Do over stories.

[onejayhawk]

The premise is simple: through unknown means you get to be much younger, with full knowledge that you now possess. Often this takes the form of your consciousness inhabiting your body at a much younger age, typically early teens.

One variant I read recently, " A Fresh Start" by rlfj, has a modestly successful, late middle aged man die--then wake up as his 12 year old self. Almost from the start, he starts making money. Three bullies attack him on the bus. He puts them in the hospital, then sues.

With a $12,000 stake he starts investing in the stock market. There are complications because of his age, of course, but his father backs him in the venture. He blows through high school with honors and a reputation as a discrete lady killer. He goes to his old university and comes away with the same wife and a PhD in computer oriented math. He does and Army hitch and gets an injury and a medal. He buys into Microsoft before the IPO. He goes into politics and becomes President (John McCain is his VP). The story ends when he leaves office. The investment group he launched after he left the Army has grown into one of the most influential lobby organizations in the country. In the future, college courses will be dedicated to him.

Is that truly the way things would go? If you knew then what you know now, would you become fabulously wealthy and powerful, or would you make the same mistakes in different situations?

J

 

[Terxpahseyton]

Is that truly the way things would go?

 

[cybrxkhan]

Given I'm not too old yet, if I went back in time I'd probably make similar mistakes. The main differences I think would be that I'd be less of a pain in the ass for my parents, and though I'd still he a bit shy around girls I probably wouldn't be as much. And I wouldn't be.... Okay, maybe quite a few things would change, but personality-wise not much would change. If I were older than maybe I'd have more life experience to make better choices.

This was something I've thought about for years, though, I remember thinking in middle school what if tomorrow I woke up as an eight year old or something. Quite a bit to think about, what things you'd to differently.




That said, there is something I find uncomfortable. If I have all the experience, knowledge, etc. I have now while in my, say, twelve year old self, and I use that to seduce/hit on a fellow twelve year old girl (or, conversely, a twelve year old girl shows interest in twelve year old me), wouldn't that kind of feel like pedophilia on my part? I mean I'd have the maturity of a twenty something.

 

[warpus]

This would be easy because we'd all invest in Apple and Google, and bet on Costa Rica to advance and make millions.

 

[Harv]

This would be easy because we'd all invest in Apple and Google, and bet on Costa Rica to advance and make millions.

Or bet heavily against the banks in the 2008 meltdown. Don't need to wait all those years that way. Bear Sterns and Wachovia come to mind.

 

[onejayhawk]

This would be easy because we'd all invest in Apple and Google, and bet on Costa Rica to advance and make millions.

That would not be enough to make millions. Making several thousand that way is doable, but not real money. Millions is easy to say, but is quite a large pile of coin.

Another problem is being able to leave your investments alone. Buying cheap is good, but you have to let the investment grow. There will be a huge temptation to dip a little to make life easier. In the story, the man went ROTC in college, because his investments had not taken off when he enrolled. After four years of college and four more in the Army, he had millions, but as a freshman he was worried that tapping the money for tuition would cripple him down the road.

Another thing is that you need to get in very early in the life of the company. That means knowing what the company was called back at the beginning. If you want to get rich off Walmart, you needed to find a seller back in the early 1970s. Do you put your money there, or start buying silver coins to sell during the 1980 bubble? The time to buy Apple was in the 1990s, not when they started out. The serious money would be in shorting soon to bankrupt companies. But, if you call more than one of those right, people will want to know why. Insider trading laws are draconian.

J

 

[Kennigit]

depends how much money you had when you go back in time, it'd be very easy.

Or if not, obviously getting rich would be easy if you know major sport results.

 

[Kaitzilla]

Replay by Ken Grimwood
http://www.amazon.com/Replay-Ken-Grimwood/dp/068816112X

Won the World Fantasy award in 1988 and has great reviews on Amazon/Goodreads

Jeff Winston, forty-three, didn't know he was a replayer until he died and woke up twenty-five years younger in his college dorm room; he lived another life. And died again. And lived again and died again -- in a continuous twenty-five-year cycle -- each time starting from scratch at the age of eighteen to reclaim lost loves, remedy past mistakes, or make a fortune in the stock market. A novel of gripping adventure, romance, and fascinating speculation on the nature of time, Replay asks the question: "What if you could live your life over again?"

I liked the time when he joined the USA government to make USA #1 a reality.
It all went to hell.

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

I'm kind of disgusted money is the only thing being discussed here.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

I would do my best to fix things that went wrong in my family.

I just found out that one of my dad's old girlfriends died and I feel like celebrating. In fact, I've been sternly telling myself that it would not be at all right to put some remark on her online condolences page about how she helped break up my parents' marriage and did her damnedest to keep me from contact with my grandparents and even after finally kicking my dad out, actually tried to make me keep living there - oblivious to the fact that because of her constantly putting down my family, I hated her.

Good riddance, and if I had the chance to go back, I'd insist on living with my grandparents from the get-go and not have to go through those other years as originally lived. In some ways I'd be a lot less bitter and angry person now, and maybe my mother would have made different choices in her own life (she made some that turned out to be not good at all).

 

[onejayhawk]

I'm kind of disgusted money is the only thing being discussed here.

That is the nature of do over stories. Make money through foreknowledge, have better social relations through confidence and experience, don't alienate people that you offended, recognize oportunities you missed. My question is whether it would really make a big difference, ro would you make the same mistakes in a new context?

J

 

[Kennigit]

Having my current knowledge wouldn't really help with anything. Money is so easily immaterial because you can drop chunks of $1,000 USD on some bet you know you'd win 5:1 or whatever odds and rack up a significant enough but not-significant-enough money to influence the outcome (e.g. if you bet 100 million USD on some sports outcome there'd be some investigation towards it).

I'd be more interested in reading a story about how supposed "foreknowledge" screws up everything you'd think that it would help.

People would want to mend familial or romantic relations, etc, but this isn't groundhog day. A person would screw up and cross over to the "off-putting" stage of "I know what's right for you!" and immediately blow any "redo" they would want to happen.

Most learning developed would probably be ignored due to human hierarchies (e.g., say you became a successful lawyer or whatever. Good luck trying to use any cases you worked on in the future to impress anybody)

And I couldn't imagine the torture of having an adult consciousness forced to relive the adolescent stages.

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

That is the nature of do over stories. Make money through foreknowledge, have better social relations through confidence and experience, don't alienate people that you offended, recognize oportunities you missed.

Opportunities don't always translate into more cold, hard cash. Sometimes it will be about interesting experiences. And money is just a means to an end.

My question is whether it would really make a big difference, ro would you make the same mistakes in a new context?

I made the mistake of not being social enough. That is not likely to be repeated.

 

[nc-1701]

Well this gave me a very fun little introspective trip, here are the conclusions I made.

I would return to myself in August 2010, at the age of 19 just as I entered my junior year of college. The reason is that I feel this is the moment when I started living, before that I was only learning/preparing to live. Here are the strategies I would take across several categories.

Money
This is after most of the well known opportunities in the stock market, but at the time I had about $3,000-4,000 in bank. I remember a decent number of MMA fights to bet on so I could start increasing my cash that way, and then of course invest in bitcoin in late 2012. I don't think this would make me a billionaire, but I could probably pull together a few million. Enough to give me more opportunities to take advantage of my new chance at the world.

Relationships
I fell in love that fall, but it crashed pretty horribly because of out mutual immaturity. I don't know if I could salvage it with a do over, but at least I could have fewer regrets about it by behaving better myself.

School
Knowing what I know now I could easily cruise all of my math classes, which would give me the time to pick up at least a minor in computer science. Also I would be able to do better on things like the Putnam etc. At the same time I would know I don't want a Phd, and thus could go into grad school with a better idea of what I wanted.

Athletics/Health
I would continue with martial arts, but also start lifting immediately instead of waiting about 2 years. Also I would know when I got sick in fall of 2012 it was serious and hopefully head off my kidney disease a bit earlier so that was less of an ordeal.

Other
I would be much more social and independent, also knowing some people I would likely meet in the future, I could cut my losses on some people who turned out to be poor friends. And put more effort into others who I perhaps neglected when I shouldn't have. But the big thing is I would travel by myself or with friends using the money I could get by betting, see the world and make myself better.

Those are the main things that come to mind...

 

[CavLancer]

If I died and came back as my 12 year old self I'd be so disappointed I'd just sit in a corner and weep like a 13 year old fat girl with a crush on the school quarterback who just asked the hottest cheerleader to the prom and broke my silly misguided heart.

It wouldn't be pretty.

 

[Narz]

I would love to do this again. 13 is when my life went to **** for many years.

First off, I'd stand up to my dad & refuse to attend the all boys boarding school I was sent to when I was 13.

Secondly, I'd have immense confidence (since I'd be a man in a kid's body), I'd do quite well socially in high school, a thousand times better than I actually did.

The main thing I'd hate about this scenario is I'd hate having to goto school all over again. I'd make the most of it though.

Oh, and I wouldn't waste money on baseball cards!

It'd be weird living without the Internet (it did exist when I was 12 but nobody had it).

 

[CavLancer]

I was 12 in 1960. That means I could call in a tip to the FBI on November 21st 1963. Still, too much crap at that point in my life, and I'd wonder if I was in a time loop and forever doomed to waking up in my 12 year old self. That would be bad.

I want to get out of the crib and move on to what's next. Imagine living through the Cuban missile crisis being the only one bored silly.

Apollo 13..."Listen, whatever you do don't stir the tanks!" "Who is this kid?"

 

[Valka D'Ur]

I may or may not have been around for that. That's approximately when my mother became pregnant.

 

[Bootstoots]

I don't like the idea of having advance knowledge of how events will turn out, because nobody ever has that and it's easy to be wise in hindsight. I think it's a better thought experiment to imagine you've returned to your early teens in the present time.

What if this question were modified so that you'd return to something like age 13, but it is still 2014 and you're in a middle/junior high/whatever school in your general area? You have the brain of an X-year-old, but physically you're only 13, and you have no advance knowledge of anything. Your parents are also de-aged to be whatever age they were when you were 13, and otherwise they behave the same way, and have the same amount of power over you.

What you have gained is the knowledge and life experiences you've accumulated over the past X-13 years. But it's still 2014, and in every other way you're in the shoes of someone who was 0 as of the 9/11 attacks. You have to deal with the problems of a modern young teenager, knowing what life is like as an adult. What do you do now?

I think this would really suck - I remember feeling like I was in a nonsense holding pattern as a teenager, where I didn't fit in with my peers and I had to do things like bother Civ 3 moderators in CFC and #civfanatics c. 2003, and learn a bunch of interesting things on my own to supplement my generally crappy school education, to keep myself occupied. I could imagine that I'd have some better luck in social life because my social skills are a lot better now than they were then, but then I'd be socializing with other 13-year-olds, which would be less than fulfilling. And like cybrxkhan, I'd feel dirty if I seduced actual young teenage girls, even if I could get away with it because my body was the same age.

Further, I really don't have a good feeling the prospects of people who are currently that age. I suspect the real economy is, at least in the First World, in secular stagnation or decline, and that the ~2025 job market, along other parts of reality like the political world and the natural environment, will be no better, and possibly worse, than today. This is debatable and I sincerely hope I'm wrong about most or all of that, but it's not something I'd gamble my current life for.

Sorry to be a Debbie Downer, but I think I'll pass.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

I don't like the idea of having advance knowledge of how events will turn out, because nobody ever has that and it's easy to be wise in hindsight. I think it's a better thought experiment to imagine you've returned to your early teens in the present time.

What if this question were modified so that you'd return to something like age 13, but it is still 2014 and you're in a middle/junior high/whatever school in your general area? You have the brain of an X-year-old, but physically you're only 13, and you have no advance knowledge of anything. Your parents are also de-aged to be whatever age they were when you were 13, and otherwise they behave the same way, and have the same amount of power over you.

What you have gained is the knowledge and life experiences you've accumulated over the past X-13 years. But it's still 2014, and in every other way you're in the shoes of someone who was 0 as of the 9/11 attacks. You have to deal with the problems of a modern young teenager, knowing what life is like as an adult. What do you do now?

I think this would really suck - I remember feeling like I was in a nonsense holding pattern as a teenager, where I didn't fit in with my peers and I had to do things like bother Civ 3 moderators in CFC and #civfanatics c. 2003, and learn a bunch of interesting things on my own to supplement my generally crappy school education, to keep myself occupied. I could imagine that I'd have some better luck in social life because my social skills are a lot better now than they were then, but then I'd be socializing with other 13-year-olds, which would be less than fulfilling. And like cybrxkhan, I'd feel dirty if I seduced actual young teenage girls, even if I could get away with it because my body was the same age.

Further, I really don't have a good feeling the prospects of people who are currently that age. I suspect the real economy is, at least in the First World, in secular stagnation or decline, and that the ~2025 job market, along other parts of reality like the political world and the natural environment, will be no better, and possibly worse, than today. This is debatable and I sincerely hope I'm wrong about most or all of that, but it's not something I'd gamble my current life for.

Sorry to be a Debbie Downer, but I think I'll pass.

I would not ever want to be 13 again, no matter what the condition of my brain. That year was absolute hell as far as school went, and given how the provincial government is musing about allowing the oil companies to have an opinion on the next overhaul of the curriculum, I wouldn't care to be subjected to that sort of brainwashing.

Parents who behave as they did then? In the case of my mother, no thank you. She did her best to ignore me during most of my teen years. My dad did a much better job, but even so, I wouldn't care for a rerun of certain issues.