Let's do a time warp.

[Lorizael]

So you wake up tomorrow and it's, say, April 2, 2000. You're getting a chance to replay the last 15 years with the benefit of hindsight. Where are you, who are you, and what are you doing? And then, what do you decide to do?

[Imran Siddiqui]

I'm in college at the time, in the last few weeks of my soph year.

In the 15 years since... I'll need to end a few relationships a lot sooner (though ending the first one sooner may end up leading me to vastly different areas).

[FlameFlash]

There's such a level of butterfly effect in this... The premise of the show sounds neat, but to personally have it happen to me... I think I would be sad.

15 years ago from now would put me on the course of being about to graduate high school and moving on to college.

As school began to close out I'd probably break things off with the girlfriend I'd had at the time and track my wife down sooner than I had otherwise (childhood sweethearts that had moved away from one another)... perhaps warn her of some of the crap that was about to hit the fan in her life... and be better prepared for it actually.

What gives me the creeps about this concept is the act of jumping back would drastically alter my younglings...

[kentonio]

I'd have been getting ready to go spend my summer living on a beach on the Meditteranean. With 15 years hindsight I wouldn't get on that coach, and would instead become quite obscenely wealthy.

[rah]

Hmm, I was 45 back then and past most of my major life changing decisions. (family/work)
A few investment changes would be in order but besides that not much. I'd hate to change things that could impact the good things that have happened.
The only major thing is the old adage. If I knew I was going to live this long, I would have taken better care of myself.

[Lorizael]

(You can project back further if you want, rah. 15 years is kind of geared toward people in my age bracket.)

I'm a freshman in high school. I'm a lonely kid who's into writing and programming. My few friends are similarly-aged dudes with whom I share common interests, but I have basically no deep emotional connections. No romantic or sexual experiences as of yet. My depression has already reared its ugly head, but I probably still have enough time to undo the damage it's done and set myself on a better path. I would apply myself in school and ensure I actually get into a decent college right out of high school.

I would have to tell someone. Not sure who, because there was no one yet I was really close to, and there wouldn't be anyone until fall of 2001 (first girlfriend).

Getting obscenely rich. I don't have a great memory for the outcomes of sporting events way back when. I know some of the companies that are going to be big (Google), but I don't really have the opportunity or money to invest.

Butterfly effect, indeed. My first girlfriend is currently married to a wonderful woman she met while doing an "alternative" spring break helping to rebuild New Orleans. She was there with a good friend of hers, whom she met through me. That good friend is the evil bestfriend. With hindsight, you can argue that it would be in my best interests not to becomes friends and fall in love with the EBF, given all the misery this causes for me and my girlfriends. But doing so also means my first girlfriend never meets her eventual wife.

9/11. Can I prevent it (without the government hunting me down and locking me up for study)? Should I prevent it? Does the prevention of that one terrible day ensure a better subsequent 15 years, or just rearrange events a little bit, or eventually lead to something far worse?

[C0ckney]

april 2000 you say. well, i would certainly have resisted the temptation to join apolyton civilization site.

[SlowwHand]

You change one event and all events that follow also change.
Breaking up with a girl could mean, for whatever reason, that you never meet your wife. Don't meet your wife, don't have the same children.
Go left instead of right, changes.

[rah]

that's the main reason I wouldn't want to go back farther. My wife and daughter are everything to me. Granted I might have a different one, but not worth the risk.

[FlameFlash]

that's the main reason I wouldn't want to go back farther. My wife and daughter are everything to me. Granted I might have a different one, but not worth the risk.

[Lorizael]

that's the main reason I wouldn't want to go back farther. My wife and daughter are everything to me. Granted I might have a different one, but not worth the risk.

True. You bang your wife reverse cowgirl instead of missionary (or something) at the exact moment of your daughter's original conception and she is never born.

[rah]

I wouldn't put it exactly that way, but yeah, that's the gist.

[Jon Miller]

april 2000 you say. well, i would certainly have resisted the temptation to join apolyton civilization site.

I made big mistakes and some of them I would change.

But deciding to be more efficient with my time earlier is way up there.

JM
(still need to sometimes, I have been on apolyton too much recently)

[Imran Siddiqui]

Meh, efficiency with time is overrated. Enjoying the time more is a better goal.

[onejayhawk]

There is a whole genre of fiction around "do overs". You are aware of potentials and have skills that you did not have the first time through. However hte real impact is in self assurance. You know when others suspect.

Robert Heinlein wrote a time travel story. His time traveler confided in certain people, so that they were able to avoid the worst of the Depression. A generation later, they are still combing things he said for clues. Sometimes it's a casual word choice. For example he does not say carbon copy, he says Xerox copy.

J