[karaterobot]

I think in my 20s, I intellectually knew every piece of good advice I would send back in time now that I'm in my mid 40s, because I'd read it on lists like these, or in books, movies, etc.

The difference is that I could not put it into practice at the time, maybe because I lacked sufficient experience.

For example, I've always known in theory that nobody is paying as much attention to what you think is most embarrassing about yourself, because they are too busy being embarrassed about whatever they think they're doing wrong. I knew that, but it didn't matter, I was still self conscious.

Now, I've just done so many reps of fucking up in public and seeing the almost total lack of ramifications, or the swift passage of those ramifications from my world, that I actually believe that advice at a core level, it can actually affect my behavior and make me content. I guess it's the difference between knowing and grokking. And, to be sure, I would have been embarrassed to use the word grok in my 20s.

[dj_mc_merlin]

I'd liken it to feeling tired of feeling bad. After so many cycles of negative emotions at some point the brain gives up and embraces the thing it "knows" but hasn't internalized because it's the only way to escape to greener fields.

[PopAlongKid]

>I think in my 20s, I intellectually knew every piece of good advice I would send back in time

Reminds me of lyrics from The Human League "Soundtrack To A Generation":

  Years have gone on in between
  But all I knew at seventeen
  Is all I know now

  Through times of joy and suffering
  The music flavours everything
  That's all I know now