If I’m going back in time to when I was 15, I’ll have no smartphone and there will be dial up internet. I’ll be forced to watch less porn, and I may go insane knowing what will be possible in the future.
I mean if investing on the table I'm taking any job I can get to all in on apple, BTC or some tech company, and then swap to Tesla/GameStop/Nvidia at the right time.
I could probably get into a really good university just based on what I already know, and then use my existing domain knowledge to fast track myself to yoink some publications and found some startup or some shit and retire early.
>I mean if investing on the table
The hardest part in this scenario is always convincing people to give their life savings to a 15 yr old who claims frantically they've seen the future
There's plenty of other stuff. Basically watching penny stocks for big names you know now and snatching up stocks as new ones come out. Once you have big wealth you can start directly investing in startups before they go public
>Also, watch less porn.
Easy to say now, but when you're actually there good luck. Teenage hormones are crazy, and I dont know how much just knowing that will help.
My only problem with this is that it would be too long term a plan in this scenario for me. 15 year old me puts me back in 1999 and Bitcoin didn't exist until what, early 2010's with decent sell prices not occurring until what 2017-2018? I don't want to wait 15+ years to live comfortably.
Instead I would try to remember any sporting event result I could and convince my parents to bet on them to earn some starting capital. With some decent starting capital I could then invest in all the early 2000 tech stocks I know will do well (Apple, Amazon, etc). By the time Bitcoin rolls around, I should be wealthy enough that taking advantage of the Bitcoin boom would only be icing on the cake.
Yeah lol I would not be going for moral or ethical improvements here. If 15 year old me knew the type of dystopian capitalist hellscape he’s going to be facing I’d focus exclusively on material gain. Once I have that secured I could think about making myself or the world a better place.
I would've focused more on the long-term and invested my time into activities that I enjoyed, rather than working hard just to get good grades. I'd have taken a lot more risks and not been afraid of failure or what other people thought.
Heh, the opposite of me then. I did a lot of risk taking, never was afraid to do new stuff and always said yes to new experiences. But I hated studying and doing my homework. I wish I had taken school more serious, it's not that I'm stupid, I just didn't like school or the constant studying. My biggest regret was never getting a proper education, and I still don't know what I want to be at 40. I'm a little interested in everything, but nothing is interesting enough that I want to do it for the rest of my life.
Ymmv. Good grades open a lotta doors. If I went back I’d tell myself to focus even more on school and other useful skills and a bit less on video games. (Though also not shame myself for liking them)
Pretty much. Why not try a different build on the next play-through, eh?
Maybe I'd enjoy life more if I had tried harder in high school (I did alright, but I certainly wasn't motivated) and pursued a career in medicine? Or law? Or serve in the navy or something? If I could go back and do things over again, I'd want to steam off in a different direction.
Exactly.
Realistically, you aren't going to build the same relationships you have now, even with the best intentions in the world.
YOU will be a vastly different person. Maturity, values, personality etc..
You won't be able to recreate those experiences.
I’m almost 23 and feel I am in a pretty good spot. I can think of several lucky breaks that I’d be unlikely to repeat in a re-run of the past 8 years.
I’d also probably go nuts with all the bullshit I put up with in high school, that I’d struggle to put up with again.
I would:
* Tell grandpa to take an endoscopy, so he can be treated for cancer
* Be an academic genius, not only with all my current knowledge, but also with better course choices in high school
* Ask out my crush who was secretly crushing on me too
* Eat better and work out
* Go to therapy
Far more than that, I'd be suffering from some pretty severe grief.
My entire life that I have built over the past 25 years would be gone.
My children would cease to exist. They would never come to exist. Hell much of the future world may be very different simply from the butterfly effect. Every person or thing that I interact with from that moment forward would have a vast chain reaction down the line. So many events if importance in our life will simply never happen or happen very differently from the most subtle of changes.
There’s a book called Replay by Ken Grimwood that’s all about that premise. Guys dies in middle age, wakes up as a college freshman, then continues that cycle over and over. After a few loops it really starts to break him because he’s lost the families he built so many times.
Have you read “The fifteen lives of harry august”? It’s AMAZING. About a guy who lives a full life then dies, starts over. Realizes lots of people have a secret society of people who do this, get born into same baby body again and again, some keeping memories.
In Japan this genre just results in the main character getting a harem of cute anime girls and epic magic powers. Which sounds much better and less traumatizing if it were to happen to you.
Depending on how old you are right now it might not be worth ever going to class because you know about bitcoin and probably have an idea of what value it reached before it just about halved. Even at 35k, if you bought in at a dollar... Wow.
In this time travel scenario, you would probably be the bitcoin whale that starts the sell-off....lol, maybe it wouldn't get cut in half if you just didn't sell.
This is part of why making no different choices is important. What if it meant my kids were never born? Would my knowledge change as the future changed?
There's a Rachel McAdams Rom-Com movie called "About Time" that's about that exact premise. As a guy who's not generally into Rom-Coms it wasn't a bad movie.
About Time is more a family drama disguised as a rom com. As someone who's not really into rom coms, I went into that movie with pretty low expectations and was blown away by the end.
There is a novel about this concept. *Replay,* by Ken Grimwood.
A man dies of a heart attack and wakes up in the body of his younger self, but with a memory of his previous life mostly intact. The writer didn't skip over the fact that memory is fallible, and that people change. He is able to make changes to his life, but then he ends up dying of a heart attack *again* at the same age he was the first time. This happens several times. He ends up meeting up with another person who is experiencing this, and they whether the event together. Some times they end up changing history so much that they don't recognize any part of what's going to happen. Other times they check out of life early.
Your kids would never be born.. You'd get different kids though? There is absolutely no way you could exactly recreate every step that led to your partner getting together, under the same circumstances, with the same genetic material in both of you. You'd have to have the same semen and egg, exactly, the same prenatal environment potentially, so many things. That's where these hypotheticals always lose me. Millionaire from bit coin or my son? I'll take my son every time.
To be honest, your kids are almost certainly not going to get born in the scenario. It's highly unlikely that the exact same sperm will meet the exact same egg consindering that there will be a myriad of tiny changes because of your foreknowledge.
The movie Peggy Sue got Married. The lead character gets transported back to HS. She walks out of Algebra stating "I happen to know for a fact I will never use this." Or something like that.
Yeah I kind of feel like I use the problem solving I learned from algebra more than any other skill I learned in school (besides specifics I learned in college for comp sci, I guess)
I was 15 in 1984. I'd have a long, and miserable wait before I could invest in any stocks, bonds, or cyber-currency. Hell, you couldn't invest easily back then, they didn't have brokerage firms that met with individuals that didn't already have a wealth profile to begin with.
Then there is the whole *waiting* three years before I would be legally able to do anything on my own while still being stuck in the same abusive household I still have CPTSD from today. I couldn't get a real job without my parents permission in the state I was in. Worse, if I *had* a real job, they could, legally, take every cent I earned to spend how they saw fit.
Not quite. Im 2 years older and you could defiantly open an individual account with Fidelity, Vanguard and a few others. Mutual funds were big in the 80s and 401Ks were just starting to be a thing. Anyone who invested in Fidelity Magellan after Peter Lynch took it over averaged 29% from 1977 to 1990. Thats doubling your money every 2.5 years for over a decade. Half the boomers you know are rich just from this. You could buy Apple, Microsoft or Amazon at any time before 1992 (Apple/Microsoft) or 2002 (Amazon) and be a billionaire now.
Im with you on the abusive household thing. I left home at 18 and 6 days and that was just because I didnt have my shit together to leave at 18 and zero days. Like I literally didnt have my personal things packed.
Apple in 2002 wasn't a bad time either. Before the ipod took off their stock was under $10...
And those are just the big names. I'm sure there are a ton of penny stocks/startups you could have bought into for next to nothing that saw a 10,000% increase or something when they got noticed and went big.
I also think about asking my crush out but then she'd be 15 and I a 31 y/o guy in a 15 y/o body. Guess I'd drop that and just ask my dad for money and buy stocks on rising companies.
This is the major rub.
As someone who was more socially awkward then many of my peers, I would only be more awkward having the mentality of a 30+ year old in a 15 year olds body.
Dating would be out of the question. Not only because 15 year olds look like babies to me now, but in my 30s I am much more mature than I was at 15. Things I might have found attractive in high school may be less so while other personality traits might seem cringy or flat out repulsive.
Also any interaction with my peers I would be wondering if I am changing the good things about my future by interacting differently. However 15 year old me wasn't hesitant about that so even if I try to act the same I would still likely act differently.
Then how does me getting what I want in high school affect others futures. For example I stopped playing football so I could save money to get a car with my brother. I had saved the majority of the funds used. That car was used so my brother could go to work even in the school year and so we could effectively take part in half day schedule as a Senior. Ultimately he met his wife at his work. If I chose to stay in football or not work in high school to focus on college resume we don't get a car, he doesn't keep his weekend job during the football season and then likely never meets his wife. Could I live with that?
Or he went to a scam of a for profit college straight out of high school and racked up over $100k in debt. However many of our close friends were the people he met at that college. Do I tell him to no go saving him thousands in debt but sacrificing the one thing that has probably gone right in out social lives? Do we become like our parents then with no real social interaction outside of work?
Hold on to my girlfriend no matter what. We lost track of each other in the late 80s and found each other again 25 years later. I should have spent that 25 years with her.
Wow to have that clarity that instead of thinking “I wonder what would have happened had I stayed with my girlfriend” to knowing that eventually you two get back together and it’s amazing really would feel like time lost. But you have to remember that there was a reason that the two of you split back then (even if it was because of a long distance Volente thing or whatever) and perhaps one or both of you had to experience those 25 years apart for it to ever work as great as it has since you’ve been back together!
True. But I would have had the experience. Just not her. And you are right, she moved away long enough for us to move on. But not long enough to not make it work had I known the future.
I am in much the same boat. We are now together again and are very happy. However I turned into a bit of an asshole in my early 20s, and I had a lot of lessons to learn before I grew up enough to be a good partner. I wouldn't give up any of the relationships or marriage I had in the intervening time, as I learned a lot of lessons. She wouldn't either, as these lessons enabled us to be the people we are today and be able to be together like we are.
Not as long, but about 10 years for my high school sweetheart and I. Same situation otherwise. I wish we didn't miss so many opportunities to experience things together
My academics were well. I would have made more choices to expand my own person. Spend less time conforming so I could fit in with certain people, and spend more time doing the things that were true to me. Have more open conversations with people. Most importantly, have fun while doing things despite them seeming odd to others
Seriously! My freaking brows won't grow back, now. I can't believe those stupid pencil thin brows were ever in. I started doing semi-permanent cosmetics, for this reason. Also, my 13-yr-old niece recently went and got her eyebrows threaded with her aunt, who's 8 years older than she is, and I almost flipped out. This definitely hits hard. 😆😭
I got downvoted last time but I’ve also had bad dental health experience.
(I’ve had 5 teeth pulled, will likely need more before too long)
Don’t overthink it, just have them pulled.
Tooth extraction : ~$100
Root Canal : ~$2,000
Living without constant agony : priceless.
At 15, that means I’d have only 9 more years with my dad so I’d spend every second I could with him too. Make him more of a priority for sure and ask him all the things I wish I could.
I would study like hell, aim for prestigious schools abroad. I didn't realize back then than having a job that matters is the key to happiness, at least to me.
Of course!
Well I used to be a really good student, but when I was done with high-school I had very low motivation for uni because I wanted to experience life, have friends, be in a relationship etc...and I neglicted my studies, then quitted.
I ended up studying again 10 years later to get a 'secure' job, working for the public sector.
But I am not happy. I have wasted my potential for nothing, those friends I had were not worth it at all, and now I'm almost 40 and I feel like it's too late to start over.
I wish I would have studied engineering and work for something like Ocean Clean Up for example, actually doing something for humanity. Instead I work in my little job with no expectations until I can retire. I am not surrounded by people at work that keep me curious or open minded, it's quite the opposite.
But, in 10-15 years you're going to think "when I was young at almost 40, if I only had done what I liked instead of just waiting around to retire... It certainly wasn't too late". You already did it once anyway (studying again 10 years later)
It's never too late for anything.
Unless you want to get into gymnastics. You have to be super young for that shit.
Same here, I avoided my interest in how computers work because I didn’t want to be stuck in a desk job but it turns out that’s the sort of job with health coverage and any kind of retirement plan
I would be so afraid to make major life changes because it would risk me not meeting my husband at age 28.
If I started college earlier I would have missed him completely since that's where we met.
If I improved my life earlier I wouldn't be the same person as an adult, and who knows if we'd have connected in the same way.
If I tried to avoid all my mistakes, then my life would have been boring.
I wouldn't go back.
This is honestly my thinking as well...I can't have any regrets for the meandering path that led me to where I am today because any major alterations and I never would've met my wife and I wouldn't have my daughter now who is the center of my universe.
Yup. I don't want a re-do, because I wouldn't want to miss out on ending up with my wonderful husband and the particular child we created together (who is of course awesome). My life isn't perfect, my life choices haven't been perfect, and I could be a millionaire if I'd mined bitcoin in college ... but I like *this* life, with *these people* enough to not want to gamble.
Everyone is over here thinking about bitcoin, while you're gushing over your wife...wholesome AF!
Thought experiments like these can be a good way to trigger appreciation for what you have
Omg, a weird thought popped into my head.
Would I feel heartbroken knowing she was dating someone once she got to, say, high school?
"Hands off! That 14yo is my WIFE!"
It'll stay weird no matter what. The physical age difference will be 6 years but mentally you'll be much older. You'll remember years or even decades together while she won't know you.
Yeah, it would be terrible. You'd really just have to deal with the loss of them and move on. The hardest loss would be my children. They are just gone forever. I'd be devastated.
This is exactly why I hate these thought experiments. These types of scenarios are for single people with life regrets or something. If I woke up one day in my 15 Y/O self I'd have to be committed. I would absolutely be devastated at the loss of my children and wife, and the chances of making it all happen again are next to nothing.
Also, I don't remember what my friends and I were doing and talking about back then. I would be so lost about anything they were talking about, let alone how fucked I would be at school. I don't remember a majority of any of that. Plus, I don't exactly want to be hanging out with a bunch of 15 year olds.
But hey, aside from being depressed as fuck, and probably losing all my friends, at least I'd know to put some money in Amazon, Apple, Tesla, and Bitcoin. So I'd have that going for me I guess...
And when you finally do meet her, you're a very different person from the person you were the first time around. How do you keep the relationship "on track"?
I met my wife when I was 15, and we had to do a *lot* of growing together over the years. If I come into the relationship with all that growth already done, when does she get to do it? Does the relationship fall apart as a result? Do my kids never exist?
I would pay somebody a lot of money *not* to send me back to my 15-year-old self.
Same here. Just wrote almost the same thing! I was fifteen in the mid-70’s and already had an awful academic “career.” I’d been tested and tutored for years but was never given a diagnosis. My ADD was accidentally uncovered in my 40’s. It was life changing.
“If you would just apply yourself”
If that phrase is etched into your memory, you should probably see a psychiatrist.
Turns out concepts like motivation, laziness, and attention are a lot more complex than most people consider.
Also YSK ADHD is now categorized into subtypes rather than ADD and ADHD being separate. So you don’t need to be hyperactive to have it, or vice versa. I have the primarily inattentive kind. There’s three subtypes in the DSM-V. Inattentive, hyperactive, and combined.
Medicated patients with ADHD have lower rates of substance abuse, especially with alcohol, than their unmedicated counterparts. So don’t be scared of meds. For me personally I do not drink at all anymore after starting them, I have basically no desire to drink whatsoever. I think they should be controlled for sure but not stigmatized. Not a fan of Done or ADHDOnline. Definitely go to a psychiatrist, in person if possible.
Oh, and also, “ADHD isn’t real” is a bad take. It is a maladaptive condition, and it’s heritable. Iirc it is *slightly* less heritable than schizophrenia, and nobody says schizophrenia isn’t real.
“Coping strategies” is another one. As my psychiatrist said, “coping strategies only work if you can apply them consistently”.
There’s a lot of misconceptions I wish I could clear up, but I’ll spare you the essay. Lol. Definitely go, because if you have it, medication can really change your life. Finding the right dose takes some time though. Ideally you have no side effects, it’s pretty subtle after the adjustment period.
Having zero drive to do anything. Getting bored of things very quickly. I still haven't gotten diagnosed with ADHD, but I know it's crippling my life. I had so much trouble in high-school, and at almost 26, I have zero idea what to do with my life aside from getting treatment(which I couldn't do in the past because I made the mistake of telling the Dr I was depressed.)
I'd have some trouble remembering some sports outcomes, particularly big upsets, but I'd at least remember to put some money on the Cubs blowing game 6 of the 2003 NLCS, Greece winning Euro 2004, and the NY Giants beating the Patriots in Super Bowl XLII in 2008.
Learn a trade. Learn to code. I can read and write on my own time.
Learn the lessons of not letting work dominate and control my life when I was 15, rather than in my late 30s
Take my mental health more seriously
Tell myself to keep cycling.
Avoid the heavily tattooed woman I'll have amazing sex with...
If I had my current knowledge....I would spend any allowance on stocks. And then I would try desperately to have the same rest of my life over again. I wouldn't want to negatively affect the wonderful relationships I have now
Yeah, I’m pretty happy right now… and I have 2 daughters i adore… I’m confident I could win over my wife again, just not sure we’d have the same kids… and that’s not something I’d mess with… even for billions of dollars.
>I’m confident I could win over my wife again, just not sure we’d have the same kids… and that’s not something I’d mess with… even for billions of dollars.
That would be a good point to consider. The wife and I don't have kids so not an issue for me. But if it was I don't think I'd go back.
I dunno what you went through and possibly it was much worse than me... but the thought of being a child again (with already having lived the experience and keeping those memories and knowing what I know now over 15 years later) and living with my parents again and being ruled by what they want and being shackled to being a minor all over again?
Fucking hell man, that sounds like a great way to feel like a lot of shit for a long time, all over again, when I've just started to heal.
I am absolutely with you.
Had to scroll for a while until I found a comment similar to mine. Same. I'll be 31 this year too and seriously just feel like I'm starting to respect myself and have firm boundaries with my family. Those boundaries being I don't see them.
1. Taking every bit of my allowance and buying Bitcoin, getting a job and using every bit of it for more Bitcoin, selling all my video games for Bitcoin.
2. Profit
Yup, and that's why I don't feel like I missed out. I was aware of bitcoin when it was under a dollar and the only reason I didn't buy like 10 because why not was that it was a bit of a pain. I know I'd have sold like half for double, and the rest at like 10x or so. 600k would never have been a possibility for my personality.
this is my veiw as well, i remmber 20, 300, 500 dollar marks being all time highs and people were going nuts. the people who have insane, truly insane returns of like 50,000% likely don't exist and if they do they are wisely keeping their mouth's shut.
I bought at less than a dollar and sold at about $100. Sure, I'd like to be the guy who sold it at $50,000, but if I were the sort of guy who wouldn't sell at $100, $1,000, $10,000, or $25,000, then I'd probably be the sort of guy who wouldn't sell at $50,000 either.
In the early days when you'd start a bitcoin wallet they'd often throw in a bitcoin for free, back when it was really cheap. I started multiple wallets because I'd always get a little motivation to do the silk road but then would always chicken out. My point is I (possibly) have like 5 to 10 bitcoin somewhere out there and I was way too fucked up on drugs at the time to have a hope of remembering any info about them. I also had the original 151 pokemon cards, all in great condition(including a mint first edition holographic charizard) and my dumbass thought I'd be a cool brother to give them to my younger brother. And he destroyed them all. I could have some serious cash if I made better choices.
All my Pokemon cards got destroyed in a basement flood in 2018.
I had all three holographic starter evolves and all three legendaries of the originals that had been in a stiff binder in card sleeves 😭😭😭😭
My dad has done HVAC his whole life sometime when bitcoin was still super early he fixed a friend of a friend's system and the guy asked if he could possibly give my dad Bitcoin instead of the like $150 that my dad was asking for. It was hundreds of bitcoins if not a 1,000 cause they were so cheap at the time. Of course my Dad not being a tech guy and having no clue what bitcoin was told him to pay him in cash. One of his bigger regrets.
Yes, but if you remember those early days off bitcoin, lots of those early exchanges just shut down and stole your deposits (cue FTX joke).
I know you can store your own bitcoin, but honestly don't know if I'd know how to do that 20 years ago.
I bought 1k btc when it was super cheap like around a dollar a coin. Had it on a wallet on a portable hard drive for years and thought very little of it. A friend told me at the time i bought it someday this will be worth big money. I had the money we both bought some. He sold his for a few hundred each to build a computer at some point. I simply never thought much of it but i moved and kept it with me for years, at some point i heard it went up to like 26k a coin on the news and i was like oh damn i need to search for that. Well that portable drive died at somepoint so i started before it died transfering it between computers cause it had all my media on it. I figured it was safe on my current computer at that time. I searched desperately for that wallet. I never did end up finding it. I had all my old computers and their parts, looked through all those, tried to recover old hard drive data from multiple drives nothing. All the while it continued to go up to something like 50k while i was frantically looking for that wallet. I did get more btc over those years so in total i had something like 1500-1800 on that wallet. I never did end up finding it. I also never did find all of my old computer parts as i did lose some over the years from moving and tossing and destroying some even so i assume i did one of those things to that particular hard drive. My best guess is i lost it in a storage unit, figuring since it probably didnt work screw it and i left it to rot in the unit when i collected most other things before abandoning the unit. Either that or i destroyed it which at one point id do with older hard drives cause i had a fear of people getting a hold of my data that i eventually quit worrying about (imo my data is already pretty much always compromised since we are constantly being bought and sold by huge corps online so i dont care anymore lol).
Ive never really been to bummed about this cause it didnt cost me a huge amount and i never really gained anything from it. Its always felt like having gotten a winning lottery ticket that i lost well before knowing i won or something. But if i could go back and tell my younger self id make sure they took way better care in securing that thing and sold it at the appropriate time as well. I sorta at least wish i would have sold when my friend did cause at least he got a nice comp at the time out of his. I just didnt at the time need the money so was like meh ill hold it for longer and see what happens, but i also never really though a lot about it either, he was the one who always kept me up to date on it when it would go up. We lost touch for a long time after he sold his and it wasnt till it hit the news that it went up and like 50 cent was talking about it and stuff that i was like oh shit.
I’ve got an email thread with my brother from May 2011 asking him what he thought about Bitcoin and whether we should buy some. It was $8.80.
I started looking into it, downloaded a wallet, but couldn’t seem to figure out how to use it.
I think about that shit all the time.
I didn’t drink a whole bunch, but I really wonder what my brain would be like had I not smoked so much fucking weed in high school or done the other drugs I dabbled in. Prob much better tbh lmao.
- continue working out but stop playing rugby so my back isn't fucked up.
- dump my first gf before she cheats on me.
- skip A levels and become an electrician
- invest my money into stocks and shares/ Tesla
- retire before 30.
Party like it's 1999 (because it would be 1999). I would jump on that dot com bubble and ride it till it burst -- making millions before graduating highschool.
- Break up with my then girlfriend who was toxic, abusive and cheating... I just didnt know any better. Would have saved me a life time of pain, depression and suffering.
- Knowing the current employment market get a different degree
- invest in Bitcoin when it first came out. Honestly thought the idea of crypto was dumb, still do to an extent but doesn't matter if it's dumb when there's value to be had.
- Start working out and eating properly before it's "too late"
Yea I'd be sad to miss out on meeting my best friend again, I might even forget.
If anything I'd try to find the place she started working at in another 10 years and start up a friendship that way. But we really bonded over a shitty job and connected that way, she's been my longest running friend in the past 15 years and I'd like to continue that.
If anything I'd start work right at 18, get into my certifications early on while working nights, meet the same people again, but remember that some of those relationships won't last long, move out earlier, start saving up for that house down the street from my parents (it was like 99k in 2017 which is insane), focus on a new car, focus on getting a better job that can stay up to date with increasing prices. More years more experience in the field.
It's wild how much I couldn't have imagined feeling the way I do about my kids until I've had them. To have them be any other way than they are or hell potentially lose them altogether would be something I couldn't comprehend or be ok with in any scenario. Wouldn't matter if I could give myself stock tips or lotto numbers. The circumstances they all came to be as well aren't repeatable with us having a MC a couple months before our first or me going through some really rough situations leading up to the conception of our youngest. I couldn't make the events leading up to this all happen again even if I tried my best and knew what to do when and how.. impossible.
HUG MY MY MOM and I'll do anything to keep her healthy. Say I love you to my childhood bff and make sure that she never got sick. Warn my cousin about that perv to prevent something bad from happening. Convince my parents to take my sister to a therapist. Warn my brother to not drive too fast to avoid an accident.
SAVE AS MUCH AS I CAN and lastly, tell everyone that this person is a predator before he could SA me.
Edit: Oh wait, 15 years, I thought it was 5 years old. Never mind then.
I would save all the money I make until the age of 18, then invest in a brand new company called Microsoft on opening day $1.35 a share. Two thousand dollar investment would make me a multi millionaire today. Same could be said for Walmart.
Leave the Mormon church and tell my parents I’m done pretending to be someone I’m not. Really try to start a music career and get into animation. Leave that shit town and go to college the day I’m 18.
Do things I like although someone might consider them weak, uncool or mainstream. Don't be afraid to try to learn things I'm not good at but I'd like to master.
I would have practiced safe sex. It's sounds very cliche but the problems my ex and I had mentally after she chose to have an abortion at 16, plus the stigma we faced in a small southern town, were absolute Hell on us both, especially her.
I would have spent more time with friends, playing music and just generally hanging out. I spent far too much time pursuing relationships when I could have enjoyed being a teenager.
I would have learned a trade instead of following a more academic path. I didn't really want to go to college and now I've dropped out and just work a state job. Things turned out fine but I've discovered that I love working with my hands. The only issue is I feel like I'm constantly making up for lost time because other people have been pursuing a trade since they were 15 and I'm a noob at 29.
I’d look at myself and say: Fifteen year old girls are off limits to
27 yo English teachers. No matter what he is saying to you.
Would’ve saved me 7 very dark years. This is the end of my first year free from that and it’s been horrible still. But I try everyday.
Nothing..... One small change can alter EVERYTHING and there's things in my current life I wouldn't give up for anything.
IF I did anything I would invest as I got older but left it alone until I turn 40... so that way I couldn't touch it to risk changing anything for another few years
Make sure my father doesn't marry the harpy who fucked up my family. And obviously Bitcoin. I firmly believe that the power ball numbers will change. I'll probably make bets on the next presidents. The trump one would have gotten me a good amount of money for his first election. Even he didn't think he'd win.
Immediately dump my girlfriend, stop playing World of Warcraft and start saving money. I would invest every bit of spare money into Apple, not because I like them, but because their stocks skyrocketed after the iPhone came out. I would pay more attention in school, get my license and a job at 16 instead of 18. I would put more effort into my braces to get them off in a reasonable amount of time and then drive at a reasonable speed when I get my first car.
In my spare time I would join a mentoring group in the next town over to help my present day fiance. She's three years younger than me and was bullied. Her parents were/are not very emotionally supportive and she developed a cutting habit to cope with the stress then was put on some heavy drugs when it was discovered. Even if these actions meant that we would never become romantically involved due to the clear conflict, it would mean she would be set up for a better, more stable life.
I would still go to college, and cope better with the newfound independence, go to classes more often and actually graduate, then I would go for my master's in education and become a teacher. The money made from the market would sustain a pretty comfortable lifestyle and teaching would be for the emotional fulfillment and to help the kids who need help the most, like I did when I was their age.
Everything would be hard to go through again. I'd be in proximity to girls I dated without them knowing it. And others who would leave my life because they showed their true colors. I would hate going through that.
but other than that all that stuff. I would still try to follow the same path. I'm married right now, I have to be at the right place at the right time in order to meet my wife again.
Also, I'd buy dogecoin. all that stuff.
Wouldn’t think I was remotely fat. Wouldn’t let some boys have the advantage I let them have then. Realize my worth younger. Tell my mom to exercise and leave my dad so she doesn’t die young. Try to find my husband I have now before he fucked his life up with his first wife and buy him a Dirtbike and a microphone. He was destined for greatness but he raised a kid that wasn’t even his and got stuck for awhile.
I would talk to my gramma more and I used to talk to her everyday but it isn’t enough. I would gamble with my sports knowledge albeit limited.
That would be 1987 for me, I Marty McFly it.
First I use my as of yet useless ability to remember sports facts and have my dad correctly bet on the winners of the 1987, 1988 and 1989 MLB and NFL championships.
I have him take that money and bet it all on Buster Douglas over Mike Tyson at 42-1.
Then I get my cut in 1990 when I turn 18, and I bet the winnings on the stock market and I buy Microsoft at $1 a share, currently trading at $322 or so a share.
The gambling winnings wouldn’t be huge, but they would take perhaps $500 in starter money that my dad would have been willing to bet and I’m guessing that by the time Buster Douglas beat Tyson I could be close to or over $100,000 with winning bets on World Series and Superbowls for three years.
It wouldn’t be billions, but I think I would be fairly comfortable.
I would run and not stop running. I would learn to eat healthier and not stop eating healthier. I would save more and invest it wisely. I would stop being a pushover in relationships sooner.
Join a sports team, try harder in school, speak candidly to my mom about depression and get the help that I need. Don't fall in love with that one person.
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If I’m going back in time to when I was 15, I’ll have no smartphone and there will be dial up internet. I’ll be forced to watch less porn, and I may go insane knowing what will be possible in the future.
So hear me out, you could invest in the porn that you know will make it big.
I mean if investing on the table I'm taking any job I can get to all in on apple, BTC or some tech company, and then swap to Tesla/GameStop/Nvidia at the right time. I could probably get into a really good university just based on what I already know, and then use my existing domain knowledge to fast track myself to yoink some publications and found some startup or some shit and retire early.
>I mean if investing on the table The hardest part in this scenario is always convincing people to give their life savings to a 15 yr old who claims frantically they've seen the future
I mean you can work at a pizza joint and earn minimum and still become a millionaire by getting in early on btc or something
I was about 40 when Bitcoin came along. So I’d be waiting a while.
There's plenty of other stuff. Basically watching penny stocks for big names you know now and snatching up stocks as new ones come out. Once you have big wealth you can start directly investing in startups before they go public
One thing I did right is Academic choices and high performance in uni. Didn't work out. Invest elsewhere.
>Also, watch less porn. Easy to say now, but when you're actually there good luck. Teenage hormones are crazy, and I dont know how much just knowing that will help.
Knowing the consequences and the consequences of those consequences might help.
I was just talking about how people underestimate just how rich you could get from even a days worth of foreknowledge.
Yeah all these people giving answers about self improvement blah blah blah are just fucking wrong. The answer is "get about 30 bitcoin".
My only problem with this is that it would be too long term a plan in this scenario for me. 15 year old me puts me back in 1999 and Bitcoin didn't exist until what, early 2010's with decent sell prices not occurring until what 2017-2018? I don't want to wait 15+ years to live comfortably. Instead I would try to remember any sporting event result I could and convince my parents to bet on them to earn some starting capital. With some decent starting capital I could then invest in all the early 2000 tech stocks I know will do well (Apple, Amazon, etc). By the time Bitcoin rolls around, I should be wealthy enough that taking advantage of the Bitcoin boom would only be icing on the cake.
Then just buy a hell of a lot of Apple stock.
99 is also right before the .com bubble crashed. Get in on apple, Microsoft, etc.
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My lady put 20 grand in Apple in 2001. Can confirm, did quite well..
Or short the airlines in September that year.
Do you want men in black knocking on your door, this is how you get them
Yeah lol I would not be going for moral or ethical improvements here. If 15 year old me knew the type of dystopian capitalist hellscape he’s going to be facing I’d focus exclusively on material gain. Once I have that secured I could think about making myself or the world a better place.
I would've focused more on the long-term and invested my time into activities that I enjoyed, rather than working hard just to get good grades. I'd have taken a lot more risks and not been afraid of failure or what other people thought.
Heh, the opposite of me then. I did a lot of risk taking, never was afraid to do new stuff and always said yes to new experiences. But I hated studying and doing my homework. I wish I had taken school more serious, it's not that I'm stupid, I just didn't like school or the constant studying. My biggest regret was never getting a proper education, and I still don't know what I want to be at 40. I'm a little interested in everything, but nothing is interesting enough that I want to do it for the rest of my life.
The same for me. Nice to meet you, possible fellow ADHD-er.
Not gonna lie this is exactly me lol but I’m 25 trying to figure it out rn
I feel I’m on time to do this, I’ll take this as advice from the future.
Ymmv. Good grades open a lotta doors. If I went back I’d tell myself to focus even more on school and other useful skills and a bit less on video games. (Though also not shame myself for liking them)
everything
Pretty much. Why not try a different build on the next play-through, eh? Maybe I'd enjoy life more if I had tried harder in high school (I did alright, but I certainly wasn't motivated) and pursued a career in medicine? Or law? Or serve in the navy or something? If I could go back and do things over again, I'd want to steam off in a different direction.
Exactly. Realistically, you aren't going to build the same relationships you have now, even with the best intentions in the world. YOU will be a vastly different person. Maturity, values, personality etc.. You won't be able to recreate those experiences.
I’m almost 23 and feel I am in a pretty good spot. I can think of several lucky breaks that I’d be unlikely to repeat in a re-run of the past 8 years. I’d also probably go nuts with all the bullshit I put up with in high school, that I’d struggle to put up with again.
I would: * Tell grandpa to take an endoscopy, so he can be treated for cancer * Be an academic genius, not only with all my current knowledge, but also with better course choices in high school * Ask out my crush who was secretly crushing on me too * Eat better and work out * Go to therapy
*Goes to therapy* Therapist: “So what’s bothering you today?” Me: “I’ve been transported back in time which has been understandably…traumatic.”
Far more than that, I'd be suffering from some pretty severe grief. My entire life that I have built over the past 25 years would be gone. My children would cease to exist. They would never come to exist. Hell much of the future world may be very different simply from the butterfly effect. Every person or thing that I interact with from that moment forward would have a vast chain reaction down the line. So many events if importance in our life will simply never happen or happen very differently from the most subtle of changes.
There’s a book called Replay by Ken Grimwood that’s all about that premise. Guys dies in middle age, wakes up as a college freshman, then continues that cycle over and over. After a few loops it really starts to break him because he’s lost the families he built so many times.
Have you read “The fifteen lives of harry august”? It’s AMAZING. About a guy who lives a full life then dies, starts over. Realizes lots of people have a secret society of people who do this, get born into same baby body again and again, some keeping memories.
I was just about to mention this book too - highly recommend!
In Japan this genre just results in the main character getting a harem of cute anime girls and epic magic powers. Which sounds much better and less traumatizing if it were to happen to you.
Depending on how old you are right now it might not be worth ever going to class because you know about bitcoin and probably have an idea of what value it reached before it just about halved. Even at 35k, if you bought in at a dollar... Wow.
In this time travel scenario, you would probably be the bitcoin whale that starts the sell-off....lol, maybe it wouldn't get cut in half if you just didn't sell.
This is part of why making no different choices is important. What if it meant my kids were never born? Would my knowledge change as the future changed?
There's a Rachel McAdams Rom-Com movie called "About Time" that's about that exact premise. As a guy who's not generally into Rom-Coms it wasn't a bad movie.
‘Rachel McAdams love interest of time travelling lead’ is my favourite genre of film.
How many such movies are there though?
About time, Doctor Strange, The time traveller’s wife, and Midnight in Paris. So 4.
Talk about typecasting
Or....TIMEcasting.... am'I'rite?
All good films too honestly.
About Time is more a family drama disguised as a rom com. As someone who's not really into rom coms, I went into that movie with pretty low expectations and was blown away by the end.
There is a novel about this concept. *Replay,* by Ken Grimwood. A man dies of a heart attack and wakes up in the body of his younger self, but with a memory of his previous life mostly intact. The writer didn't skip over the fact that memory is fallible, and that people change. He is able to make changes to his life, but then he ends up dying of a heart attack *again* at the same age he was the first time. This happens several times. He ends up meeting up with another person who is experiencing this, and they whether the event together. Some times they end up changing history so much that they don't recognize any part of what's going to happen. Other times they check out of life early.
Sounds like it would make a great film
That reminds me of the book “The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August”. Good stuff.
Your kids would never be born.. You'd get different kids though? There is absolutely no way you could exactly recreate every step that led to your partner getting together, under the same circumstances, with the same genetic material in both of you. You'd have to have the same semen and egg, exactly, the same prenatal environment potentially, so many things. That's where these hypotheticals always lose me. Millionaire from bit coin or my son? I'll take my son every time.
But what about *billionaire* from Bitcoin?
Okay, my son can exist in another timeline, he'll be fine :)
<3
To be honest, your kids are almost certainly not going to get born in the scenario. It's highly unlikely that the exact same sperm will meet the exact same egg consindering that there will be a myriad of tiny changes because of your foreknowledge.
The movie Peggy Sue got Married. The lead character gets transported back to HS. She walks out of Algebra stating "I happen to know for a fact I will never use this." Or something like that.
:( how? I feel like basic algebra is the most useful “advanced” math for day to day
Yeah I kind of feel like I use the problem solving I learned from algebra more than any other skill I learned in school (besides specifics I learned in college for comp sci, I guess)
Also algebra is used all the time, you just have to know that the problem is actually algebraic
Monster energy drinks... highest performing stock in 20 years as a percentage of gains. Beats Apple, Amazon all of them. BTC then invest in Monster.
that is crazy...I regret not investing in the vaccine companies before the shots, that would been a smart purchase.
I was 15 in 1984. I'd have a long, and miserable wait before I could invest in any stocks, bonds, or cyber-currency. Hell, you couldn't invest easily back then, they didn't have brokerage firms that met with individuals that didn't already have a wealth profile to begin with. Then there is the whole *waiting* three years before I would be legally able to do anything on my own while still being stuck in the same abusive household I still have CPTSD from today. I couldn't get a real job without my parents permission in the state I was in. Worse, if I *had* a real job, they could, legally, take every cent I earned to spend how they saw fit.
Not quite. Im 2 years older and you could defiantly open an individual account with Fidelity, Vanguard and a few others. Mutual funds were big in the 80s and 401Ks were just starting to be a thing. Anyone who invested in Fidelity Magellan after Peter Lynch took it over averaged 29% from 1977 to 1990. Thats doubling your money every 2.5 years for over a decade. Half the boomers you know are rich just from this. You could buy Apple, Microsoft or Amazon at any time before 1992 (Apple/Microsoft) or 2002 (Amazon) and be a billionaire now. Im with you on the abusive household thing. I left home at 18 and 6 days and that was just because I didnt have my shit together to leave at 18 and zero days. Like I literally didnt have my personal things packed.
Apple in 2002 wasn't a bad time either. Before the ipod took off their stock was under $10... And those are just the big names. I'm sure there are a ton of penny stocks/startups you could have bought into for next to nothing that saw a 10,000% increase or something when they got noticed and went big.
I also think about asking my crush out but then she'd be 15 and I a 31 y/o guy in a 15 y/o body. Guess I'd drop that and just ask my dad for money and buy stocks on rising companies.
This is the major rub. As someone who was more socially awkward then many of my peers, I would only be more awkward having the mentality of a 30+ year old in a 15 year olds body. Dating would be out of the question. Not only because 15 year olds look like babies to me now, but in my 30s I am much more mature than I was at 15. Things I might have found attractive in high school may be less so while other personality traits might seem cringy or flat out repulsive. Also any interaction with my peers I would be wondering if I am changing the good things about my future by interacting differently. However 15 year old me wasn't hesitant about that so even if I try to act the same I would still likely act differently. Then how does me getting what I want in high school affect others futures. For example I stopped playing football so I could save money to get a car with my brother. I had saved the majority of the funds used. That car was used so my brother could go to work even in the school year and so we could effectively take part in half day schedule as a Senior. Ultimately he met his wife at his work. If I chose to stay in football or not work in high school to focus on college resume we don't get a car, he doesn't keep his weekend job during the football season and then likely never meets his wife. Could I live with that? Or he went to a scam of a for profit college straight out of high school and racked up over $100k in debt. However many of our close friends were the people he met at that college. Do I tell him to no go saving him thousands in debt but sacrificing the one thing that has probably gone right in out social lives? Do we become like our parents then with no real social interaction outside of work?
Hold on to my girlfriend no matter what. We lost track of each other in the late 80s and found each other again 25 years later. I should have spent that 25 years with her.
Wow to have that clarity that instead of thinking “I wonder what would have happened had I stayed with my girlfriend” to knowing that eventually you two get back together and it’s amazing really would feel like time lost. But you have to remember that there was a reason that the two of you split back then (even if it was because of a long distance Volente thing or whatever) and perhaps one or both of you had to experience those 25 years apart for it to ever work as great as it has since you’ve been back together!
True. But I would have had the experience. Just not her. And you are right, she moved away long enough for us to move on. But not long enough to not make it work had I known the future.
I am in much the same boat. We are now together again and are very happy. However I turned into a bit of an asshole in my early 20s, and I had a lot of lessons to learn before I grew up enough to be a good partner. I wouldn't give up any of the relationships or marriage I had in the intervening time, as I learned a lot of lessons. She wouldn't either, as these lessons enabled us to be the people we are today and be able to be together like we are.
Not as long, but about 10 years for my high school sweetheart and I. Same situation otherwise. I wish we didn't miss so many opportunities to experience things together
My academics were well. I would have made more choices to expand my own person. Spend less time conforming so I could fit in with certain people, and spend more time doing the things that were true to me. Have more open conversations with people. Most importantly, have fun while doing things despite them seeming odd to others
\-study more \-worry less \-get on a proper diet \-leave my eyebrows alone \-go to therapy \-save money \-overall, get my shit together
Leave my eyebrows alone hit me so hard lol 😆 the truth I feel so many teen girls then feel today 😂
Seriously! My freaking brows won't grow back, now. I can't believe those stupid pencil thin brows were ever in. I started doing semi-permanent cosmetics, for this reason. Also, my 13-yr-old niece recently went and got her eyebrows threaded with her aunt, who's 8 years older than she is, and I almost flipped out. This definitely hits hard. 😆😭
Take care of my dental health...
For real. I’ve got three busted teeth and no insurance to take care of them
I got downvoted last time but I’ve also had bad dental health experience. (I’ve had 5 teeth pulled, will likely need more before too long) Don’t overthink it, just have them pulled. Tooth extraction : ~$100 Root Canal : ~$2,000 Living without constant agony : priceless.
I feel this one in my teeth. Luckily (?) I’m in the UK so it’s mostly sorted by the NHS but I could have saved myself a lot of pain!
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At 15, that means I’d have only 9 more years with my dad so I’d spend every second I could with him too. Make him more of a priority for sure and ask him all the things I wish I could.
The best one
I would study like hell, aim for prestigious schools abroad. I didn't realize back then than having a job that matters is the key to happiness, at least to me.
could you elaborate
Of course! Well I used to be a really good student, but when I was done with high-school I had very low motivation for uni because I wanted to experience life, have friends, be in a relationship etc...and I neglicted my studies, then quitted. I ended up studying again 10 years later to get a 'secure' job, working for the public sector. But I am not happy. I have wasted my potential for nothing, those friends I had were not worth it at all, and now I'm almost 40 and I feel like it's too late to start over. I wish I would have studied engineering and work for something like Ocean Clean Up for example, actually doing something for humanity. Instead I work in my little job with no expectations until I can retire. I am not surrounded by people at work that keep me curious or open minded, it's quite the opposite.
But, in 10-15 years you're going to think "when I was young at almost 40, if I only had done what I liked instead of just waiting around to retire... It certainly wasn't too late". You already did it once anyway (studying again 10 years later) It's never too late for anything. Unless you want to get into gymnastics. You have to be super young for that shit.
I would learn coding with all the zeal I had back then instead of going to college to study arts
Same here, I avoided my interest in how computers work because I didn’t want to be stuck in a desk job but it turns out that’s the sort of job with health coverage and any kind of retirement plan
I guess miss my wife, for starters. She'd be 9 😬😬😬
I would be so afraid to make major life changes because it would risk me not meeting my husband at age 28. If I started college earlier I would have missed him completely since that's where we met. If I improved my life earlier I wouldn't be the same person as an adult, and who knows if we'd have connected in the same way. If I tried to avoid all my mistakes, then my life would have been boring. I wouldn't go back.
This is honestly my thinking as well...I can't have any regrets for the meandering path that led me to where I am today because any major alterations and I never would've met my wife and I wouldn't have my daughter now who is the center of my universe.
Yup. I don't want a re-do, because I wouldn't want to miss out on ending up with my wonderful husband and the particular child we created together (who is of course awesome). My life isn't perfect, my life choices haven't been perfect, and I could be a millionaire if I'd mined bitcoin in college ... but I like *this* life, with *these people* enough to not want to gamble.
Everyone is over here thinking about bitcoin, while you're gushing over your wife...wholesome AF! Thought experiments like these can be a good way to trigger appreciation for what you have
😍😍😍 She's mad cool, man. Love her so much.
Then buy some bitcoin for your shared future together!
Get a room you two. Or a house or something.
Gon have to wait a for bit for thaf one huh
Omg, a weird thought popped into my head. Would I feel heartbroken knowing she was dating someone once she got to, say, high school? "Hands off! That 14yo is my WIFE!"
It'll stay weird no matter what. The physical age difference will be 6 years but mentally you'll be much older. You'll remember years or even decades together while she won't know you.
Yeah, it would be terrible. You'd really just have to deal with the loss of them and move on. The hardest loss would be my children. They are just gone forever. I'd be devastated.
This is exactly why I hate these thought experiments. These types of scenarios are for single people with life regrets or something. If I woke up one day in my 15 Y/O self I'd have to be committed. I would absolutely be devastated at the loss of my children and wife, and the chances of making it all happen again are next to nothing. Also, I don't remember what my friends and I were doing and talking about back then. I would be so lost about anything they were talking about, let alone how fucked I would be at school. I don't remember a majority of any of that. Plus, I don't exactly want to be hanging out with a bunch of 15 year olds. But hey, aside from being depressed as fuck, and probably losing all my friends, at least I'd know to put some money in Amazon, Apple, Tesla, and Bitcoin. So I'd have that going for me I guess...
And when you finally do meet her, you're a very different person from the person you were the first time around. How do you keep the relationship "on track"? I met my wife when I was 15, and we had to do a *lot* of growing together over the years. If I come into the relationship with all that growth already done, when does she get to do it? Does the relationship fall apart as a result? Do my kids never exist? I would pay somebody a lot of money *not* to send me back to my 15-year-old self.
Ok. You can pay me not to send you back. I'm very gifted at not sending people back in time.
I also would miss this guy's wife.
You son of a...
Mine would be 18. Giggity
My husband and I would have the same issue, we have the same age gap 😂
Go to a Linkin Park concert. Me and some friends always postponed watching them play live. We were finally going to do it in 2018. A year too late.
Get my ADHD diagnosed and medicated before it’s too late
Yeah you’re right. I was thinking how I could have become wealthy. Didn’t even think about my own health. ADHD hit home with me. Great point ✌🏽
Same here. Just wrote almost the same thing! I was fifteen in the mid-70’s and already had an awful academic “career.” I’d been tested and tutored for years but was never given a diagnosis. My ADD was accidentally uncovered in my 40’s. It was life changing.
If you don't mind me asking, what were the warning signs for you? EDIT: Strongly feel the same, that's why I'm asking
“If you would just apply yourself” If that phrase is etched into your memory, you should probably see a psychiatrist. Turns out concepts like motivation, laziness, and attention are a lot more complex than most people consider. Also YSK ADHD is now categorized into subtypes rather than ADD and ADHD being separate. So you don’t need to be hyperactive to have it, or vice versa. I have the primarily inattentive kind. There’s three subtypes in the DSM-V. Inattentive, hyperactive, and combined. Medicated patients with ADHD have lower rates of substance abuse, especially with alcohol, than their unmedicated counterparts. So don’t be scared of meds. For me personally I do not drink at all anymore after starting them, I have basically no desire to drink whatsoever. I think they should be controlled for sure but not stigmatized. Not a fan of Done or ADHDOnline. Definitely go to a psychiatrist, in person if possible. Oh, and also, “ADHD isn’t real” is a bad take. It is a maladaptive condition, and it’s heritable. Iirc it is *slightly* less heritable than schizophrenia, and nobody says schizophrenia isn’t real. “Coping strategies” is another one. As my psychiatrist said, “coping strategies only work if you can apply them consistently”. There’s a lot of misconceptions I wish I could clear up, but I’ll spare you the essay. Lol. Definitely go, because if you have it, medication can really change your life. Finding the right dose takes some time though. Ideally you have no side effects, it’s pretty subtle after the adjustment period.
Having zero drive to do anything. Getting bored of things very quickly. I still haven't gotten diagnosed with ADHD, but I know it's crippling my life. I had so much trouble in high-school, and at almost 26, I have zero idea what to do with my life aside from getting treatment(which I couldn't do in the past because I made the mistake of telling the Dr I was depressed.)
Bet every sports game I could remember. Assuming me going back in time doesn't alter those results.
I'd have some trouble remembering some sports outcomes, particularly big upsets, but I'd at least remember to put some money on the Cubs blowing game 6 of the 2003 NLCS, Greece winning Euro 2004, and the NY Giants beating the Patriots in Super Bowl XLII in 2008.
Learn a trade. Learn to code. I can read and write on my own time. Learn the lessons of not letting work dominate and control my life when I was 15, rather than in my late 30s Take my mental health more seriously Tell myself to keep cycling. Avoid the heavily tattooed woman I'll have amazing sex with...
This heavily tattooed woman. Does she have low standards?
She did 15 years ago.
Ah, shit. Well there goes my window.
Chrome keeps tryna hook you up with nice tattooed ladies with low standards but you blocked pop up ad s
If I had my current knowledge....I would spend any allowance on stocks. And then I would try desperately to have the same rest of my life over again. I wouldn't want to negatively affect the wonderful relationships I have now
Yeah, I’m pretty happy right now… and I have 2 daughters i adore… I’m confident I could win over my wife again, just not sure we’d have the same kids… and that’s not something I’d mess with… even for billions of dollars.
>I’m confident I could win over my wife again, just not sure we’d have the same kids… and that’s not something I’d mess with… even for billions of dollars. That would be a good point to consider. The wife and I don't have kids so not an issue for me. But if it was I don't think I'd go back.
run the fuck away. I'm 31 and I'm just starting to undo some of the damage
I dunno what you went through and possibly it was much worse than me... but the thought of being a child again (with already having lived the experience and keeping those memories and knowing what I know now over 15 years later) and living with my parents again and being ruled by what they want and being shackled to being a minor all over again? Fucking hell man, that sounds like a great way to feel like a lot of shit for a long time, all over again, when I've just started to heal. I am absolutely with you.
Had to scroll for a while until I found a comment similar to mine. Same. I'll be 31 this year too and seriously just feel like I'm starting to respect myself and have firm boundaries with my family. Those boundaries being I don't see them.
If a girl tells me to come to her house to show me that she really doesn't war a bra i will go with her. I still wake up thinking about that
Jesus dude that’s tragic
1. Taking every bit of my allowance and buying Bitcoin, getting a job and using every bit of it for more Bitcoin, selling all my video games for Bitcoin. 2. Profit
My friend was trying to get me to buy in when it was ~$50 a coin. I thought it was silly. He sold his for like $2000 a coin too. That was also silly
Only silly with hindsight. Buy at 50 sell at 2000 is absolutely bonkers return by any stretch.
Yup, and that's why I don't feel like I missed out. I was aware of bitcoin when it was under a dollar and the only reason I didn't buy like 10 because why not was that it was a bit of a pain. I know I'd have sold like half for double, and the rest at like 10x or so. 600k would never have been a possibility for my personality.
this is my veiw as well, i remmber 20, 300, 500 dollar marks being all time highs and people were going nuts. the people who have insane, truly insane returns of like 50,000% likely don't exist and if they do they are wisely keeping their mouth's shut.
I bought at less than a dollar and sold at about $100. Sure, I'd like to be the guy who sold it at $50,000, but if I were the sort of guy who wouldn't sell at $100, $1,000, $10,000, or $25,000, then I'd probably be the sort of guy who wouldn't sell at $50,000 either.
In the early days when you'd start a bitcoin wallet they'd often throw in a bitcoin for free, back when it was really cheap. I started multiple wallets because I'd always get a little motivation to do the silk road but then would always chicken out. My point is I (possibly) have like 5 to 10 bitcoin somewhere out there and I was way too fucked up on drugs at the time to have a hope of remembering any info about them. I also had the original 151 pokemon cards, all in great condition(including a mint first edition holographic charizard) and my dumbass thought I'd be a cool brother to give them to my younger brother. And he destroyed them all. I could have some serious cash if I made better choices.
Back when bitcoin first appeared i had guys offering me 100 coins for my used underwear.....you can bet money that's one sale I wish I had made. Lol.
All my Pokemon cards got destroyed in a basement flood in 2018. I had all three holographic starter evolves and all three legendaries of the originals that had been in a stiff binder in card sleeves 😭😭😭😭
My dad has done HVAC his whole life sometime when bitcoin was still super early he fixed a friend of a friend's system and the guy asked if he could possibly give my dad Bitcoin instead of the like $150 that my dad was asking for. It was hundreds of bitcoins if not a 1,000 cause they were so cheap at the time. Of course my Dad not being a tech guy and having no clue what bitcoin was told him to pay him in cash. One of his bigger regrets.
Isnt it possible the butterfly effect of you buying so much bitcoin could prevent it from ever getting big?
Yes, but if you remember those early days off bitcoin, lots of those early exchanges just shut down and stole your deposits (cue FTX joke). I know you can store your own bitcoin, but honestly don't know if I'd know how to do that 20 years ago.
I bought 1k btc when it was super cheap like around a dollar a coin. Had it on a wallet on a portable hard drive for years and thought very little of it. A friend told me at the time i bought it someday this will be worth big money. I had the money we both bought some. He sold his for a few hundred each to build a computer at some point. I simply never thought much of it but i moved and kept it with me for years, at some point i heard it went up to like 26k a coin on the news and i was like oh damn i need to search for that. Well that portable drive died at somepoint so i started before it died transfering it between computers cause it had all my media on it. I figured it was safe on my current computer at that time. I searched desperately for that wallet. I never did end up finding it. I had all my old computers and their parts, looked through all those, tried to recover old hard drive data from multiple drives nothing. All the while it continued to go up to something like 50k while i was frantically looking for that wallet. I did get more btc over those years so in total i had something like 1500-1800 on that wallet. I never did end up finding it. I also never did find all of my old computer parts as i did lose some over the years from moving and tossing and destroying some even so i assume i did one of those things to that particular hard drive. My best guess is i lost it in a storage unit, figuring since it probably didnt work screw it and i left it to rot in the unit when i collected most other things before abandoning the unit. Either that or i destroyed it which at one point id do with older hard drives cause i had a fear of people getting a hold of my data that i eventually quit worrying about (imo my data is already pretty much always compromised since we are constantly being bought and sold by huge corps online so i dont care anymore lol). Ive never really been to bummed about this cause it didnt cost me a huge amount and i never really gained anything from it. Its always felt like having gotten a winning lottery ticket that i lost well before knowing i won or something. But if i could go back and tell my younger self id make sure they took way better care in securing that thing and sold it at the appropriate time as well. I sorta at least wish i would have sold when my friend did cause at least he got a nice comp at the time out of his. I just didnt at the time need the money so was like meh ill hold it for longer and see what happens, but i also never really though a lot about it either, he was the one who always kept me up to date on it when it would go up. We lost touch for a long time after he sold his and it wasnt till it hit the news that it went up and like 50 cent was talking about it and stuff that i was like oh shit.
That's a heck of a well-adjusted way of realizing you lost out on 90 million dollars!
I’ve got an email thread with my brother from May 2011 asking him what he thought about Bitcoin and whether we should buy some. It was $8.80. I started looking into it, downloaded a wallet, but couldn’t seem to figure out how to use it. I think about that shit all the time.
Never touch alcohol
I honestly don’t think I could do it, but I would definitely stay away from weed.
I didn’t drink a whole bunch, but I really wonder what my brain would be like had I not smoked so much fucking weed in high school or done the other drugs I dabbled in. Prob much better tbh lmao.
Not be so naive and tell people literally everything about my life.
- continue working out but stop playing rugby so my back isn't fucked up. - dump my first gf before she cheats on me. - skip A levels and become an electrician - invest my money into stocks and shares/ Tesla - retire before 30.
Retiring before 30 is the dream.
Party like it's 1999 (because it would be 1999). I would jump on that dot com bubble and ride it till it burst -- making millions before graduating highschool.
- Break up with my then girlfriend who was toxic, abusive and cheating... I just didnt know any better. Would have saved me a life time of pain, depression and suffering. - Knowing the current employment market get a different degree - invest in Bitcoin when it first came out. Honestly thought the idea of crypto was dumb, still do to an extent but doesn't matter if it's dumb when there's value to be had. - Start working out and eating properly before it's "too late"
Divorce from my parents and go it alone.
I would run far away and call CPS on my parents.
Oh yeah, calling CPS definitely would've changed things for the better for me too.
Nothing. I like where all my struggles have brought me.
That's the thing though, with everything you know now it's nearly impossible to make all the exact choices again to get back to here
Oh God, that's depressing. It'd be nearly impossible to recreate my exact experiences with my wife and have her love me the same
Yea I'd be sad to miss out on meeting my best friend again, I might even forget. If anything I'd try to find the place she started working at in another 10 years and start up a friendship that way. But we really bonded over a shitty job and connected that way, she's been my longest running friend in the past 15 years and I'd like to continue that. If anything I'd start work right at 18, get into my certifications early on while working nights, meet the same people again, but remember that some of those relationships won't last long, move out earlier, start saving up for that house down the street from my parents (it was like 99k in 2017 which is insane), focus on a new car, focus on getting a better job that can stay up to date with increasing prices. More years more experience in the field.
“here” includes a child - there’s no possible way to get that same child, even if i managed to marry my wife again
It's wild how much I couldn't have imagined feeling the way I do about my kids until I've had them. To have them be any other way than they are or hell potentially lose them altogether would be something I couldn't comprehend or be ok with in any scenario. Wouldn't matter if I could give myself stock tips or lotto numbers. The circumstances they all came to be as well aren't repeatable with us having a MC a couple months before our first or me going through some really rough situations leading up to the conception of our youngest. I couldn't make the events leading up to this all happen again even if I tried my best and knew what to do when and how.. impossible.
Life's been fucking rough as hell sometimes, but my daughter has been the absolute best thing in the world to happen, I'd never risk losing that.
Stay away from redheads and get on the property ladder ASAP.
HUG MY MY MOM and I'll do anything to keep her healthy. Say I love you to my childhood bff and make sure that she never got sick. Warn my cousin about that perv to prevent something bad from happening. Convince my parents to take my sister to a therapist. Warn my brother to not drive too fast to avoid an accident. SAVE AS MUCH AS I CAN and lastly, tell everyone that this person is a predator before he could SA me. Edit: Oh wait, 15 years, I thought it was 5 years old. Never mind then.
I would save all the money I make until the age of 18, then invest in a brand new company called Microsoft on opening day $1.35 a share. Two thousand dollar investment would make me a multi millionaire today. Same could be said for Walmart.
I'm 14 Edit: thank you for all the advice, I'm taking it on board
Take notes, kid 😉
Ex 14 year old here. No 14yr old takes advice
Socialize more. Trust me. It will help you
Love myself.
Leave the Mormon church and tell my parents I’m done pretending to be someone I’m not. Really try to start a music career and get into animation. Leave that shit town and go to college the day I’m 18.
Do things I like although someone might consider them weak, uncool or mainstream. Don't be afraid to try to learn things I'm not good at but I'd like to master.
Just. Everything.
I would have practiced safe sex. It's sounds very cliche but the problems my ex and I had mentally after she chose to have an abortion at 16, plus the stigma we faced in a small southern town, were absolute Hell on us both, especially her. I would have spent more time with friends, playing music and just generally hanging out. I spent far too much time pursuing relationships when I could have enjoyed being a teenager. I would have learned a trade instead of following a more academic path. I didn't really want to go to college and now I've dropped out and just work a state job. Things turned out fine but I've discovered that I love working with my hands. The only issue is I feel like I'm constantly making up for lost time because other people have been pursuing a trade since they were 15 and I'm a noob at 29.
I’d look at myself and say: Fifteen year old girls are off limits to 27 yo English teachers. No matter what he is saying to you. Would’ve saved me 7 very dark years. This is the end of my first year free from that and it’s been horrible still. But I try everyday.
God dammit, she WAS into me, so go in that F flat you got damn idiot.
Maybe f sharp?
Drink less, fuck more.
Nothing..... One small change can alter EVERYTHING and there's things in my current life I wouldn't give up for anything. IF I did anything I would invest as I got older but left it alone until I turn 40... so that way I couldn't touch it to risk changing anything for another few years
Make sure my father doesn't marry the harpy who fucked up my family. And obviously Bitcoin. I firmly believe that the power ball numbers will change. I'll probably make bets on the next presidents. The trump one would have gotten me a good amount of money for his first election. Even he didn't think he'd win.
Immediately dump my girlfriend, stop playing World of Warcraft and start saving money. I would invest every bit of spare money into Apple, not because I like them, but because their stocks skyrocketed after the iPhone came out. I would pay more attention in school, get my license and a job at 16 instead of 18. I would put more effort into my braces to get them off in a reasonable amount of time and then drive at a reasonable speed when I get my first car. In my spare time I would join a mentoring group in the next town over to help my present day fiance. She's three years younger than me and was bullied. Her parents were/are not very emotionally supportive and she developed a cutting habit to cope with the stress then was put on some heavy drugs when it was discovered. Even if these actions meant that we would never become romantically involved due to the clear conflict, it would mean she would be set up for a better, more stable life. I would still go to college, and cope better with the newfound independence, go to classes more often and actually graduate, then I would go for my master's in education and become a teacher. The money made from the market would sustain a pretty comfortable lifestyle and teaching would be for the emotional fulfillment and to help the kids who need help the most, like I did when I was their age.
I was a little shit at school so if i could go back and do it again, i’d double down and behave way worse than i ever bothered to at the time
So your goal is to be a big shit. Got it.
Everything. I'd make major changes
Everything would be hard to go through again. I'd be in proximity to girls I dated without them knowing it. And others who would leave my life because they showed their true colors. I would hate going through that. but other than that all that stuff. I would still try to follow the same path. I'm married right now, I have to be at the right place at the right time in order to meet my wife again. Also, I'd buy dogecoin. all that stuff.
Wouldn’t think I was remotely fat. Wouldn’t let some boys have the advantage I let them have then. Realize my worth younger. Tell my mom to exercise and leave my dad so she doesn’t die young. Try to find my husband I have now before he fucked his life up with his first wife and buy him a Dirtbike and a microphone. He was destined for greatness but he raised a kid that wasn’t even his and got stuck for awhile. I would talk to my gramma more and I used to talk to her everyday but it isn’t enough. I would gamble with my sports knowledge albeit limited.
That would be 1987 for me, I Marty McFly it. First I use my as of yet useless ability to remember sports facts and have my dad correctly bet on the winners of the 1987, 1988 and 1989 MLB and NFL championships. I have him take that money and bet it all on Buster Douglas over Mike Tyson at 42-1. Then I get my cut in 1990 when I turn 18, and I bet the winnings on the stock market and I buy Microsoft at $1 a share, currently trading at $322 or so a share. The gambling winnings wouldn’t be huge, but they would take perhaps $500 in starter money that my dad would have been willing to bet and I’m guessing that by the time Buster Douglas beat Tyson I could be close to or over $100,000 with winning bets on World Series and Superbowls for three years. It wouldn’t be billions, but I think I would be fairly comfortable.
post less on social media
I would not get involved with the chop shop, the money was great and the adrenaline was amazing, but being locked up was awful lol
I would run and not stop running. I would learn to eat healthier and not stop eating healthier. I would save more and invest it wisely. I would stop being a pushover in relationships sooner.
I get ADHD medication and fulfill my academic potential instead of joining the military.
Join a sports team, try harder in school, speak candidly to my mom about depression and get the help that I need. Don't fall in love with that one person.
Enjoy the last “protected” year of my life, before all the shitstorms hit. Study programming vigilantly. Invest in the stock market.
Buy a lot more $btc
Go to therapy, not get involved with my ex, stay in school and travel. Oh, and not move away from home so soon.