Title: Youth sucks (but adulthood and beyond don't have to) Author: Alexander Arkhipov Created: 2024-05-05 Modified: 2024-05-05 FOREWORD Hello, dear reader! This article is something I wanted to write for a long time. It's pretty small, but the reason I've been so hesitant is because I didn't know when the time would be right. Well, apparently now is. :^) The article describes a condensed version of my entire life experience up to 23, particularly my frustration, and the lessons/conclusions I made from it. I am, however, just one man. I am sure there are countless people, whose experience is/was completely different. And also that there are countless people, who are sharing/have shared experience similar to mine. Since the topic is so universal (everyone either is youthful, or has been before), I'd really like to hear your opinion on the article. Don't hesitate to send me an e-mail! INTRODUCTION I am 24. Up until very recently, I felt like I was merely existing, rather than living. Every day of my life I would see much older people stuck in the same, or worse position than me. What worse they kept claiming it to be the best possible outcome, for there to be no sense in trying to do something else. "Is this what life is?" I thought "An endless cycle of breakfast, hours of bullshit, supper and bad sleep, occasionally interrupted by a short holiday?". Well, today I know it isn't! And firstly, those old people have no one but themselves to blame. The main thing is for you to not let them drag you down with them. Secondly, the only real issue of youth is the lack of resources. Once you have that figured out, the world becomes your oyster, things you thought mattered yesterday stop being important, and the only thing holding you down is fear (and perhaps laziness). So, be brave and diligent, and don't despair! With that in mind, here are the only things that I think young people should focus on: - learning - saving up some money (the "F-you money", as some like to call it) Yes, just two things, and the second *very* much depends on the first. Basically, you just need to get an opportunity (by saving up) to do something, but you need to prepare (learning) to even know what to do with it. LEARNING Why you need to learn So, I am trying to describe how to escape the youthful frustrations, and not let it become elderly frustrations, yet here I am advocating for learning. Isn't learning a major source of these frustrations, you might ask. I don't think it is. Or rather, I don't think it's learning itself. Children are known to be brutish, but somehow what adults do to children is rarely considered cruel. And what they do is this: put their children in a prison-like environment, where other adults try to force them to learn maths, and grammar, and geography, and other sciences that said adults themselves have very little comprehension of. Is it any wonder that children leave schools, barely remembering anything they've "learned" there? Or that for so many the entire thing is nothing, but misery -- one that seems to last a lifetime? For me it was even worse. I grew up in Russia, where if you are an 18-27 (now 30) years old healthy man, your options are limited to: 1. living outside of Russia 2. attending a university in Russia 3. getting forcefully conscripted into the army If you don't know anything about universities in Russia, let me describe them like this: they are a little less prison-like than schools, and the staff is a little more qualified, but only a little. So, as you can conclude, the option 1. is infinitely more preferable than option 2., and especially option 3. I've had an opportunity to take it. I didn't because I failed to prepare. I failed to learn. And by the time I was graduating, it was already too late. I've lost between 4 and 6 years of my life because of this failure. So, you see, the learning I am advocating for has nothing to do with being verbally abused by a teacher. Which brings me to the next point... How can (and should) you learn Well, surprisingly, my teachers (and likely yours) were half-right on that one. You should read books. Only *half*-right because they meant reading classic fiction. Fiction can be nice. I read fiction every time before I go to bed. But I also rarely learn anything useful from fiction. No, non-fiction is where it's all at. Unfortunately, nonfiction books (of the useful variety) tend to be quite expensive, and only be shipped from America. So very likely you won't have money for that yourself, and won't be able to convince your parents to get them for you. That's alright, you can just download pirated versions from libgen, or wherever else. You can (and probably should) even buy the book when you do have the money. But at the moment you shouldn't have any moral qualms with using "alternate" means to get the educational material. It might not be exactly fair to the authors, but it's completely positively unfair on the people who can't afford education. If you don't know what literature you should begin with, I suggest starting with a book on some technical skill, such as programming or writing, that you should be able to start practicing immediately, and that you should be able to use to get a well-paying remote job. DON'T, however, learn anything *just* to get a job. Jobs are just that -- a way for you to sustain yourself while you are still figuring things out. Jobs are temporary, but your creative endeavours are eternal. Try not to do things you'll hate yourself for. Also don't take this as an advice to only learn from books, or to only read on technical skills. Although reading books are usually the best way to start tackling any large enough topic, there are many things on which no good books have been written yet. And technical skills are far from the only thing you'll need. Each new generation has much more wisdom to learn from others than the previous. Use the opportunity! SAVING UP The other important thing to do is to get a job as early as possible. At this stage, a well-paying remote job is perfect, but you are very unlikely to get one of those immediately. (Or maybe you are if you take the learning step seriously.) So, you'll probably have to settle with being a courier, an office paper pusher, a barista... It's not that bad, really. You might think I'm saying that because such job will give you experience, but no: "experience" is bullshit. To be completely honest, your first job is probably going to suck. However, it'll be *much* better than living off your parents. The reason is: so long as you depend on someone for money, you cannot truly make any independent decisions. You lack freedom. You are like a bird in a cage: the cage might be made of gold, but what use that is if it's still a cage? But hold on there yet! Once you start making money, you'll see that you can now suddenly afford things you thought to be terribly expensive previously. You'll be tempted to buy such things, but before doing that, ask yourself: Do I really need to? If not, better keep the money for something actually useful. Just to be clear, I am talking about things like buying the newest iPhone, not getting yourself a chocolate at the end of the week. You see, the first money you'll make will be the most precious in your entire life. Ultimately, you'll put a lot of time into get only a small reward, but that will just have to do. Unless your father is a millionaire, there is no way around it! So, what I propose for you to do, is calculate how much do you need to live comfortably, and don't starve to death each month, and set everything else aside. It might be prudent to invest that money somewhere, however, just putting it in a box is a very good start. Months will pass, maybe even a few years. But eventually you'll realise something that'll make you feel like the happiest man (or woman) on Earth: you have enough saved up to leave your bullshit job, and pursue your dreams. WHAT TO DO NEXT Well, it's up to you, isn't it? What I ended up doing was finally leaving my native country for good, and getting a fully remote job to sustain myself. And that is only the beginning. If somebody asks me today, what am I going to be doing in two years, I would have to say "I don't know, but here are some ideas: ...". Keep working hard on your dreams, and one day you'll find yourself somewhere you never wished to be at, but always wanted to.