demagogue on 25/8/2018 at 00:33

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I'd do everything the same according to the original plan. The one thing I'd add is I'd tell myself how to deal with one woman along the way, having foresight about what would be coming (basically let her go, do the degree, and start teaching; she'll come back anyway, which is the mental trick that would have probably helped me barrel through all of that), which should keep everything on track from that point and hopefully keep the woman, the job, the books and articles, etc, and everybody's happy. I can't guarantee that it'd work though, but at least I'd have the PhD and teaching position & other things by then.

The one thing I can say for my life is I didn't do anything wrong at any point. I did everything that I wanted in just the right way you're supposed to do it. To the extent I've had problems, they were the pure misfortune of cruel and stupid fate, and not having the concentration to see the things I was doing through (which were all the right things). Nothing I could have done to avert it really, although I could have positioned myself better, or got my mind in a better frame, with impossible foresight to carry out the same plan anyway.

I guess little things I might add are keep running a bit more often, buy the piano/keyboard earlier so I could have started serious practicing a bit earlier, prioritize the big tasks a bit better and go down the list... But honestly I always get to these things eventually, and other things I couldn't control were stopping these from happening earlier too. So whatever...

If I were really being strategic about this, I'd just give myself information to make millions of dollars which would serve as a cushion that would have allowed me to do everything I wanted with that safety net, and still living a good life.