1 I would say "Marrying the wrong person," but phrased that way, it's not really useful as a warning.* So let's go with "Marrying for the wrong reasons (e.g. because then low self-esteem and limited prior success with the opposite sex led me to settle far too quickly despite what should have been obvious warning signs). The emotional and financial consequences were catastrophic -- a lost decade of life, basically, And due having to children, another decade of not completely being able to escape their malign influence even after divorce.
*The more specific form "Not realizing I was marrying a borderline may be somewhat more useful. I know I've seen other Lesswrongers talk about similar issues, though I think they escaped before marriage and children.
2 Not actually doing any networking in college/grad school despite attending very prestigious institutions (due to introversion and cluelessness about the usefulness of this)
3 Not doing anything to deal with social anxiety much earlier, thus missing out on so many different opportunities.
In fairness to me, I'm older than the median LWer, and the Internet was a lot less helpful for finding the answers to life problems then than it is now.
Not doing anything to deal with social anxiety much earlier, thus missing out on so many different opportunities.
What did you do to deal?
This is a repository for major, life-altering mistakes that you or others have made. Detailed accounts of specific mistakes are welcome, and so are mentions of general classes of mistakes that people often make. If similar repositories already exist (inside or outside of LW), links are greatly appreciated.
The purpose of this repository is to collect information about serious misjudgements and mistakes in order to help people avoid similar mistakes. (I am posting this repository because I'm trying to conduct a premortem on my life and figure out what catastrophic risks may screw me over in the near or far future.)