What I should've been repeatedly told as a child:
your loserdom in school is a reflection of your genetically defined looks and people will continue looking down on you as an adult
you need to go to the highest reputation university you can get into and do a hard technical subject
the only way to avoid penury in the UK is by going into programming, big law, high finance, or medicine
What I was told:
just be nice to people
just go to the cheapest university, people will still know that you're smart
My parents should've given me more money. They should've paid for a private school to keep me away from the bottom 80% of society or, failing that, pointed me towards high brow activities, rather than leaving me to discover it sporadically after the age of 18.