with a default username?<p>2. Try lazy registration so the flow is:<p>- click advice<p>- enter advice<p>- hit submit<p>- get asked to login/register
Great site! Was fun reading through. Out of curiosity I skipped to age 81 and saw<p>> Hey 81 year old, You've got one good year left... maybe<p>Ouch! That one sucks
Hoping there's a "Hey 15 year old, everything you've learned and are likely to learn in the next several years through TV and popular culture about life and relationships will turn out to be wrong or misleading, but it sure made lots of money!".
"Sorry, It looks like nobody has submitted advice for age 80 yet. Try being the first"<p>"Try" sounds funny in the context of me being an 80 year old (just testing for the octogenarians who are desperate for advice :) I'm not quite 80)
Conceptually, this is really appealing, though I agree with sibling comments that offering some grouping would ease browsing.<p>What I’m finding interesting is the metacommentary on what your userbase (which I’m presuming is mostly HN at the moment) looks like. The advice for teens and twenty somethings is wide-ranging and pretty good. Almost everything for folks in their thirties is pithy and reads like it was written by someone younger. (My own bias: haven’t checked past age 40). So, presumably, there’s not as many people commenting retrospectively on their 30’s.<p>Would be neat to track the delta between a subitter’s actual age and how old they’re willing to advise.
For Singularity University I conceived of a similar idea. I called it TimeTraveller.<p>I am not on my computer but a couple of ideas I had:<p>1. Match people with similar personalities (measured by the big 5). This idea hypothesizes that similar personalities can help each other.<p>2. Match people per topic. This idea hypothesizes that experts can help non-experts.<p>Matching older people with younger people and allowing them to chat regarding their lives can give a time traveller type of effect. Here is someone who's done what you want to do and walked a similar path beforehand already.
This is all such a bunch of gormless vapid chicken-soup-for-the-soul bullshit. One gets the sense that none of the people giving advice have ever faced real hardship. when the moment comes that you have to make a real choice, the best advice I can think of is to not listen to all these self satisfied blowhards who have never walked in your shoes and think for yourself.
This has great potential! Every now and then I learn something new that I wish somebody would have taught me when I was younger. Simple tricks that make life easier.<p>Not going to go into things that I think could be improved right now but just leave this as encouragement to develop this further as it can really be useful to the world! Well done on getting the idea shipped!
For many popular advises I know quite sure that my response would have been "meh". Yeah it would have been nice to be able to play the guitar now, but 13 y/o me will tell 36 y/o me: "Screw you, I have more fun things to do, learn it yourself you lazy old man. By the way, what is stopping you from doing that anyway??"
Nice idea. But I feel like most things people wish they knew at a younger age aren't the sort of thing you can learn by reading a line of text. Most are behavioural things that you really have to experience.<p>Like you can't just say "be more confident" to someone. Or "do more exercise". Or "don't go into debt". No shit.
The only pieces of advice available for 60 and 64 are unhelpful - they both talk about starting to save for retirement.<p>I'm sure that the idea is that these things will fall off the bottom if the site gets more popular, but pretty much by definition, there will be less advice at the older end, so there will be less to push off the rubbish.
Isn't one of the problems though that people in the younger age brackets don't tend to listen to older people? I remember in University I was a mentor, and my mentees would usually be blaise about most things. Only when they were seniors would they panic about job prospects.
The voting system is interesting.<p>How can anyone judge whether the information is good for an age group higher than their own, or even for their own age? I would have expected that you can only vote on advice for ages younger than yourself, much the same as giving the advice
“Hey 34 year old, do not become bald. Let's face it, bald people aren't happy.”<p>Well that was sure worth my time spent on the website. I’m not sure how I will best incorporate this advice into my life.
People who wish they lived their life differently when they were younger, are the same people who when they are older will realize their younger now self should have given different advice.
It would be interesting if the upvotes have age statistics, e.g. of the upvotes for this advice to 30 year old, 15 are from 35 year old, 20 from 43 years old, etc
Cool idea!<p>Looking through it, I'm not sure I like the ability to post to your current age though. It doesn't read like worthy advice to me.
Wow, the HN filter ignored my advice completely, refusing to post my comment. It was a shorter version of engaging more in the recreational form of reproductive activity, while your body is in its prime.
The idea here is very cool, but was disappointed by the execution. A lot of the advice given is really simplistic. I'd like to see (1) more deep, meaningful advice (2) from smart, successful people (ex: Warren Buffet).
Hoo boy that's a lot of over-privileged suggestions right there. "hi, millennial who is working full time to make rent, now is the time to start your business!", "Why not take your family around the world?"<p>It's a nice idea and the site works pretty well on mobile, but it sort of grinds my gears.