Lessons You "Learned The Hard Way"

[spartan231490]

Just because you have money doesn't mean you need to spend it.

Still learning this one. Very difficult for me. It's why I tend to keep my money in paycheck form until I can go to the bank.

I have learned a lot of lessons the hard way. Off the top of my head, I have learned the hard way that if you don't stand up for yourself, people will walk all over you with hobnail boots and stomping strides.

I've learned that 151 will either be your first shot or your last. That is a hard lesson to learn, especially when you tend to forget that it ever happened.

The hardest lesson I had to learn was that if it depends on luck, it will not, under any circumstances, go well for me. Ever.

And, the dice are trying to kill me. anyone who has ever played dnd will know what I'm talking about. When you roll 5 nat 1s out of 8 rolls of the d20, and it gets worse from there, you aren't very helpful that session. Thank god for lots of hp.

 

[theSteamSupported]

Perception over Judgement.

That's my motto, in fact. Every time I've trusted my own judgement, I've always managed to screw up the whole thing for missing that minor, but essential detail.

 

[Robert Ewing]

Having friends is overrated. Girlfriends, doubly so.

 

[Johnny Impact]

1) Never lend anything. Several folks have already said this but it bears repeating. Arrange trades if you can, give gifts if you can't, but anything you lend is gone forever. Above all, never lend money.

2) Putting forth your best effort is great, and really will help you in life. However, 3) your best effort does not necessarily make success likely. When people tell you to hang in there and everything will work out, they don't know anything of the sort, they are just trying to be helpful. The best example I can give of this is 4) women / romance is not for everyone. My interests are obscure, I suck at conversation, and my looks are average at best. This meant for five solid years I was turned down, put down, stood up, laughed at, lied to, lied about, and made into the butt of a number of extremely unfunny practical jokes. In all that time, despite my best effort, I never knew one single molecule of affection or companionship. I think 5) after establishing a five year record of absolute failure you're allowed to abandon any endeavor as a painful waste of time. This also taught me that 6) it's okay to fail, as long as you learn from it.

7) Advice is most often delivered by the people least qualified to give it. People generally aren't all that smart. Nevertheless they will offer you their opinion on anything at the drop of a hat. Case in point: when I explained to my coworkers why I don't try to meet women any more, two guys immediately said my choice was unacceptable. One of these guys has been locked in an abusive cycle of on-again-off-again with his psychotic semi-girlfriend for three years now. They can't stand each other. Everything sucks except the sex. He knows everything sucks except the sex, yet he keeps going back. The other guy who protested my decision was abandoned by his last girlfriend -- who seemed pretty, smart, and reasonably sane the one time I met her -- because he felt World of Warcraft was more important than she was. In other words, their own romantic lives are utter failures, but they think they can tell me how to run mine. What they don't get is I don't exactly feel good about being alone, but I no longer feel like I'm steadily being pounded into the ground by a pile driver of shame and humiliation. It took a while but I figured out 8) you don't need others to validate your life or choices. I consider that a step up.

9) Learn to recognize true friends. For example, people who you get drunk with are not your friends, they are drinking buddies. Quit drinking and watch what happens. That one guy who sticks with you despite not understanding your decision? He's worth taking a bullet for.

 

[FreebirdLegend]

When sharpening a sword just do as instructed...not what seems to make it go faster. Good thing my gf at the time had a mom that was a nurse.

 

[DoomyMcDoom]

Don't pick your eyes with a kitchen knife.

That sounds like a rather painful lesson, might I ask why you were doing that in the first place?

I learned to be extra careful filling bbq lighters, when I lit my hand on fire by accident when I misfilled it, and it filled the casing instead of the lighter's fuel tank for the most part, and coated my hand, didn't notice it till I test fired the lighter and itwas all like FROOOOSH and my hand was on fire, it looked really cool and didn't really burn my skin but it melted all my hand hair off and was startling as all hell, if I hadn't had that bucket of water nearby for putting out incidental BBQ fires, I woulda brobably had much more than a hella scare to report from that, but it was enough.

 

[Natasha_LB]

Never go the bathroom alone in a club once you're drunk... there's always a small chance you might fall asleep in there.
Don't trust the adverts, epilators are not painless.
Don't go more than 4 days without sleep.
Always, always, always bring more rolls of film than you need.
Never let people know that you're good with computers, you'll become their go-to IT person.
Always have 2 alarm clocks.
Don't put too much oil the car (The engine will goes on fire if you do!)
And finally... don't over-clock your graphics card if you can't afford to replace it.

Oh and original poster.... you can so eat a week old pizza!! Longest I've ever pushed it is 5 days, but I doubt an extra 2 would make much difference!

 

[Shraggler]

Alcohol - always in moderation, especially while attending school.

Probably the most important thing I've learned, although I don't know if it was the hard way or just a culmination of learned things: Everything is relative.

 

[Fractral]

I'm reading all of these very carefully and taking notes. I've still got my whole life ahead of me, don't want to ruin it accidentally.

4) women / romance is not for everyone. My interests are obscure, I suck at conversation, and my looks are average at best. This meant for five solid years I was turned down, put down, stood up, laughed at, lied to, lied about, and made into the butt of a number of extremely unfunny practical jokes. In all that time, despite my best effort, I never knew one single molecule of affection or companionship. I think 5) after establishing a five year record of absolute failure you're allowed to abandon any endeavor as a painful waste of time. This also taught me that 6) it's okay to fail, as long as you learn from it.

In my school there is definitely an attitude of 'If you haven't got a relationship you mean nothing' which has certainly led me to become something of a pariah. I definitely feel for you- I never really tried in the first case, but it seems like a lesson to be learned here is 'its better to have never loved than to have loved and lost.'
Also, press the preview button before posting, that way you'll catch the BBCode errors you made. Learned this 5 seconds ago.

 

[Ekit]

Don't pick your eyes with a kitchen knife.

That sounds like a rather painful lesson, might I ask why you were doing that in the first place?

I was slicing a sausage and got something in my eye, didn't think and...

I didn't hurt my eye though, I only got cut in the nose.

 

[DevilWithaHalo]

* Don't attend the first college that accepts you. Insure they are a decent school and will actually teach you something beyond how to quickly rack up 10's of thousands of dollars of wasted debt.

* Never try to get back together with an Ex. It ended for a reason, and if that reason doesn't come up again, chances are good another one will.

* Never try to stay friends with an Ex. Old habits die hard.

* If your gut is telling you something is wrong, then something is wrong.

* If pain doesn't subside for well over an hour, just go to the hospital (I put up with it for nearly 18hours).

* Appreciate everything other people do, even the terribly mundane. Once you begin expecting certain things it only breeds resentment when they fail. Don't be surprise when they fail.

* Donnie Darko sucks.

 

[renegade7]

Work as hard as you like in high school, it doesn't matter. Good essay and a good interview will get you in virtually anywhere (accepted at University of Chicago with a 2.8 GPA. Take THAT, overachievers!)

Well that was more like vindication than a hard lesson learned...

The lesson part came from a friend's mistake in a similar area. Busted her ass all through high school (4.3 GPA), only got in at some nowhere school because a.) she has almost 0 people skills and botched her interviews and b.) couldn't understand that some things shouldn't be posted on Facebook.

In short, if you don't have the support skills to back yourself up, hard work doesn't count for shit.

(That also applies to EVE Online as well. My lossboard attests to that)

Not that you shouldn't work hard, of course. Just that you need to be able to back up your hard work.

 

[Zack Alklazaris]

I generally stop myself before I hit rock bottom. Lets see, oh didn't check my balance before major purchases. The cable company double billed me and by the time I noticed I was -800 dollars with 350 of those in fines.

Company refused to pay for it... yea. I learned that lesson.

I also use to steal things when I was a child. Stupid things. So my mom had this cop friend, he brought me to the station and put me in one of the jail cells for a night. That kind scared the crap out of me. Didn't steal anymore.

 

[Girl With One Eye]

Do not punch your laptop in a fit of anger -_-

 

[Sehnsucht Engel]

The internet has taught me how to give up and walk away from an argument or stuff in general, because it's pointless. I always used to be the type of person who wouldn't give up on anything, no matter what it was.

I learnt that most girls are often not worth my time.

The bronies taught me that it doesn't matter who I am or what I do, because the right type of people for me, won't give a shit and still be my friends.

I can't think of anything else right now.

Edit: I thought of a new one. If someone suddenly seems to have gotten an interest in you, and you don't understand why, you should at least try to find out. I learnt this recently.

 

[tharglet]

don't bite off more than you can chew,
and learn to say no.

Yeah, in my line of work (programming) learning to estimate correctly is definitely worth doing. Don't think I've ever got burned because of it, but I'm pretty sure some of the others have.

Also bear in mind other people don't know your job, so if it's an hour job, but it's gonna take you a few days to get round to it, say it's gonna get done in a few days not in an hour. Definitely seen people making that mistake, then having someone constantly ask 'em when the work is done, when there's far more important things to do.

 

[tharglet]

Do not punch your laptop in a fit of anger -_-

Haha yep, I can second that one. Only damage I did was to the "j" key though. Thought I might have killed a RAM chip... turns out I prolly only nudged it out of the slot (checked out fine).

 

[tharglet]

Oh, I just thought of another one.
When taking electronics apart, UNPLUG them first.

Also make sure what you're taking apart doesn't have large capacitors (in terms of energy storage) in it - known people to fall foul of that one. Old CRTs were good for that one.

 

[XSTALKERX]

Never, NEVER touch the back of the furnace no matter how old you are. Learned that lesson the hard way when I was 5 years old.

And also never go to your parent's bedroom when you hear moaning in the middle of the night. I was 7 years old and thought my mom had a bad dream or was sick.... damn how wrong I was.

 

[Girl With One Eye]

Haha yep, I can second that one. Only damage I did was to the "j" key though. Thought I might have killed a RAM chip... turns out I prolly only nudged it out of the slot (checked out fine).

Well you got lucky, when I punched mine it completely died. It was still within warranty though, but explaining what happened to customer services was an akward conversation. I tried to act like it somehow got damaged by banging it around on the tube, but the guy couldn't understand how I would break the motherboard doing that. At least it got fixed though :/