What You'll Wish You'd Known

"What You'll Wish You'd Known" was originally a talk for a high school by Paul Graham, but he has adapted it into an essay. Excellent advice for high school students and everyone else.

He starts out saying how the traditional graduation speech is all wrong. He points out that expecting high school students to have their whole life planned out is unrealistic. To tell them to never give up on their dreams puts a lot of stress on them. Instead of trying to have a long term life plan and stick to it, you should work towards figuring out what you enjoy. The point is not to be demoralized - don't give up on your dreams, and keep dreaming. Don't think you have to already have the dream set in stone, keep dreaming a new dream as you get new information.

This is a really big deal for me. When I was 7 I had my life planned out, and I stuck to it until I was 30 years old. I never could interject anything significantly new in there. It was just recently that I realized I could continue to dream while changing and expanding my dream.

All that is just from the first section! Something else that is really cool about it is he occasionally makes analogies to software development.

Another big point I noticed, which is one I have tried to instill in others is to get started right away. Too many people feel that they need to wait until they have a degree before working in their industry.

I recently caught up with a friend who I met and lost track of 10 years ago. We both had recently married. We were both doing odd jobs trying to get by. He was attending school for a degree while I was trying to get into the field I was interested in by doing whatever I could in that area. Fast forward 10 years. I have been working in my desired profession almost 10 years now. He just graduated a year ago and took an entry level position in his field. I am glad I didn't spend my time chasing a degree.

I am not trying to discourage anyone from an education, but don't wait for it to come, start now.

• Teach yourself on your own;
• Subscribe to magazines in that industry;
• Attend professional organization meetings;
• Experiment in your garage;
• Get an internship;

Do whatever you can to get your feet wet. This is especially true in the computer industry since you can do a lot of stuff at home. There are a number of benefits.

• You will have more experience in class - earn better grades.
• Once you graduate you will already have real world experience.
• You will find out if you really like this field - better now then when you have your degree!
• Make networking contacts - this is where your good employment will come from.

Anyway, read the article and if you don't like where you are today, wherever you are, start making a change today.