Things I Wish I Had Known About Earlier
Anki and Spaced Repetition
I’ve adopted the Anki app to help learn new vocabulary and retain various things I learn Currently my decks are:
Spaced repetition flashcards are great. I would have done much better in school if I had known about them.
Investing and Indexing
For most of my 20s I didn’t know much about investing, so I avoided it. Better to not risk my money, is what I thought. Turns out holding cash is also risky. I wish I had known about index funds earlier — the book that taught me the most on the subject is Jack Bogle’s The Little Book of Common Sense Investing.
Knowledge and hobbies compound too
Also during my 20s I did basically nothing musical. I had played piano in elementary school and then a couple band instruments in middle and high school, but then never touched one since. As an adult I missed music in my life and always wanted to re-learn an instrument, but I always thought I would pick music back up when I had more time.
Covid provided a great chance to break that assumption. Out of a sheer abundance of time, I picked back up playing the piano. I learned that hobbies compound — even if I spend 5 minutes each day noodling on the piano, I improve noticeably. I’m so glad I decided to pick it back up now, instead of waiting decades then starting from scratch.