My hand is shaking as I type this.

I received a DM from a 20-year-old. He says that he is suicidal.

The reason? He has spent a lot of time into coding but he isn't able to keep up with the talented devs around him (esp. those who are younger than him).

Speaking to him on phone revealed more about his situation. He says that he *feels* that he is below average. Apparently, he doesn't want to have friends & a social life because he thinks that he will waste his time there.

Asking about his interests in movies and books, he says he watches movies related to entrepreneurship and reads self-improvement books only.

He is fine now. I have his consent to share it with you all anonymously.

My response: I can totally say that there is a lot of such people around us. If not suicidal, at least a bit frustrated and lost.

Why? Maybe because of the obsession of being successful, the obsession of being the best, the competition & forgetting the little joys of life.

In this era of "being the best", we need to stop chasing the perfect. Ever heard of "being over-ambitious"? Ever gave a thought why it's negative?

But how did we get here? How to get out of this? Everybody knows that the obvious answer to this is to have a balance.

I feel our education system and culture needs to promote "How to live life?" over "How to get a job?".

We need to *embrace the average* because that's what most of us are, right? Even if everyone levels up, the average is going to be the average with the new set of standards.

There is a lot of philosophies that I can go on and on. But here is a quick recap that we one should do.

• Stop trying to become a hyper-productive money-making problem-solving machine. Take time to decompress!

• Embrace the little things in life. Take a walk downtown, make friends, spend time just doing nothing, put people and family first.

• Pick a job that's fun. We do struggle everywhere and it's needed too. When it's not manageable take a break and rethink. Most of the time...

...you will come back with more energy but sometimes it's also okay to pick up something else that is more gratifying.

• I remember how bad the competition days were right after my high-school. To get into the best engineering colleges, students would give up their social life. Don't let that happen again to this coding world now. It's not a competition. We are not machines!

If you know anyone in a similar situation, please speak to them and try to help them.

If you are someone like that, speak to your closed ones and seek professional help if needed.

Keep calm & stay strong!