No need to say 'thank you' unless you win ; )

I want to give some general life advice that's been very useful to me, so have some charge-free

General Life Advice

Stoicism / CBT

Psychotherapy, like CBT, is often used when treating depression. Modern CBT has its roots in ancient stoicism, from which it borrows many ideas and exercises.

Some links of interest.

A tiny handbook compiling stoic exercises. Perfect for impatient and/or pragmatical people.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Stoicism/comments/4bz797/practical_stoicism/
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5xf_-m7GMFYZDRKb2RKSzBQTnM/view

Not in the mood for reading? Hit play and get comfortable.
The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXcmkSqAqTI

More general links.
https://www.reddit.com/r/stoicism
http://media.psychology.tools/worksheets/english_us/unhelpful_thinking_styles_en-us.pdf

Frugality / Investing

Money and happiness have a direct relationship, but this is not proportional, due to the law of diminishing returns. Moreover, sudden changes in your happiness level will be eventually absorbed and you will return to your baseline level of satisfaction, due to hedonic adaptation.

What to do then with our disposable income? You can invest it, so you can earn more money in the future. If you decide so, the best possible way you can invest is through low-cost index funds. If you go far enough with the whole frugality + investing combo, you can become financially independent. This means your passive income is higher than your expenses, so you don't actually need additional income. i.e. You can quit your job, effectively trading money for time.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diminishing_returns
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedonic_treadmill
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwkjqGd8NC4
https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Getting_started
http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/

Linux / OS freedom

We spend a lot of our waking time interacting with computers, so picking OS is not a trivial decision. There are many reasons to pick Linux over Windows for your daily use, even without taking into account the spying efforts from Microsoft. Granted, there's still room for improvement when it comes to game availability: you can dual-boot for the time being if you are not ready for such a commitment.

My former partner introduced me to Linux when we started dating. Maybe that's why I was so motivated to dive in. Or maybe was all the Blue Screens of Death Windows had gifted me over the years.

If you want to learn from a cute girl, like I did, you can browse Nixie's youtube channels.

https://www.youtube.com/user/NixiePixel/playlists
https://www.youtube.com/user/nixiedoeslinux/playlists?sort=dd&view=50&shelf_id=5

If you prefer to learn from anonymous Linux users, go to

https://boards.4chan.org/g/fglt

and blame me for pointing you there if they are rude.

Or you can just google every question about Linux that comes up to your mind. If there's no answer to be found you're free to come after me and slaughter my cattle. i.e. You WILL find the answer.

I hope this covered it well enough.

Cheers and good luck in the GA and overall!