What was your biggest regret in life?

Greg - wrote:

I regret never running a marathon. My 26:00 8k from 20 years ago predicts I could have run 2:18 if I wanted.

You you could have not run a 2:18. Not even in your wildest dreams that would not have happened.

Just for starters a Marathon is more than 5 times as far as a 8k.

My biggest regret is getting involved with that redheaded girl.

Sheesh!

simp wrote:

jecht wrote:

Not pursuing a UX online degree in 2014. I'm wondering if I'm too old to get into it, most UX jobs I'd love to do are usually occupied by Gen Z types (22-30) and at 38 I'm older. I'm still looking into certs or a career path where I can break into it.

I regret doing journalism in my 20s and not making more $ at the time, and being stuck in dead-end job for the entire decade before getting smarter and moving on.

It's never too late to get into tech. My company has hired people your age. It comes down to being able to be a team player and adapt. Older people fail in tech when they act like boomers and get pissed off all the time. "This isn't right! This tool sucks!" etc. If you're a cool open minded dude you'll do fine.

Thanks for the honest advice, I'm really thinking UX goes with my skill set. Tech writing, a little bit of software/coding, although I went to school for journalism. I'd love to be a front-end guy with UX experience (I am not as competent in the back-end BUT I can adapt if needed, as I know it's important).

A lot of UX jobs are created in huge companies for people who have already been there in other roles (tech, communications). That's the secret to getting in but once you're in it's a forever job, like a public school teacher in a GOOD district.

My current job isn't half-bad, as my boss is awesome, but my co-worker (who has been in the mortgage biz) is saying it's probably a dead-end job even if I'm super-competent at it (income and employment verification).

Ya good luck man. My first tech job I was only making 45k a year but it got my foot in the door. The salary comes with experience.

Angelo Mysterioso wrote:

My biggest regret is getting involved with that redheaded girl.

Sheesh!

Try a redheaded preacher's daughter. Big trouble.....

simp wrote:

Ya good luck man. My first tech job I was only making 45k a year but it got my foot in the door. The salary comes with experience.

I worked at Accidenture in '20, made 53k as a starter from a prior job, then got laid off/left, got a job through a friend at a mortgage company doing income verification for 38k, but got a nice raise to 42k. It's not a lot but far better mentally on me than 38k.

People at costco make 45-50k b/c of covid and desperation for retail jobs. I like WFH and the office role, the slightly better salaries at costco aren't worth it.

Law school.

Mine is not insisting enough that my alcoholic younger brother seek help. When I approached him, he would deny the problem and get mad at his wife for telling on him. A few years later he died from alcohol abuse. He never sought help and then died within a week of finally walking into ER for some alcohol related issue. His liver was destroyed, not making platelets, and he was bleeding internally with no hope for his body to repair it. It was a terrible ending for someone who had been a real athlete and scholar in high school.

Not being a genius and saving the world from oppression, pestilence and fear.

Not going to the App State-Michigan game in 2007. Had a free ticket and a seat on the team plane. Passed it up.

Rainy Day wrote:

Sold my Netflix stock in 2012

Sold my Amazon in 2000

Sold my Apple in 2007

Sold my Ethereum in 2017.

Sold my Facebook in 2014

Sold my Chipotle in 2016

I’ve made some bad buys, but the selling has been much worse (on missed gains).

I’ve still done well in the market, but I could be retired if I had held even half of those positions.

Boy can I relate to this. I bought AMZN right around 9/11, I think, for $12 a share. I think I tripled my money and sold out. I was also a very early investor in Netflix, back when their business model was mostly mailing DVDs to homes. Also sold out early.

That's my problem -- I double and triple my money, then get out thinking I'm real smart. I hate holding stocks for a decade.

Right now I'm holding LCID, which I think is a winner (despite a serious drop the past few weeks). I almost sold at a profit a couple of weeks ago. I'm now underwater. We'll see how it ends up.

Rainy Day wrote:

Sold my Netflix stock in 2012

Sold my Amazon in 2000

Sold my Apple in 2007

Sold my Ethereum in 2017.

Sold my Facebook in 2014

Sold my Chipotle in 2016

I’ve made some bad buys, but the selling has been much worse (on missed gains).

I’ve still done well in the market, but I could be retired if I had held even half of those positions.

Ouch. At least you're not Ronald Wayne, the guy who sold his 10% stake in Apple for $800 in 1976. That investment would be worth $300 billion today.

Coming to LR for the first time about 20 years ago.

My junior year in track I started a fling with a 400m runner near the end of the season. She then left and spent the summer in CO. When she returned she actually went out for xc. I was a senior and super serious about running, so when I realized she didn't take advantage of training at altitude over the summer and was only running xc for the social aspect, I was turned off and a jerk. She quit xc, hooked up with a dud and got pretty deep into drugs. Ok, so not my biggest regret, but I do feel like I was the starting point to her life going off the rails.

Really my biggest regret is going back to school at 33 to be a PhD flunky.

I gave up too easily on some competitive career paths because I didn't think I would be good enough/didn't want to put myself completely through the wringer in terms of tough classes/ruthless application process. I always preemptively came up with an excuse for why these career paths would be too hard or not the right fit. The first one I gave up on was doctor, the second was becoming a college professor/academic, then finally a job that would actually apply my undergrad major - geology. The problem with geology jobs is you either end up in bumf*ck nowhere at a drilling or mining site, or competing with hundreds of people for the scarce jobs in water quality type stuff that are actually based in urban areas. When I graduated I didn't want to be away from my girlfriend, so I stuck around and did work with youth and eventually became a teacher. I'm married to that girlfriend now and we're having our first child this summer, so in that regard I made the right call.

These days I'm no longer teaching and I work a very unfulfilling office job vaguely in the IT sector. It pays well and is low stress, so I really can't complain too much. I've mostly accepted that my career is not going to be a source of fulfillment and/or satisfaction in my life. I'm totally fine with that as my personal life is great and I still like to run and whatnot. But on days like today where my coworkers are annoying the s*** out of me I can't help but think of what might have been.

I struggle with this as well. Am doing mortgage outbound calling. Easy job, low-ish salary, but it's enough to pay the bills. Trying to find fulfillment in my life outside my job. Your job does not define you, I tell myself.

I was a journalism major. Had I been smart, I would have gone into communications/PR. Am still looking at UX and dev classes to get back and fix the situation.

I think if I stay in my current role too long (18 mos. so far and counting) future employers will be glad that I'm a stable worker, but pigeonhole me as a CSR/phone caller and nothing else.

I regret not maintaining my first language, Spanish, and not going further with German and French when I was in those countries.

All else worked out nicely.

Went to college thinking I wanted to teach and coach track because all I had ever done was go to school and run track. Wasted my time going through all those education classes, student teaching, etc.. I hated every minute of that stuff. I kept thinking that eventually I would like it, or care about, or want to do it, but that never happened.

Took me a good 3-5 years post college to completely re-group and get myself into a job I liked, but what a mess in the meantime.