What has been your biggest mistake?
jobeyonekenobi: .Getting a degree.
  Honestly, I didn't need it. Contentious subject I know, but from the Hacker perspective, I have always relied on self learning in concentrated bursts to get me through - want a thorough understanding of TCP/IP? Spend 3 weekends going through the documentation and then playing around. Not 6 months in rigidly structured classes with no leeway for progression above and beyond what is in the curriculum.
 I could have got a job that paid my pocket money, whilst learning more and coming out with less debt.
 "but would this have paid off?" I hear everyone say.
My degree or time in education has absolutely no standing of where I am now, apart from the fact that I feel I could have been here by early twenties instead of mid twenties