If you could go back and give your 17 year old self one book, what would it be?

[BRUTE]

I think MMM writes in a way that a teenager would understand.

brute chuckles

[Slevin]

I am currently only 22, so I'm not that far off of 17. I'm pretty sure the delta t is probably one of the most important factors here -- but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't give him a book. Back then I certainly wasn't in the same mental place as I was now and certainly had some huge character flaws (I was very arrogant and certainly fiscally irresponsible), but I didn't make any huge mistakes that I would want to correct, and I wouldn't want to derail that path that I eventually took.

Along this line of thinking though, I wish I could have given my 20 year old self the complete works of Taleb. Between then and May of this year I believed that everything was a problem that could probably be solved by a complicated mathematical model, and that science could provide a solution to all our problems, which I now think is a very skewed/wrong view of the world.

[Dragline]

You probably would not have wanted the original Taleb book: http://www.amazon.com/Dynamic-Hedging-M ... 0471152803

It IS all mathematical formulas and jargon. Yet its essentially the same book(s) he wrote later in common English!

[jacob]

Reading both math and jargon, I much prefer Dynamic Hedging to all subsequent works. It's much more accurate and concise. I also like his tech papers.

Taleb's subsequent works are essentially "how to manage and hedge a net long strangle options portfolio using phenomenological probability distribution assumptions" translated into English.

[Dragline]

What I meant to say . . .

[brighteye]

I think MMM writes in a way that a teenager would understand.

brute chuckles

I actually see this as a compliment to MMM, I think it is not easy to explain systems in a way that a beginner can understand. That is what makes a good teacher.

[BRUTE]

a good teacher of teenagers

[FBeyer]

a good teacher of teenagers

the hardest people to teach...

[BRUTE]

brute wouldn't necessarily agree. maybe the hardest to teach if FBeyer is trying to teach them things they aren't interested in, which humans call school.

[Did]

I think this blog and Mr MM. YMOYL, 4HWW.

[BRUTE]

4HWW is what the internet gave brute when he was young. so there isn't anything brute would change and it's not like brute now lies in a hammock selling pills over the internet, making tons of cash. but it was the first book that made brute realize it's ok to "break the rules" of 9-5.

[fiby41]

Worthless: The Young Person’s Indispensable Guide to Choosing the Right Major

[TopHatFox]

WORTHLESS -> YEEEEEEEEEES

I wish I had that goddamn book. Fuck me, and all the other forsaken millennials that majored in the wrong shit at 18 yo.

------

As much as I found ERE, MMM, and JLCollins when I was 17 yo or 18 yo, I don't think anyone addressed picking the right major, mostly just to live simply and save the difference and consider a state school above a fancy school. Yeah that's a lot easier when you're a programming majoring INTJ, rather than a sociologist or art history majoring INFP. ><

[jacob]

As much as I found ERE, MMM, and JLCollins when I was 17 yo or 18 yo, I don't think anyone addressed picking the right major,

A popular subject in the personal finance sphere when I was blogging was to compare the lifetime income of a college degree vis-a-vis a trade. The trade choice almost always won, thanks to its huge headstart, especially for FIRE time-horizons. There were also a lot of jokes about English majors flipping burgers and the importance of looking at employment placement ratios when choosing one's major. However, I also know if I had come across one of those articles or gotten that advice when I was 18, it wouldn't have registered with me.

http://earlyretirementextreme.com/who-n ... anywa.html
http://earlyretirementextreme.com/the-s ... ation.html

[jennypenny]

Forgive the OT ...

As much as I found ERE, MMM, and JLCollins when I was 17 yo or 18 yo, I don't think anyone addressed picking the right major, mostly just to live simply and save the difference and consider a state school above a fancy school. Yeah that's a lot easier when you're a programming majoring INTJ, rather than a sociologist or art history majoring INFP. ><

Actually, you asked this very question when it was time for you to declare a major and got some very good advice. You just chose to ignore it.

I'm not trying to be snarky. I'm pointing it out because you ask lots of questions and get lots of good advice -- about work, college, ADHD, etc -- but ultimately ignore most of the advice you get. Your problem isn't your education or your job or where you live ... your problem is learning how to get out of your own way. If you solve that problem, everything else will probably start falling into place.

[TopHatFox]

Oh yeah! I do remember asking that. I think I chose the right thing out of the options I had at the time, geology. Looking back, I think I should've just changed the overarching goal from finance to psych or double-majored in psych, but just didn't realize it at the time.

I do listen to the advice, I just choose which parts to follow and which parts not to. Gotta have my own agency. Besides, I think I'm doing great considering I found free undergrad, free grad, a free major operation, and now working on a free phd. How does one get out of their own way further than that? Anti-depressants & Ritalin?

[theanimal]

Price is not always synchronous with value or personal well being my man.

[daylen]

The INFJ is the ultimate information filtration device. Incoming data streams are either acted upon (eventually) or sucked into a blackhole to never be seen again.

[TopHatFox]

Someone who gets me<3

I’d add a pamphlet that specifically lists out all career paths that one can get and their earnings potential, educational requirements, and so on. Kinda like builds for an MMORPG or something.

[2Birds1Stone]

I do listen to the advice, I just choose which parts to follow and which parts not to. Gotta have my own agency. Besides, I think I'm doing great considering I found free undergrad, free grad, a free major operation, and now working on a free phd. How does one get out of their own way further than that? Anti-depressants & Ritalin?

This post is a perfect example of what Jenny is pointing out.