Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Time Travel

My buddy @StevenAaron mentions a really fun idea today on Twitter:
How much would you pay to travel to any point in your past to give yourself up to 3 sentences of advice?

How effective do you think those three sentences would be?

How willing do you think younger you would be to listen to older you?

How much you wanna bet it'll never happen cause, if it did, time continuum dictates that you would've already experienced it as younger you?

Some buddies responded:

@: perhaps a more limiting 140 character tweet. That would be tricky.

@: I know what I'd say: "Don't move back home. For serious. It blows." There. Three sentences. And I'd probably listen.

@ What if older me sends me a tweet within the next few days?! (It'd probably say, "Cut your hair.")


@ I'd tell myself the date I was going to die and see if I was smart enough to realize I couldn't possibly know that.
I responded to him with this:

@stevenaaron I would go back further, tell my great great grandfather about nylon, plastic, Microsoft, the internet and Taylor Swift. #rich
But when I really think about it, I think I would go back to high school and tell my past self:
"Everything you want to do right now will never amount to anything.  Stop and set yourself some new goals.  You will enjoy being a screenwriter than anything else you will ever do."

But I would never listen to myself because I probably wouldn't trust the info.  What if a future version of you showed up and told you something really important in a matter of seconds, then disappeared?  You'd probably think it was a dream/illusion/government conspiracy.

What about you?  What would you say?  Would it even work (would you listen to yourself)?

1 comments:

Tiffany said...

Really? You enjoy being a screenwriter more than anything else? Wow, that's not saying much for our marriage there buddy. Although, I suppose telling your high school self about being married he'd probably think it was boring and lame. So, perhaps good call. But really? Is that what you enjoy the most?

And if I could tell my younger self it would, "Be patient. You will eventually get everything you want, but it will take time. No need to hurry."

I probably wouldn't listen because I'd think I created it in my head. I'd need more convincing than the 3 sentences would allow. And I'd think I was fat so if anything I'd probably just work out more and eat less if I saw future me.