What advice would you give to your younger selves?

[Bushman]

"Invest in Amazon stock."

 

[tonyb]

One word: “Plastics.”

 

[HoosierDaddy]

Another word: "Rubbers."

 

[Cornelius]

Another word: "Rubbers."

rimshot

Interesting thread. There's an excellent book related to this premise called "Jurgen, A Comedy of Justice." Written by James Branch Cabell, it was initially published in 1919 but got bogged down in the US courts for a couple of years on obscenity charges. Cabell was a quite popular author in his time, now largely forgotten.

Anyway, the gist is a late middle-aged pawnbroker named Jurgen brokers a Faustian deal to return to the body of his youth but with the mind he has now. Hijinks ensue. The New York Society for the Suppression of Vice did not approve.

 

[Edward]

I'd like to hope I'd persuade myself away from one or two relationships and near misses. I also would tell myself *not* to buy that last pair of short trousers at the age of sixteen, and I'd like to go back and hit myself with a bat on each and every one of the seven days they were worn on between then and when I turned 21 and threw them out forever.

 

[belfastboy]

I'd like to hope I'd persuade myself away from one or two relationships and near misses. I also would tell myself *not* to buy that last pair of short trousers at the age of sixteen, and I'd like to go back and hit myself with a bat on each and every one of the seven days they were worn on between then and when I turned 21 and threw them out forever.

Do you have pics?

 

[Hurricane Jack]

I would have never said, "Hold my beer & watch this"!

 

[Edward]

Do you have pics?

Fortunately not! The shame is, however, burned on my retina forever.

 

[belfastboy]

Fortunately not! The shame is, however, burned on my retina forever.

Some things just cannot be unseen.....no matter how hard we try!

 

[Hercule]

"Don't do it!" Sage advice on so many levels for so many situations. Oh what could have been...

 

[Bugguy]

Guilt is a useless emotion. It serves no useful purpose. Don't indulge it.

 

[Hercule]

Guilt is a useless emotion. It serves no useful purpose. Don't indulge it.

As is regret. Afterall, as the Athenian Poet noted, "even God cannot change the past."

 

[tonyb]

Yeah, but anticipating what might bring regret serves to moderate behavior.

 

[belfastboy]

Yeah, but anticipating what might bring regret serves to moderate behavior.

Isn't that what they call a conscience?

 

[tonyb]

Isn't that what they call a conscience?

Close enough, I suppose.

I’ve heard it argued that everything a person does is self-serving, ultimately. To whatever degree he serves others would be proportionate to the degree he perceives the fortunes of others tied to his own.

 

[M Brown]

Hey younger self, move to Switzerland.

 

[Tiki Tom]

No Capes!

 

[Turnip]

Mountains from plain side, churches from outside, pubs from inside.

 

[Hurricane Jack]

Never play poker or shoot pool against a man whose first name is a state.

 

[Hurricane Jack]

"Always carry a large flagon of whisky in case of snakebite...and furthermore always carry a small snake." -- W.C. Fields (1880-1946)