Advice · Anwar Lemu

Every now and then, I get an Instagram message of someone looking for more or less general advice (a lot of times young kids who just finished secondary school). I've only lived a very small fraction of one life, and I'm still trying to figure things out. With that disclaimer, here's the advice I'd give my younger self.

If you're 10–20: These are your foundation years.

Go learn things. Don't worry too much. Just focus on growing.
Take care of your health, do exercise, have good useful and meaningful friends (few is fine), keep your promises, take responsibility of your responsibilities, seek knowledge, harvest wisdom from those ahead of you.
Go deep on multiple things. Build a wide ranged weapon room of skills. (To varying degrees, I tried to go deep on various things. I learned languages like Arabic, Japanese, Latin, a bit of Swahili, I learned multiple programming languages and how to code websites, software, games, I went into animation and graphic design, I learned copywriting, I went deep into physics. Some of those stuck more than others. I forgot a lot of the languages, physics and coding.) One of the main things you should try to achieve by age 20 is a sense of the kinds of things you enjoy doing. This probably won't change much throughout your life so you should try to discover the shape of those preferences as quickly as you can. You don't need to know exactly what you want to do with the rest of your life. Think of it like a compass. You don't need to find an exact point on the map that you want to spend your life moving towards. Just find the direction you want to go in and keep going where the compass points. Let that lead you.
Learn to never compromise character. Your character is what matters most. You're going to see a lot of stupid people in life (especially from around 13 onwards). Have principles and don't let anything compromise those and drag you away from the person you should be.
Most people are wrong. Society's norms are ludicrous. Be you. Do not feed into vanity and what is considered normal. Keep improving yourself and remain true to who you are. It is okay to be shy or introverted or quiet or not interested in parties or not crazy about social media. Be unapologetically yourself.
Build a vision of the type of life you want to live and focus solely on that. Ignore the things on social media and what people consider "success". Define what it means to you. It does not have to mean cars and watches and mansions. Life is so much more than materialism. Live based on your own vision and definitions of success. Don't let gurus make you want what you don't want.
Aim to read a lot. Spend more time with those older than you. Prioritise your growth and learning.
Live a little. This doesn't mean go party and waste your life away doing valueless things. Take it easy. The world isn't collapsing, even if at times it seems so.
If you think something is important but people older than you don't hold it in high regard, there's a possible chance that you're right and they're wrong. Find out why they believe what they believe. If they're right, no harm done. Just because they're older doesn't always mean they're right.
Having good social skills confers life-long benefits. So, don't write them off. You don't have to have a large group of friends. A small group of very closely knit valuable people is far more beneficial than a diluted large group of nothings. But get good at making a good first impression, being funny, speaking publicly, getting on good terms with people.
Make things. Operating in a space with a lot of uncertainty is a very different experience to learning something. You learn by doing. Learn programming by building actual apps and websites. Learn languages by speaking them with people. (I practiced my Japanese by finding random Japanese people through Instagram and starting random Japanese conversations with them in comments and messages. If you're the same gender and they see you're just trying to practice, they don't find it weird). You do not have to have clients to work. Build websites on anything. Practice. Redesign the Nike website. Create an app about something you find intriguing. Make a new logo for your favourite sports team. Do things.
Nobody is going to teach you to think for yourself. A large fraction of what people around you believe is mistaken. Don't just be another sheep in the crowd living life on autopilot. Internalise this and practice coming up with your own worldview.
School (university or college or whatever you call it where you're from) isn't going to teach you as much as you hope it would. Take learning into your own hands and work on the things you're interested in. Do not worry yourself too much on career or money or anything (unless your situation requires it). Prioritise just learning and exploring fields of interest. Build expertise.
Find vivid examples of success in the domains you care about. If you want to become a great scientist, try to find ways to spend time with good (or ideally, great) scientists in person. Watch YouTube videos of interviews. Follow some on Twitter or wherever. Study the greats who came before you.
People who did great things often did so at very surprisingly young ages. (They were greyhaired when they became famous... not when they did the work.) There's a lot of boring work and years of silent pain that go into the iceberg of success. You can do great things if you are ready to build for years without seeing much progress. Commit. You'll be surprised how far you can go with just one year of dedication.

If you're 20–30: I don't know yet. I plan to think about this in about 10 years or so.

Every now and then, I get an Instagram message of someone looking for more or less general advice (a lot of times young kids who just finished secondary school). I've only lived a very small fraction of one life, and I'm still trying to figure things out. With that disclaimer, here's the advice I'd give my younger self.

If you're 10–20: These are your foundation years.

Go learn things. Don't worry too much. Just focus on growing.
Take care of your health, do exercise, have good useful and meaningful friends (few is fine), keep your promises, take responsibility of your responsibilities, seek knowledge, harvest wisdom from those ahead of you.
Go deep on multiple things. Build a wide ranged weapon room of skills. (To varying degrees, I tried to go deep on various things. I learned languages like Arabic, Japanese, Latin, a bit of Swahili, I learned multiple programming languages and how to code websites, software, games, I went into animation and graphic design, I learned copywriting, I went deep into physics. Some of those stuck more than others. I forgot a lot of the languages, physics and coding.) One of the main things you should try to achieve by age 20 is a sense of the kinds of things you enjoy doing. This probably won't change much throughout your life so you should try to discover the shape of those preferences as quickly as you can. You don't need to know exactly what you want to do with the rest of your life. Think of it like a compass. You don't need to find an exact point on the map that you want to spend your life moving towards. Just find the direction you want to go in and keep going where the compass points. Let that lead you.
Learn to never compromise character. Your character is what matters most. You're going to see a lot of stupid people in life (especially from around 13 onwards). Have principles and don't let anything compromise those and drag you away from the person you should be.
Most people are wrong. Society's norms are ludicrous. Be you. Do not feed into vanity and what is considered normal. Keep improving yourself and remain true to who you are. It is okay to be shy or introverted or quiet or not interested in parties or not crazy about social media. Be unapologetically yourself.
Build a vision of the type of life you want to live and focus solely on that. Ignore the things on social media and what people consider "success". Define what it means to you. It does not have to mean cars and watches and mansions. Life is so much more than materialism. Live based on your own vision and definitions of success. Don't let gurus make you want what you don't want.
Aim to read a lot. Spend more time with those older than you. Prioritise your growth and learning.
Live a little. This doesn't mean go party and waste your life away doing valueless things. Take it easy. The world isn't collapsing, even if at times it seems so.
If you think something is important but people older than you don't hold it in high regard, there's a possible chance that you're right and they're wrong. Find out why they believe what they believe. If they're right, no harm done. Just because they're older doesn't always mean they're right.
Having good social skills confers life-long benefits. So, don't write them off. You don't have to have a large group of friends. A small group of very closely knit valuable people is far more beneficial than a diluted large group of nothings. But get good at making a good first impression, being funny, speaking publicly, getting on good terms with people.
Make things. Operating in a space with a lot of uncertainty is a very different experience to learning something. You learn by doing. Learn programming by building actual apps and websites. Learn languages by speaking them with people. (I practiced my Japanese by finding random Japanese people through Instagram and starting random Japanese conversations with them in comments and messages. If you're the same gender and they see you're just trying to practice, they don't find it weird). You do not have to have clients to work. Build websites on anything. Practice. Redesign the Nike website. Create an app about something you find intriguing. Make a new logo for your favourite sports team. Do things.
Nobody is going to teach you to think for yourself. A large fraction of what people around you believe is mistaken. Don't just be another sheep in the crowd living life on autopilot. Internalise this and practice coming up with your own worldview.
School (university or college or whatever you call it where you're from) isn't going to teach you as much as you hope it would. Take learning into your own hands and work on the things you're interested in. Do not worry yourself too much on career or money or anything (unless your situation requires it). Prioritise just learning and exploring fields of interest. Build expertise.
Find vivid examples of success in the domains you care about. If you want to become a great scientist, try to find ways to spend time with good (or ideally, great) scientists in person. Watch YouTube videos of interviews. Follow some on Twitter or wherever. Study the greats who came before you.
People who did great things often did so at very surprisingly young ages. (They were greyhaired when they became famous... not when they did the work.) There's a lot of boring work and years of silent pain that go into the iceberg of success. You can do great things if you are ready to build for years without seeing much progress. Commit. You'll be surprised how far you can go with just one year of dedication.

Go learn things. Don't worry too much. Just focus on growing.

Learn to never compromise character. Your character is what matters most. You're going to see a lot of stupid people in life (especially from around 13 onwards). Have principles and don't let anything compromise those and drag you away from the person you should be.

Aim to read a lot. Spend more time with those older than you. Prioritise your growth and learning.

If you think something is important but people older than you don't hold it in high regard, there's a possible chance that you're right and they're wrong. Find out why they believe what they believe. If they're right, no harm done. Just because they're older doesn't always mean they're right.

Nobody is going to teach you to think for yourself. A large fraction of what people around you believe is mistaken. Don't just be another sheep in the crowd living life on autopilot. Internalise this and practice coming up with your own worldview.

Find vivid examples of success in the domains you care about. If you want to become a great scientist, try to find ways to spend time with good (or ideally, great) scientists in person. Watch YouTube videos of interviews. Follow some on Twitter or wherever. Study the greats who came before you.

If you're 20–30: I don't know yet. I plan to think about this in about 10 years or so.

Go learn things. Don't worry too much. Just focus on growing.

Learn to never compromise character. Your character is what matters most. You're going to see a lot of stupid people in life (especially from around 13 onwards). Have principles and don't let anything compromise those and drag you away from the person you should be.

Aim to read a lot. Spend more time with those older than you. Prioritise your growth and learning.

If you think something is important but people older than you don't hold it in high regard, there's a possible chance that you're right and they're wrong. Find out why they believe what they believe. If they're right, no harm done. Just because they're older doesn't always mean they're right.

Nobody is going to teach you to think for yourself. A large fraction of what people around you believe is mistaken. Don't just be another sheep in the crowd living life on autopilot. Internalise this and practice coming up with your own worldview.

Find vivid examples of success in the domains you care about. If you want to become a great scientist, try to find ways to spend time with good (or ideally, great) scientists in person. Watch YouTube videos of interviews. Follow some on Twitter or wherever. Study the greats who came before you.

If you're 20–30: I don't know yet. I plan to think about this in about 10 years or so.