DEV Community

Ben Greenberg
Ben Greenberg

Posted on

If I could go back in time and speak to myself 5 years ago, I would say...

If you could go back in time and approach the 5-year younger version of yourself, what would you tell yourself? Any words of advice? Some wise nuggets learned during the past five years? Something to definitely do? Something to definitely not do?

Oldest comments (30)

Collapse
 
yechielk profile image
Yechiel Kalmenson

Being a programmer is for you! It's not just for kids who've been hacking in the basement since they were 3. You can do it!

Collapse
 
bengreenberg profile image
Ben Greenberg

100% this comment!

Collapse
 
josegonz321 profile image
Jose Gonzalez

Forget JavaScript and stick with C#. You aren’t getting better pay if you switch (for the location you’re moving to).

Oh and enjoy your family.

Collapse
 
bengreenberg profile image
Ben Greenberg

Can definitely relate to the enjoy your family part!

Collapse
 
marvelouswololo profile image
MarvelousWololo • Edited

chill. you're doing fine. no need to skip all those nights. keep steady and still. it's a long marathon not a 1km sprint. your family is proud of you. and there are people that love you. oh btw keep your studies plan.

Collapse
 
mikefromru profile image
Mike

I would say to myself work night and day and do not waste time. I think I would to follow that advice.

Collapse
 
analizapandac profile image
Ana Liza Pandac • Edited

Thank her for pushing through and to keep doing it. It might take some time but you'll get there soon.

Collapse
 
tonyorozcor profile image
Tony Orozco

Stop wasting time on .net and start learning react, angular and other new things..

Collapse
 
emeraldzephyr profile image
EmeraldZephyr

Don't get that associate's. Histotechnology isn't that fun.

Go back for comp sci instead!

Collapse
 
adam_cyclones profile image
Adam Crockett 🌀

Mostly I'd give myself a lesson or two in humility, then a briefing of future events: baby on the way, working at amazing place, WASM is going to be a thing, and the car you drive will not always be that thing.

Collapse
 
js2me profile image
Sergey S. Volkov

Learn English, start study new EcmaScript, preprocessors, ReactJS, and also don't seek employment in FLS.

Collapse
 
tylerlwsmith profile image
Tyler Smith

Throw out your couch. That thing was janky when you got it, and in four years time it's going to ruin your back for at least seven months... probably a lot longer. Existence will be painful if you don't get rid of your couch.

I'd also tell me that my back hurts.

Collapse
 
gustavofsantos profile image
Gustavo Santos

Stay more time with your family

Collapse
 
iam_timsmith profile image
Tim Smith

Don’t be an idiot. It changed my life. Whenever I’m about to do something, I think “would an idiot do this” and if they would, I don’t do that thing.

Collapse
 
devkevyn profile image
devkevyn

Burnout is real! Dont overwork!

Collapse
 
briwa profile image
briwa • Edited
  • Sit properly and maintain a good posture, you have only one vertebrae in your life and please take a good care of it. And also, your eyes. Get some sleep or see some greens to give them some rest.
  • Share more! Writing, public speaking, contributing to open sources. It's a whole lot better way to learn and improve than simply learn from your senior devs in your company (most of the time...), and also, you help the community to improve by sharing/contributing what you know.
  • Breathe. Sometimes it's easy to get caught up in the moment and spiraled down to depression, but it's mostly because you forgot to allow yourself to take a moment and breathe.

Shameless plug 😅: I've written something similar to this topic before:

...if you'd like to get into details on the advices, check out the article!

Collapse
 
jjfattz profile image
JJ

Go broke buying bitcoin, of course.

Collapse
 
thomasredstone profile image
Thomas Redstone

You'll want better than that! Buy when it hits £140, top up as much as possible under £400, sell at £13,000. Buy back at £5,000, sell at £8,000, buy again at £5,000, sell again at £6,500, buy again at £2,600, and sell at £10,000, that should make you very rich, just "buy bitcoin" is very likely to see you buy it at £200, and sell it at £400, thinking you've done great!