[ethbro]

I think a few things aren't hammered into young people enough today.

1) Any action is greater than no action. It doesn't matter how much you suck at something. Do it. Congrats, you've beaten everyone who never started.

2) Finish things. No matter how ugly it is. Even if you have to half-kill yourself to drag it that last inch over the line. Congrats, you've beaten everyone who never finished.

3) Your worst effort is probably better than average. Stop obsessing about the 1% best. That's not who you're competing against. You're competing against the pool of real people a company / project could afford to hire, who are available to hire.

4) Everyone starts off terrible at everything. No movie covers the 10,000 hours someone is learning: that's why training montages are a cliché.

5) Forgive yourself. It's okay not to be spectacular every minute of every day. Consistency of effort is more valuable than cyclical manic-depression. The key to becoming better starts with accepting and being happy with where you're starting from.

[BeetleB]

> Finish things. No matter how ugly it is. Even if you have to half-kill yourself to drag it that last inch over the line. Congrats, you've beaten everyone who never finished.

With the caveat that you should abandon things you've realized you don't value. I've seen far too many people spend too much time to "finish what they started" as a principle, even when they no longer valued the goal. Time is a zero sum game. All that time you spent on it is time you could have been spending on the other goals you have.

People like me have more goals than time. Gotta pick wisely.

> Any action is greater than no action. It doesn't matter how much you suck at something. Do it. Congrats, you've beaten everyone who never started.

Similar comment :-) Too many times in my life I was glad I didn't act (where all choices involving action would have led to negative consequences).

> That's not who you're competing against. You're competing against the pool of real people a company / project could afford to hire, who are available to hire.

Depends on your goals. For most of my projects, I'm competing with myself, not with others.

[ethbro]

I considered including all the caveats you mentioned before posting, but decided the base points cover more circumstances. ;)

[cyberlurker]

These are all great life lessons for anyone, not just for young people. I have used all of these on myself before and I probably need to be reminded about number 5 once a month.

[herrgigglung]

I'm going to print this off and frame it! So so true!

[rzzzt]

Same here. I read this before getting home and made a mental note to save the comment (also to forgive myself).