Ask HN: How do you cope with realizing you mostly wasted your potential?
12 by throwawaynay | 14 comments on Hacker News.
Today I'm what I would a consider a mediocre software developer(and I'm not good at anything else). I may get harassed by recruiters because of the current state of the market, but I really don't think I'm good at (almost) anything I do. I learned a bit about selling myself but I'm not good. I feel like I could have done so much more, I had so much potential, objectively(could have skipped like +4 grades if it wasn't for the terrible social consequences it would have caused(my father only accepted that I skip one), IQ higher than 99.8% of people(probably lower now tho), started coding in primary school...) It's really, really crushing my spirits, when I see people who were really similar to me mentally until a certain age(but unlike me didn't have to live through poverty, extreme violence and in an overall terrible environment(or mental health issues cause by all that)), achieve so, so much more, whether academically, professionally or even in their personal life. And I read or hear about this kind of people all the time because of the topics I'm interested in or because of the people I know. I don't think I'd feel that way if I was born average. Weird metaphor, but I feel like I had a winning lottery ticket that was destroyed by the rain in front of my eyes, and there was nothing I could do but watch, and I rarely stop thinking about it. Does anyone here have a similar experience? How do you cope?