I had this thought after remembering one time that my DT (digital technologies) teacher at high school suggested that some of the class could try join a hacking competition. Nothing ever came of it, but I thought it was interesting at the time.
What’s really interesting is seeing the choices I made, and asking “what if I did the other thing”. Just off the top of my head, I could be still at uni doing research on maths or physics, I could be working on designing new robots for who knows what, or branching off even earlier, I could have been a doctor like my parents.
I’m only 24, so it seems like I might be a bit young for this kind of thinking, but there’s still a lot of things I could have done differently.
I remember my dad saying he regretted having not done a different degree in his 20s. I love him and I know he didn’t mean anything by it, but it did feel like he was saying he regretted having the life that ended up with me in it.
Since then I’ve tried never to regret a decision, but still to learn from mistakes.