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I'm 17, so here's 17 pieces of life advice

A little life advice never hurt anybody

Arranged in no particular order:

  1. Buy a nice deck of cards from Theory11. They look way cooler than standard playing cards, and it's worth the investment for the social events when someone inevitably suggests poker.
  2. Learn how to use your computer well. Invest time in learning keyboard shortcuts, Terminal commands, and filesystems. These skills will practically always be useful.
  3. Create a playlist where you add songs but never remove them.[1] Then you have a music time capsule where you can travel back in time.
  4. Host more social events. A social event can be as simple as burgers and game night. Social events are psychologically difficult to schedule, but really only cost the price of dinner and snacks. But they pay rich dividends by strengthening relationships.
  5. Connect your car keys to your wallet with a carabiner. When driving, you need to carry your driver's license (in your wallet)! It's easier to keep track of one item than it is to keep track of two.
  6. Take calculus—AP Calculus if possible. It's a fun, incredibly useful math course and colleges love to see students take it.
  7. Invest in a good pair of headphones with noise cancellation.
  8. Want to pick up a hobby? Try chess. It's fun and makes you seem smarter.
  9. Make a habit of closing your extra browser tabs/applications. Your computer will run faster, and your brain will be less cluttered the fewer tabs you have.
  10. Use SelfControl to block yourself from accessing distracting social media or gaming websites.
  11. Practically everything is better with friends.
  12. Try to watch at least one movie per month. Recommendations here.
  13. Use a calendar to free up your mind from trying to remember birthdays, appointments, meetings, etc.
  14. Always have a $20 bill in your wallet if you get into a bind.
  15. Don't use YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels, TikTok, or any other platform that serves videos to you on a vertical timeline. It's one of the best ways to destroy your attention span and waste your time.
  16. Frozen bananas and grapes are better than their non-frozen counterparts.
  17. Learn how to write and get into a habit of doing it. Writing is the most transferable skill in the world.

  1. Spotify's "Liked Songs" feature is great for this. ↩︎