Life advice you wish you had/kept at youth?

If you kill all the people you don't like when you're 12, you can still have a great life when you're 18 and it's nice and uncluttered.

Oh. I thought you meant advice we did take.

Don't obsess over things you have no control over.

You have control over your money. Save a lot.

"You can't win."

People are all too caught up worrying what they look like to even notice you.

Shut up and listen.

Years ago a Co worker that I didn't even like advised me to leave the job I was working at (she had just quit). I was eventually fired and it set off an unbelievably bad chain of events that I never recovered from. Let's just say ALOT of irreparable damage was done. I wish i had listened, but hindsight is 20 20 I suppose.

"This is the best you'll ever look."

My late uncle once told me, my brother and my cousin, "If you don't stay in school and get a degree, you'll end up picking fly shit out of pepper". He was correct, but I still graduated at 16, didn't attend college, and have still had a life. But I can't help wondering what my life would have been like otherwise, since I'm sort of stupid, but have a high IQ (yes, I know). I took some college coursework, and got As in Literature and History, but barely passed Accounting. My co-workers and boss think I'm brilliant, but I have no 'emotional IQ', and I've been hurt a lot because of that. Honestly, though, I don't really regret being a patsy (that much). I want to believe in other people, and I'm getting old.

This too will pass

You wont be young and pretty forever,so marry money before your looks fade.

Don't ever start smoking. I started smoking after college because I started hanging around people who did. It took many years to stop. If I had only remained a non-smoker. It probably turned off many guys who I could have been with.

Wipe back to front.

Lowered expectations.

Don’t worry, be happy. I spent way too much time listening to advice on how to be responsible and avoid regrets and being told what to fear. I wish I had enjoyed the irresponsibility and optimism that is supposed to be part of youth rather than worrying what I would regret in the future. Of course, it did protect me from contracting AIDS before there was treatment.

Pay more attention to matrix math in Algebra II.

When I took Algebra II in 10th grade, matrix math was basically useless. Not even my teacher could think of anything it was compellingly-useful for (circa 1985). Fast-forward to 2016, when I ended up having to spend 2 months re-learning everything I'd long since forgotten, because matrix math is NOW a fundamental part of doing 3D graphics.

Don’t become a priest.

You’ll regret it when you’re 30.