What's something you believed 5 years ago that you don't anymore?

[QuantumDay]

Its a Question that interests me

[VB]

Looking back, it's kind of wild how much your perspective changes.

Something I used to believe:
Working longer hours = better results

Now I think:
Focused hours > long hours

What belief did you completely change your mind on?

[codeberg]

Santa sorry folks

[Totally]

Sorry to tell you mate the tooth fairy isn't real either. Spoiler alert

[codeberg]

Religion. I never found the full answers others were looking for. But I'm happy I don't need him

[One-One-Five]

Looking back, it's kind of wild how much your perspective changes. Something I used to believe: Working longer hours = better results Now I

Yeah that is about right. Appreciate it

[VidiTechnica]

Couldn't agree more. Ha, fair enough

[One-One-Five]

Cheers for that. Good thread this

[PlanetOftheApes]

Can't argue with that. Yeah I get that.

Cheers for sharing

[Maxximus]

That matches what the more reliable sources are saying. This feels like one of those topics where the longer term effect matters more than the daily noise.

I will update this thread if anything significant changes

[Connor82]

Cannot really argue with that. Event viewer is your friend on Windows, most people never look at it.

Worth trying before anything more drastic

[Fan22]

Looking back, it's kind of wild how much your perspective changes. Something I used to believe: Working longer hours = better results

There is something true in that that is hard to articulate. Happy to keep discussing this

[StoneCold]

Cannot really argue with that. Event viewer is your friend on Windows, most people never look at it. Worth trying before anything more drast

Basically my experience exactly. Task Manager tells you most of what you need to know if you know which columns to look at.

Worth trying before anything more drastic

[Sinead_47]

If I am honest I agree completely. There is usually more recency bias in these discussions than people admit.

The result will answer the question better than any of us can

[Pilgrim]

The stats do not back that up. People forget that pressure affects players differently and the better sides handle it better.

Ask me again in six weeks

[Faded Owen]

Can't argue with that. Yeah I get that. Cheers for sharing.

Yes, and I would add that it is even more true if your hardware is older. Worked for me at least

[Cobra69]

That is the obvious answer but not always the right one. I keep a list of what I do to every fresh install so I can repeat it without thinking.

Start there and see if it makes a difference

[Inland Aidan]

Sorted it the same way. Should be fine if you take your time

[Golden Tara]

If I am honest I agree completely. There is usually more recency bias in these discussions than people admit. The result will answer the que

There is a bit more to it than that I think. Happy to help further if you get stuck.

[Northernah]

Makes sense. Story of my life that.

Thanks for that

[DiamondDallas_X]

I used to believe that once you reached adulthood, your personality basically settled.

Now I think people are way more malleable than I gave credit for, even in their 30s and 40s. It's just slower and less obvious than in youth

[MurkyInlet]

I believed social media was mostly harmless entertainment if you curated it properly. A bit naive in hindsight.

Now I think it's closer to a psychological environment than a tool, and you don't just "use" it, you adapt to it

[NealBinnom-Williams]

I believed that being busy meant being important. My calendar used to feel like a scoreboard.

Now I realize a full schedule often just means poor prioritization or weak boundaries

[Joel5]

Five years ago I thought remote work would automatically make life better for everyone. No commute, flexible hours, problem solved.

Now I think it just reshuffled the challenges rather than removing them. Isolation and boundary issues are very real tradeoffs

[FrostBear]

I believed motivation was something you waited for. Like a signal that tells you when to start working.

Now I think it's mostly the other way around, action tends to generate motivation, not the reverse

[Quanta]

Five years ago I thought most problems had clear solutions if you just thought hard enough. Like there was always a right answer waiting to be found.

Now I think many real world problems are tradeoffs, not puzzles, and accepting that is oddly freeing

[Dank15]

I once thought memory was basically reliable unless you had a serious condition. Turns out it's surprisingly reconstructive and malleable.

That realization made me a lot more cautious about certainty in general

[GlassKnight]

I used to think working longer hours automatically meant being more successful. It felt logical at the time, almost like a law of nature.

Now I see diminishing returns everywhere. After a certain point you're just tired and less useful, not more productive

[Anvil33]

I used to think disagreements on the internet would naturally resolve once people had enough information.

Now I think many arguments are actually value conflicts dressed up as fact disputes

[EthanHinds]

I used to think discipline was about forcing yourself to do things you hate. Very bootstrappy mindset.

Now I see it more as designing your environment so the right actions are the easiest ones

[Sega26]

I used to think more information always led to better decisions. Just read more, know more, choose better.

Now I suspect overload can actually paralyze decision making more than ignorance sometimes

[BlackMamba]

Five years ago I genuinely believed productivity was just about finding the perfect system. Apps, planners, color coded everything.

Now I realize most of it was just procrastination with extra steps. The system never mattered as much as actually doing the thing

[CMPunk]

I used to think intelligence was mostly fixed. Like you either had it or you didn't and education just revealed it.

Now I lean much more toward it being trainable, messy, and heavily dependent on environment and effort

[Odd Voyager]

I once thought most disagreements online were about facts. Turns out a lot of them are about identity, incentives, and attention.

That realization made internet debates about 70 percent less stressful for me

[StoneCold]

Five years ago I thought most success stories were about talent. Now I see timing, luck, and persistence playing much bigger roles than I used to admit.

That doesn't make effort meaningless, but it does make the picture more honest

[Fam28]

Five years ago I thought being busy meant I was being productive. Turns out I was just very talented at filling my calendar with things that looked important.

Learning to separate movement from progress changed a lot. Sometimes the person doing less but focusing better is actually getting further ahead

[Evelyn97]

Used to believe that everyone knew exactly what they were doing except me. Then I got older and realised most people are improvising with a little confidence on top.

It is strangely comforting. The difference is not having all the answers, it is being willing to adapt when the original plan stops making sense.

[WearyScholar]

A big one for me was thinking that changing your mind meant you were inconsistent. Now it feels more like updating your information.

The world changes, people change, and refusing to adjust just because you once had an opinion seems like a strange way to live.

[FrostDrifter]

Five years ago I thought motivation came before action. Now I think action often creates motivation.

Waiting for the perfect moment is a trap because the perfect moment usually arrives after you have already started.

[Carol84]

Thought talent was the main factor behind success stories too. Still matters, but being in the right place at the right time and meeting the right people can completely change the outcome.

That does not mean effort is pointless. It just means the story is usually more complicated than the simple version we hear.

[Steady Dylan]

One thing that changed for me was how I viewed mistakes. I used to see them as evidence that I was not good enough.

Now they are more like expensive lessons. Not always fun lessons, but useful ones if you actually pay attention.

[AlexaBliss]

I used to believe adults had everything figured out. Then adulthood happened and it turns out everyone is just trying to remember passwords and keep plants alive

The confidence people show from the outside can hide a lot of uncertainty.

[QuantumLeap53]

Five years ago I thought having more choices was always better. Now I think too many choices can become exhausting.

Sometimes a few good options are better than endless possibilities that leave you stuck comparing everything.

[BiasField82]

A belief that changed for me was that hard work always gets rewarded. Hard work helps, but circumstances matter too.

Recognising that does not make people lazy. It just gives a more realistic picture of how unpredictable life can be.

[LostTom30]

I thought I needed to have a perfect plan before making big decisions. Looking back, most of the useful things came from trying something and adjusting along the way.

Planning is useful, but it should be a map rather than a cage.

[Kev49]

Used to think people rarely changed their minds. Social media probably makes it look that way because everyone doubles down publicly.

In reality, plenty of people grow and rethink things quietly. It is just less visible.

[LazySentinel]

Five years ago I underestimated how important health and sleep were. Younger me treated energy like an unlimited resource.

Turns out the boring advice is boring because it works. Annoying discovery, but a valuable one

[GameChanger]

I believed being confident meant never doubting yourself. Now I think confidence is being able to move forward while knowing you might be wrong.

A little uncertainty can actually keep you learning.

[RomanReigns]

Thought money would automatically make people happier. It definitely solves some problems, but it does not magically fix every issue.

The quality of relationships and having a sense of purpose seem to matter a lot more than I appreciated before.

[ParallelSelf99]

One change was realising that expertise does not always come with age. Some people have been doing something for decades and never improve, while others learn incredibly fast.

Experience helps, but curiosity matters too.

[Electric Holly]

Five years ago I thought networking was just a corporate buzzword. Now I see it is mostly about building genuine relationships.

The word makes it sound like collecting contacts, but the useful connections usually come from simply being helpful and interested.

[BigDog26]

I used to believe that everyone cared a lot about what I was doing. Turns out most people are busy worrying about their own lives.

A surprisingly freeing realisation. You can take more chances when you stop imagining an audience judging every move.

[Bayley_US]

Thought success was a straight line. Start here, work hard, arrive there. Nice and simple.

Reality looks more like a messy collection of detours, restarts, and unexpected opportunities. The messy version is probably normal.

[SammyZayn]

A belief that changed was assuming technology would always make life easier. Some things are definitely better, but sometimes new tools just create new ways to be distracted

The challenge is learning when technology helps and when it is just adding noise.

[CarlosBuddle]

Five years ago I thought being right was the most important thing in a discussion. Now I think understanding the other person's point matters more.

You can disagree with someone and still learn something from how they reached their conclusion.

[Badger90]

I thought patience was just waiting. Now I see it is more active than that.

Good things often require consistent effort while accepting that results might not appear immediately. That is a harder lesson than it sounds.

[Daemon55]

A big one for me is the idea that being busy means being productive. A few years ago it felt like the more packed the schedule was, the more progress was being made. Now it seems like a full calendar can just mean you are very good at moving from one thing to another without actually getting anything important done.

Learning to leave some empty space was a strange adjustment. Turns out doing nothing for a while is not always wasted time

[Fam41]

Used to think most people knew exactly what they were doing and had some secret plan figured out. Then the last few years happened and it became pretty clear that a lot of us are just making decisions with the information we have and hoping for the best.

That is actually been quite reassuring though. There is less pressure to have everything mapped out perfectly when you realise everyone else is figuring things out too.

[Iconic52]

The choice thing mentioned above is definitely relatable. More options sound great until you are standing in a supermarket aisle comparing 40 types of the same product and wondering how this became a life decision

A few years ago I thought having endless possibilities was the ultimate freedom. Now I think good filters and knowing what you actually want are far more valuable. Sometimes fewer choices make it easier to enjoy the choice you make.

[Dark Hermit]

The thing I no longer believe is that everyone should be trying to improve themselves constantly. That sounds strange because self-improvement is usually presented as an unquestionable good.

But there are periods where maintaining your life is enough. You do not always need a new skill, a new fitness target, a new side project or another productivity system.

Five years ago I would have interpreted a quiet month as falling behind. Now I can see that rest, routine and simply enjoying your existing life are legitimate outcomes.

Growth is useful, but it is not a moral obligation. Sometimes the best thing you can do is stop optimising yourself and have dinner with someone you like.

[Merchant31]

Five years ago I thought disagreement meant somebody was trying to undermine you. Now I see it as information, at least when the disagreement is made in good faith.

Someone pointing out a weakness in an idea can be more useful than someone agreeing because they want to keep things comfortable.

Of course, not every argument is worth having. There are people who disagree simply because they enjoy arguing, and giving them your afternoon achieves very little.

But a thoughtful challenge is valuable. It forces you to explain why you believe something instead of relying on familiarity.

The trick is learning to separate criticism of an idea from criticism of yourself. Those are very different things.

[Ria99]

Five years ago I thought adulthood would become more predictable with time. Instead, it seems to have become better at revealing new categories of uncertainty.

You can make careful plans and still have something unexpected happen. Jobs change, people move, priorities shift and plans that looked permanent turn out to be temporary.

The useful change was learning to build flexibility into the plan rather than treating every surprise as a disaster.

That does not mean becoming careless. Savings, backups and sensible preparation still matter. It just means accepting that preparation is about improving your options, not controlling the future.

Maybe that is the closest thing to a life lesson here: certainty is nice, but adaptability is much more reliable.

[Darkseid19]

A smaller one, but I no longer believe that expensive automatically means durable. Five years ago I assumed paying more was usually the safer option.

After buying a few premium products that developed problems surprisingly quickly, I started paying much more attention to construction, repairability and warranty rather than the price tag.

At the other end, the cheapest option can be a false economy. Replacing a £15 item three times is not necessarily better than buying a £50 version once.

The useful question became, "What am I actually paying for?" Better materials and support can justify the extra cost, while branding alone usually does not.

That has made shopping slower but much less impulsive.

[Quarry]

Five years ago I thought being available all the time was a sign of being dependable. Messages got answered immediately, emails were checked late at night and I felt slightly guilty if I did not respond.

Eventually the constant availability started making everything feel urgent. A message arriving at 9pm did not become more important simply because I saw it at 9:02.

Now I try to separate genuine emergencies from other people's schedules. If something can wait until morning, it can wait until morning.

The funny thing is that setting boundaries has not made me less reliable. If anything, it makes it easier to concentrate when something genuinely needs attention because everything is not being treated like an emergency.

[IronWarden12]

Five years ago I thought you had to choose between being ambitious and having a balanced life. Either you were pushing hard toward a goal or you were accepting that you would never get very far.

That binary view has softened. Ambition can exist alongside limits, relationships, hobbies and sleep.

In fact, constantly exhausting yourself can make ambition less sustainable. A goal that requires you to operate at maximum intensity for years is probably not a very good plan.

Progress can be slower and still be progress. There is something to be said for building a life you can actually maintain while pursuing the things that matter to you.

[Neil_14]

My view on friendships changed quite a lot. I used to believe that good friends stayed equally close forever if the friendship was genuine.

Life has shown me that friendships can be seasonal without being fake. People move, have children, change jobs, develop different interests or simply become busy in ways neither person expected.

Some friendships survive long gaps and pick up immediately. Others naturally become less central without anyone doing anything wrong.

That used to feel like failure. Now I think it is healthier to appreciate what a friendship was rather than measuring it only by how much contact you currently have.

There are still friendships worth actively maintaining, of course. But maintaining one does not necessarily mean speaking every day or living the same life.

[HiggsField41]

Five years ago I believed that a higher salary automatically meant a better job. It took a couple of career changes to realise how incomplete that equation is.

Money matters, especially when bills are involved, and pretending otherwise is not helpful. But workload, commute, management, flexibility, stability and whether you can switch off after work all have a real value too.

A job paying £5,000 more per year can look attractive until you calculate the extra commuting costs, longer hours and time spent recovering from the job.

These days I think of compensation as a package rather than a single number. Sometimes taking slightly less money for a much better life is financially sensible once the whole picture is included.

[Romulan]

Five years ago I believed that being busy meant being important. Looking back, that was probably more about ego than productivity.

There is a strange status attached to saying you are exhausted, booked solid and answering messages at midnight. It can make overwork sound like evidence that your life matters.

Now I find people with a bit of empty space in their schedules much more interesting. They have time to think, help somebody, learn something or simply notice what is happening around them.

A full calendar can be necessary during certain periods, but it should not become your identity.

If nothing else, I have stopped treating "How are you?" as an invitation to brag about how little free time I have. That feels like progress.

[Sienna74]

Five years ago I thought nostalgia was mostly reliable. If I remembered something fondly, I assumed the past really had been better.

Then I started revisiting old games, films, restaurants and places from childhood. Some were still great. Others were very clearly being carried by memory.

Memory is not a recording. It is more like a story we keep editing, and emotion gets mixed into the details.

That does not make nostalgia bad. Quite the opposite. The emotional memory can be valuable even when the original experience was less magical than remembered.

Now I can say, "That was wonderful for me at the time," without needing to believe that the entire period was objectively better.

[QuantumOracle45]

One belief that changed was about money and happiness. I used to think there was a fairly direct line where earning more would eventually make you happier.

More money absolutely can remove certain forms of stress. Paying bills comfortably, having savings and being able to handle an unexpected expense are valuable.

But once basic security is established, the relationship gets much less straightforward. Spending more can create new expectations, and lifestyle upgrades can quietly become permanent expenses.

The biggest improvement for me came from buying back time rather than buying more stuff. Paying for convenience occasionally, taking a proper holiday or reducing unnecessary commitments has felt more valuable than accumulating things.

Money is useful. Treating it as a scoreboard is where I changed my mind.

[PlanckLimit65]

One belief that disappeared was the idea that buying something once is cheaper than paying for a service. Five years ago I was very suspicious of subscriptions and assumed ownership was almost always better.

Some subscriptions are still ridiculous, but there are situations where the service model makes more sense. Software that receives regular updates, cloud storage and certain professional tools can be cheaper overall than constantly buying replacement versions.

The trick is noticing which subscriptions you actually use. Five small monthly charges can quietly become a surprisingly large annual bill.

So the belief changed into something more boring: neither ownership nor subscription is automatically better. It depends on how often you use the thing, what happens when you stop paying and whether you actually need the ongoing service.

[KDB69]

Five years ago I thought changing your mind meant you had been wrong and therefore somehow lost an argument. Now I think refusing to update your view is much more embarrassing when the evidence has clearly changed.

There is a difference between being inconsistent and learning. If you believe something because of the information available to you, then better information should be allowed to change the conclusion.

That applies to ordinary life as much as big ideas. I have changed my mind about how I spend money, how much stuff I need, what kind of work suits me and even which hobbies I thought were worth the time.

A person should not have to defend a five-year-old opinion forever just to preserve the appearance of consistency. Sometimes the correct response is simply, "I thought differently before."

[Dave]

The five-year change for me is that I no longer believe you need to have a strong opinion about everything. Social media makes it feel like every subject requires an immediate position.

Some questions genuinely deserve research before an opinion. Others are complicated enough that saying "I don't know" is the most accurate answer available.

There is also a difference between being informed and being interested. I can care about a subject without pretending to understand every technical detail surrounding it.

That has made conversations much easier. Asking someone to explain something you do not understand is often more interesting than trying to win a debate with half the information.

A little intellectual humility is surprisingly relaxing.

[Ruby92]

I used to believe that being organised meant having a complicated system. Colour-coded calendars, multiple apps, detailed lists and elaborate categories all seemed like evidence of competence.

Then I noticed that the systems themselves were taking more effort than the tasks they were supposed to manage.

My current system is basically one calendar, one task list and a notebook. If something takes longer to organise than to do, I usually just do it.

There are people who genuinely need sophisticated systems, especially for complex projects. The mistake was assuming complexity itself was a sign of effectiveness.

Sometimes a handwritten list on a piece of paper beats the productivity app with 47 settings.

[ClaudioHerrera]

I stopped believing that everyone is paying as much attention to me as I imagine. Five years ago I would spend ages worrying about an awkward sentence, a bad haircut or some tiny mistake I made in public.

Then I started noticing how little I remember about other people's minor mistakes. Most of us are busy thinking about our own lives.

That realisation has been surprisingly freeing. It does not mean consequences do not exist, but it puts everyday embarrassment into perspective.

If I stumble over a sentence in a meeting, someone might notice for ten seconds. They are probably thinking about their own presentation by the time they reach the car park.

There is a strange amount of freedom in realising that you are not the main character in everybody else's day.

[BiasField82]

I used to believe that once you had made a decision, you should stick with it because changing direction meant wasting the effort already invested.

That is basically sunk-cost thinking dressed up as determination. Time and money already spent cannot be recovered by continuing with something that no longer makes sense.

This applies to jobs, hobbies, purchases and even plans for a weekend. Sometimes the smartest decision is admitting that the original plan was wrong and changing course.

There is still value in persistence, obviously. The difficult part is knowing whether you are persevering because the goal matters or because you cannot bear to admit the previous effort did not work.

Learning that distinction has saved me from quite a few expensive second acts.

[ClusterCanopy]

Five years ago I believed that if someone was confident about an opinion, they probably knew what they were talking about. That one has taken a beating over time.

Confidence and knowledge can overlap, obviously, but they are not the same thing. Some of the most certain people I have met were working from very incomplete information.

The opposite is interesting too. Someone saying "I am not sure" can actually be a sign that they have thought carefully about the subject and understand where the uncertainty is.

Now I pay much more attention to how someone reaches a conclusion than how strongly they announce it. It has saved me from accepting a lot of nonsense just because it was delivered confidently.

[Callum_33]

Five years ago I thought being good at something meant enjoying it all the time. That turned out to be a terrible standard for deciding whether to stick with a skill.

Learning an instrument is a good example. Some practice sessions are satisfying, while others are repetitive and frustrating. The boring parts are not necessarily evidence that you chose the wrong hobby.

The same applies to exercise, studying and work. A worthwhile activity can contain tedious sections without becoming pointless.

Now I ask whether the overall direction is meaningful rather than whether every individual session feels good. That has made it much easier to keep going when progress is slow.

[DrewMcIntyre]

I used to believe that having more choice was always a good thing. The supermarket example in the last post reminded me of this.

Give me five brands of something and I can decide quickly. Give me forty and suddenly I am reading ingredient labels like I am negotiating a peace treaty.

The same happens with technology. Ten nearly identical phones, hundreds of productivity apps, endless streaming services and twenty different ways to organise a task can turn convenience into work.

There is a point where additional choice stops increasing freedom and starts increasing mental load. That does not mean fewer choices are always better, but it changed how I think about design.

Sometimes the best option is the one that makes a sensible decision easy rather than presenting every possible decision.

[Oliver85]

I used to think that if a product had good reviews, it was probably good for me. Sounds obvious, but the distinction between good product and good purchase took me a while to learn.

Something can have thousands of positive reviews and still be completely unnecessary for your particular situation.

The reverse happens too. A boring, unfashionable product can be exactly right if it solves your specific problem reliably.

Now I start with what I actually need and then look at products. Previously I would see a clever feature and work backwards to invent a reason I needed it.

That change has probably saved more money than any budgeting trick I tried.

[Rachel_72]

The big one for me is that I used to think adults eventually figured everything out. You hit a certain age, presumably receive a mysterious instruction manual, and suddenly know how to handle careers, money, relationships and household repairs

Then I became that age and discovered everyone is mostly making decisions with whatever information they have at the time

That has actually made me more sympathetic toward other people. Someone being older does not automatically mean they have everything sorted, just as being younger does not automatically mean they have nothing useful to contribute

The downside is that there is nobody to hand the manual to when the boiler starts making a strange noise.

[Anthony87]

Five years ago I thought keeping every old thing was a sensible form of security. Old cables, spare parts, boxes, paperwork, random adapters... surely one day I would need them

Then I moved house and had to transport several boxes containing technology that had not been relevant since about 2012

There is a psychological comfort in having something "just in case", but that comfort has a cost. Space is one cost, but so is the effort involved in sorting, storing and eventually deciding what to do with it

Now I keep things when they have a realistic use, are difficult to replace or have genuine sentimental value. Everything else has to justify occupying a cupboard

Still have one drawer full of mysterious cables, though. Some traditions are difficult to break.

[Declan31]

One belief I lost was that people are either naturally disciplined or they are not. That idea makes it very easy to label yourself as one type of person and stop experimenting

A lot of what looks like discipline is actually environment. If something is easy to start, visible and convenient, you are more likely to do it. If every attempt requires ten steps, you will eventually avoid it

Want to exercise more? Put the shoes by the door. Want to read? Keep the book beside the chair instead of buried in a cupboard. Want to save money? Automate it before the spending happens

That does not eliminate willpower, but it reduces how often you need it. Designing your surroundings is much more practical than waiting to feel motivated

[Gadget49]

Five years ago I thought being busy was basically the same thing as being productive. If the calendar was packed and I had ten things on the go, I felt like I was making progress

Now I see how much of that was just activity. Some of the most useful work I have done has involved removing things, concentrating on one task, or leaving enough empty space to think properly

The change happened after a period where I had too many small commitments competing for attention. None of them was individually terrible, but together they made everything feel urgent

These days I would rather finish three meaningful things than spend a week touching twenty projects. It is a much less exciting way to measure yourself, but considerably more useful

[Chris_50]

Totally agree on the busy vs productive bit. My analogy: being busy is like running around a kitchen with a pan in each hand - loud, impressive, but not necessarily cooking a meal. Some of the best weeks were when I did fewer things and actually finished them. Now I schedule deep work like it's an important meeting, because apparently my calendar only respects commitments. Small shifts, big difference.

One thing I used to swear by five years ago: the idea that 'hustle culture' was the only path to success. Laughing now. Turned out what I really needed was consistency, not intensity. Sometimes doing the minimum viable version of a habit and sticking with it beats burning out after three days.