Because my life has been a string of lucky breaks, ex post I wouldn’t change anything. (If I’d gotten good advice age 20, my life would have gone worse than it in fact has gone.) But assuming I don’t know how my life would turn out:
Actually think about stuff and look stuff up, including on big-picture questions, like ‘what is the most important problem in the world?’
Take your career decision really seriously. Think of it as a research project, dedicate serious time to it. Have a timeline for your life-plans that’s much longer than your degree. Reach out to people you want to be like and try to talk with them for advice.
It doesn’t matter whether the label ‘depressed’ applies to you or not, what matters is whether e.g. taking this pill, or seeing a counsellor, would be beneficial. (And it would.)
You don’t need to be so scared—everyone else is just making it up as they go, too.
Then more concretely (again, this is assuming I don’t know how things actually turn out):
Switch degree from philosophy to maths with the aim afterwards of doing a PhD in economics. (At the time I had no idea what economics was about; I thought it was just for bankers.) But keep reading moral philosophy. Accept that this will put you two years behind, but this isn’t a big deal.
(I’m assuming that “Buy Apple stock” is not in the spirit of the question!)
What piece of advice would you give to you 20 year old self?
Because my life has been a string of lucky breaks, ex post I wouldn’t change anything. (If I’d gotten good advice age 20, my life would have gone worse than it in fact has gone.) But assuming I don’t know how my life would turn out:
Actually think about stuff and look stuff up, including on big-picture questions, like ‘what is the most important problem in the world?’
Take your career decision really seriously. Think of it as a research project, dedicate serious time to it. Have a timeline for your life-plans that’s much longer than your degree. Reach out to people you want to be like and try to talk with them for advice.
It doesn’t matter whether the label ‘depressed’ applies to you or not, what matters is whether e.g. taking this pill, or seeing a counsellor, would be beneficial. (And it would.)
You don’t need to be so scared—everyone else is just making it up as they go, too.
Then more concretely (again, this is assuming I don’t know how things actually turn out):
Switch degree from philosophy to maths with the aim afterwards of doing a PhD in economics. (At the time I had no idea what economics was about; I thought it was just for bankers.) But keep reading moral philosophy. Accept that this will put you two years behind, but this isn’t a big deal.
(I’m assuming that “Buy Apple stock” is not in the spirit of the question!)