[kungfooey]

Are we really at the point where a 30 year old can offer sage advice on living life? Wow.

As a counterpoint to "be the best you can be in your profession": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIJdFxYlEKE [PyCon keynote by Jacob Kaplan-Moss on 'mediocre developers'].

[runesoerensen]

I can't say I'm surprised to see this as the top comment, but I think it's sad that you (and apparently many other upvoters) don't think 30 year olds can offer valuable advice on life.

It's also wrong as proven by history. Many writers have produced some of their best works at the same age. One example is Kirkegaard who wrote "Fear and Trembling"[1] at age 30.

If you think that Sam's advice is narrowminded or bad as a result of his age you can address that in your comment. That would add value to the discussion -- it currently does no such thing.

Go for the ball not the man.

[1](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear_and_Trembling)

[untog]

I think there's a difference between providing everyday life advice and writing an influential philosophical work.

For example, having a family. I have no idea if Sam has children, but many 30 year olds (like myself) do not, so I don't consider myself able to give life advice to anyone who does, because their life and my life are dramatically different.

In general, I think, it's not that 30 year olds can't give life advice. It's that I'd bet 60 year olds can give considerably better life advice. When "the days are long but the decades are short", it's worth considering that the author has only spent one of the latter in the work force.

[runesoerensen]

That probably just means that a lot of advice doesn't apply to everyone at all stages of life. Someone with kids could write a similar list with advice that would be good for some and bad for others.

I bet a lot of parents, in good faith, give their children bad advice. For instance, "get a good education so you have something to fall back on". That may be good advice for some - probably even the majority of people. For others it will be terrible advice.

Knowing the background and credentials of an author (age, experience, works, kids/no kids etc) can be valuable and guide the reader. It may help identify whether the advice is relevant and applicable to him/her, but it shouldn't discredit or disqualify the author or work in itself.

In this case, Sam just chose to share the answer he gave a friend who most likely will find it more valuable than someone who is living an entirely different life. He didn't say that it applies to everyone, and I'm also certain that he knows that he will learn more life lessons. Nothing is final and I'd certainly expect to see different advice when he turns 40.

The fact that we continue to learn throughout life is not a reason for not sharing what we've learned so far, particularly if we believe others can benefit from it.

[AceJohnny2]

> It's also wrong as proven by history. Many writers have produced some of their best works at the same age. One example is Kirkegaard who wrote "Fear and Trembling"[1] at age 30.

The field of mathematics are rife with young contributors. Two of my favourite examples are Evariste Galois (invented galois theory, died at 20 in a duel), and one Isaac Newton. The latter is wonderfully told by Niel DeGrasse Tyson: https://youtu.be/danYFxGnFxQ (you may recognize a meme created from the end of that video).

[falcolas]

And there are many more (including folks like Einstein and others) who hit their stride somewhat later in life.

Even the ones who hit it early didn't magically get worse after they hit 30. :)

[runesoerensen]

I don't think this is accurate either -- some people do peak early in life. I can't think of good philosopher examples right now, but there are a couple of examples and possible causes of the phenomenon in this article [1].

That being said it may very well be particularly people who deal with very fundamental problems, such as philosophers, often get better with age.

In any case it's probably best to refrain from making general statements about people based solely on age.

[1] http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/news/from-mozart-to...

[kungfooey]

Clarification: I'm not saying that no 30 year old can offer sage advice. I don't think Altman is on the same level as Kirkegaard here. As others have pointed out, the list is not terribly revolutionary.

It simply struck me as odd that this (not particularly revelatory list) could be passed off as worthy of note. What, other than his work with YC, makes Sam's musings worthy of our time?

[snowwrestler]

> What, other than his work with YC, makes Sam's musings worthy of our time?

Nothing, really. Not to take anything away from Sam Altman, but if he were still the CEO of Loopt, I don't think his every blog post would go to #1 on HN.

But, that's part of the deal here. YC-related stuff gets voted up.

[waterlesscloud]

There's nothing wrong with the list.

It's not like the earlier pg essays that literally changed the ways I think about a lot of things.

It's just a list of largely common platitudes. Nothing wrong with that in itself, though. Many of them are worth reiterating from time to time.

[kungfooey]

> There's nothing wrong with the list.

Pretty high bar you have for lists there!

[vinceguidry]

There's advice smart 30 year olds give, advice smart 40 year olds give, advice smart 50 year olds give, and so on. Each decade tends to revolve around the same themes. All of it is worthwhile stuff to pay attention to, particularly from someone whose accomplished the sorts of things people aspire to in that decade.

Even the people who haven't accomplished much can still have worthwhile things to say about life. My father's had a hard, hard life. His advice isn't really good in terms of success, but rather as a "don't do the kinds of crap I did" sort of thing. Our lives are different enough that little of it is actionable, but I still listen to it, even if he thinks I don't.

[ProAm]

> There's advice smart 30 year olds give, advice smart 40 year olds give, advice smart 50 year olds give, and so on

This is not that kind of advice though, this rings a bit youthful and wet behind the ears. I sort of feel like its a regurgitated take on "Advice, like youth, is wasted on the young"[1]

Sam's obviously a smart guy since he's been put in charge of yCombinator but his blog posts often feel hollow to me.

[1] http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-schmich-su...

[vinceguidry]

Maybe try to think of it as "talking about what's important in life" as opposed to advice. I think it would be silly to think one has all the answers in this direction, that's effectively what you're telling them when you apply value judgments to what they have to say.

[ProAm]

> Maybe try to think of it as "talking about what's important in life" as opposed to advice.

Im not trying to be overly condescending or judgmental, definitely just my opinion, but it reads like a teenager giving advice on how to live life when they themselves are just embarking on it. It sounds youthfully naive and obvious, there is nothing wrong in there, it's just not eye opening or inspirational as I'd expect reading from the successor to pg. Maybe I'm being to judgmental because I'm used to the way pg's blogs used to speak to me and this is something different. Of course this is my opinion, it just felt empty to me.

[peteretep]

    > There's advice smart 30 year olds give, advice smart 40
    > year olds give, advice smart 50 year olds give, and so on

I think the best generalist advice I've heard is:

"When I was 30, I realized that when I was 20 I didn't know shit. Now I'm 40, I realized that when I was 30 I didn't know shit."

It would be interesting to see how many of the above he would revise in ten years time, and also on the other side of the seismic event that is having a child.

[random28345]

Being in a position of privilege and wealth due to being born in the right time in history and getting exactly the right circumstances of upbringing and location totally qualifies you to dispense wisdom to the masses.

[nether]

Seriously I was hoping for something unique, but there's nothing new here if you have ever read a life advice column before or practiced any faith for a while. If anything, I only reached the same conclusion as in the end of this article: http://www.theonion.com/articles/24yearold-receives-sage-cou...

[runesoerensen]

Perhaps that just proves that the best life advice doesn't really change much? While reading Sam's list I didn't find much that I haven't heard before.

What is new and valuable to me is the combination of advice. While each individual piece of advice might not be new or unique it is still interesting to see what Sam chose to include.

If nothing else it serves as a reminder from a person you may want to learn from. That can be valuable as well particularly because people seem to make the mistake of forgetting important things in life "by default"[1]

[1]http://www.paulgraham.com/todo.html

[hyperbovine]

I've met some really shockingly vapid fiftysomethings. If you are writing somebody off entirely due to their age... well you need somebody old to come along and tell you how foolish that is.

[nine_k]

Being wise has some, but not very strong, correlation with age. You don't have to be very old to give wise advice. No amount of being old makes you wise; experience and contemplation could.

[AndrewKemendo]

This was my thought as well.

Not because he is 30, Audie Murphy [1] was 19 when he won the Medal of Honor, was an accomplished actor and had two kids by 30, but because his experience is very narrow and not particularly deep.

Sam is a smart guy, no doubt, but I think he thinks he is smarter than he actually is.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audie_Murphy

[tarekmoz]

Well, I am almost 40 and I am getting a lot out of that blog post.

I've also got a couple of sage advices from my 4 years old daughter, you know... :)

[lordnacho]

There's age and there's experience. Sam's had experiences that are even rare among people in their 60s.

I do think it's a worthwhile exercise, especially if he looks back in a few years and decides he was wrong about some of these.

[outericky]

30 or not, there is plenty of wisdom in his years. He's done a lot in his short time, more than many will do in twice as long.

Plus 20 (and 30 somethings) would rather here from a determined successful peer, than someone far older.

[cushychicken]

I don't think it hurts the audience here at all to hear it. (I'm generalizing the audience here to be pretty young, and just about hell bent on success - whatever "success" means.)

[waterlesscloud]

At one point the audience here was estimated to average around 24 years old. I kinda think it probably hasn't changed all that much as the participants turn over.

That's about half my own age, which I try to keep in mind when everyone here seems insane to me. :-)

[tiles]

I feel this is a clear example of unnecessary negativity. I don't think anything constructive is offered to just write off the advice of someone based on their age without explaining why?

[Lawtonfogle]

Why not? As long as you have lived through some period of life and can see the consequences of the choices you and others have made during that time, you can give advice. If anything, a mid 20s to mid 30s individual giving advice on college would be more relevant than a 60 year old doing the same, because college has a whole has changed so much in the last ~40 years.

[waterlesscloud]

What are the major ways in which college in 2015 is different from college in 1975?

[PieSquared]

For one thing, it's much harder to pay your own way through college now (impossible, depending on who you are). [0] [1]

[0] http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/04/the-myt... [1] http://www.randalolson.com/2014/03/22/its-impossible-to-work...

[mathattack]

If you won't trust a 30 year old with life advice, would you trust one with your career as an investor or boss?

Wisdom can come from many sources.

[bluedino]

>> Are we really at the point where a 30 year old can offer sage advice on living life?

Could a 30 year old give good advice on being a programmer?

It's not the length of time, it's the amount of experience.

[jkestner]

Eh, define your profession/mission more narrowly, and you can always be the best at it. Granted, it's the defining your mission that seems to take all the work.

[hillis]

If you are Sam Altman, yes, I think you can give advice at 30. The man's experience may be short, but I'd imagine it is unbelievably dense.

[MichaelGG]

What has he done? I haven't heard of him outside of YC. Wikipedia lists Loopt, then YCombinator. If Loopt had failed, would things be significantly different?

(I don't mean this in a rude way, just curious. He's obviously exception in some way if YC selected him as president.)

[hillis]

I have no direct or personal knowledge of him, but he comes across as extremely smart, ambitious, and well-intentioned in his writing and in profiles of him. Here is one I read this week that I thought was an interesting portrayal: http://www.fastcompany.com/3044282/the-y-combinator-chronicl...

I didn't realize there was so much angst directed towards Sam Altman here. I think there is an unfortunate feeling that he was just ordained by PG, and doesn't deserve what he has. I sincerely doubt that's the case.

Regardless of his previous record, he's already been doing an impressive job growing YC. Sure, some of this is the result of pre-existing path dependency and network effects, but do you really think that Sam didn't have anything to do with it?

-The YC companies funded since he has taken over have gotten more ambitious.

-The 'How to Start a Startup' class was a huge success, and provided a fantastic knowledge base to the greater startup community.

-The number of applications to YC has increased dramatically, particularly from under-represented areas.

-He's personally funded interesting companies, including leading an innovative round for Reddit that set aside shares for the community itself.

...and he seems to be just getting started.

[tfigueroa]

It's not that deep. As a father, most of these points are obvious.

[pav7en]

@kungfooey

And you wonder about ageism in the industry?

[benihana]

>Are we really at the point where a 30 year old can offer sage advice on living life? Wow.

At least he offered advice. I'd rather hear a 30 year old's obvious platitudes than an old wise guy's complaints about how obvious the advice is.