Things I wish I’d known when I was younger

<i>People are oddly consistent. Liars usually tell lies. Cheaters cheat whenever it suits them.</i><p>This not only isn't true, it's famously false. Psychologists call it the "fundamental attribution error". It may be counter-intuitive, but lying, cheating, and virtually all other behaviors, rather than being consequences of consistent personality traits, are in most cases highly contextual.

He is surely right with almost all his points. But if I would have known all that stuff already when I was 15 years old - I would have been already an old man at that age. I prefer to find out those things myself with all the failures on the way.

One thing I'd add to this very good list: if you write a list with the intent of fostering discussion, use a <i>numbered</i> list rather than a <i>bulleted</i> list. I still find myself screwing that one up time-to-time, and I always regret not being able to easily refer to, say, "number 6."

I realised most of that between 15 and 17. The thing is that knowing this does not always prevent you from making mistakes, but it helps you to figure out where you screwed up quickly. You can't be prepared for everything.

This was all freely available and common knowledge.<p>Part of being young is not listening and trying to find your own way.

bullet points 8 and 10 are contradictory. if you don't try to please others you invariably come off as kind of an asshole.

Most of this is insightful, and even got this 45-year-old (who should know everything by now!) thinking.<p>I objected to this, though: "However hard you try, you can’t avoid being yourself."<p>That's a semantic trap. Who you are changes, and can change, and you can be the creator of that change.