Unfortunately one of the first items on my letter of advice would have to be to "seek out and listen to more advice." A bit of bootstrapping there...
Unfortunately one of the first items on my letter of advice would have to be to "seek out and listen to more advice." A bit of bootstrapping there...
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There is something pathological about this for me, as I have contemplated this many times over the years, coming up with lists of what my 17 or 22 or 27 y/o self should have done, and how I would present it to him. The superpower you fantasize having is a clue to your character, and time travel certainly does suggest Regret. (Invisibility is my second choice. Also revealing.)
I have eventually concluded that if it were ever to happen, I wouldn't listen to that old guy anyway, thinking I had a better idea.
I'd think that invisibility would be "not revealing."
If I try to game out an alternate timeline after a warning, I wind up figuring that either I hit the opposite problem, or just do the same kind of thing again in a different situation--since advice doesn't change my inclinations.
Anyway, how would I at thirty-six prove my identity to my teenage self, and gain my past self's trust enough to get my warnings about tact and such across? Cite a nightmare I had when I was a toddler that I only ever told anyone about a year or two ago (involving dolls whining and a wooden bust from Liberia chanting "Statue, statue, statue...")? Recite my six-year-old self's rhapsodic ditty "There Once Was a Cat Who Lived in a Hat (He Went to Catch a Bat)" from memory?
And something occurred to me while typing this: If I succeeded, then when I got back, would I even know what job I have? Do I live in the same place? Am I still a bachelor, or do I have a wife and kids who are shocked and hurt that I no longer recognize them?
@Korora - part of the fun is trying to make only teeny adjustments in your previous self, so that you keep the good parts while removing the bad ones.
With unlimited time travel you get multiple tries, of course.
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