Tip: Use Python<p>Twenty years ago I tried to start using Python. I tried to make a sniffer in Python - a program for logging data on the network. But this program returned an error. I started to figure it out, I found that the error was in the Python implementation. I then rewrote this program in C - it worked very reliably. Since then I have avoided using Python. For the last five years I have been doing research on writing effective programs. I have used C and even made a framework for it, but programming remains difficult under time constraints. Then I tried to make a prototype in Python. In one day I tested several ideas. I can say that I like writing in Python. I plan to make a translator for automatically rewriting programs from Python to C. I plan to test ideas in Python and then rewrite them in C.
Advice: Buy Bitcoin<p>Fifteen years ago, I made my own website and came up with a digital currency for it. These were PNG files with watermarks, with my money drawn on them. They were similar to the ones I printed at school with my friends. They were called "CHATL". At school, I didn't know how to give my money value, it turns out it had to be lent. Returning to PNG files, they could be viewed on a computer screen, printed and uploaded to a website to put into an account. But I couldn't solve the problem of simultaneous ownership. Such money turned out to be disposable. At that time, I had heard about Bitcoin, knew that it was worth about a dollar, but I didn't attach much importance to it. Besides, in Russia, I didn't have a dollar bank card to pay abroad. It's funny that the same thing is happening now, we have blocked international bank cards and I use Bitcoin.
Being competent at coding is mere table stakes for being a software engineer. Success at being a software engineer is mostly about combining that coding skills with people skills: coordinating with people, negotiating with people, communicating effectively with people, working with people who are difficult, etc. I would have been far more successful if I'd improved my people skills early in my career alongside improving my coding skills.
"Pay yourself first"<p>Take 10% of any money that you receive and put it somewhere safe and where it takes real effort to get it back out. Then don't touch it unless your need is truly dire.<p>The idea is that regardless of your income level, you can almost certainly live on 10% less without a substantial hit to your standard of living, so pay it to Future You. The earlier in life you start, the better.
Don’t drop out of college to work, even if you have to go into debt. People value the social signal more than you think. If you’re ever up against someone with a degree, even if you’re amazing, they’ll choose the degree 9 times out of 10. It’s not meritocratic, it’s CYA.
Drip into an SP 500 index fund. I still did all right, but it took a lot more work and many mistakes to achieve the same results after 30+ years. To my credit, I still picked some amazing stocks, but I had weak hands and would have done much better if I had just forgotten about them.