Here’s a question I like to ask people when I’m 5/8 drunk...

[MC Moot]

A sociological experiment from Chuck Klostermans new book...

“Here’s a question I like to ask people when I’m 5/8 drunk:

Let’s say you had the ability to make a very brief phone call into your own past. You are (somehow) given opportunity to phone yourself as a teenager; in short you will be able to communicate with the fifteen year old version of you. However, you will only get to talk to your former self for fifteen seconds. As such there’s no way to explain who you are, where or when you’re calling from, or what any of this lunacy is supposed to signify. You will only be able to give the younger version of yourself a fleeting, abstract message of unclear origin.

What would you say to yourself during those fifteen seconds?”

[MC Moot]

I come up with one of 2 immediate thoughts...the first being to try and deliver a concise warning/message of a massive terrorist attack in New York on Sept 11,2001...or the other thing is I might try and warn myself not to go to the bank on June 12,1996 as I would be assaulted and robbed...the thing is how would your 15 year old self react to this...it's interesting eh?

[Guy Incognito]

i hadnt thought about it as specific as that , i was thinking about giving myself some general advice about having too much of a good thing and some general life advice.However i think i had to make mistakes to get where i am which is in a solid job, 2 kids and happily married .So i think i might go all "back to the future 2" and tell myself a couple of sporting shocks to put money on instead.

[hpdrifter]

I know what I'd tell myself but I aint comfortable sharing it here.

Sorry, I shouldn't have even posted.

My 15 year old self would probably overthink it, rationalize it and end up making the same mistake anyway.

[Guy Incognito]

I know what I'd tell myself but I aint comfortable sharing it here.



to be honest there were a few things i thought of but wouldnt dream of telling you lot or anyone for that matter so i copped out with the marty mcfly answer

[hpdrifter]

I'll cop out with buy the fucking google stock when you want to and don't listen to anyone who says not to and don't buy the house in May of '07, wait until the market bottoms the fuck out one month later. Then I'd make myself repeat it back to me until I am sure I got it.

[Drederick Tatum]

in all honesty, I'd probably tell myself to sleep around. safely of course.

[Guy Incognito]

in all honesty, I'd probably tell myself to sleep around. safely of course.

your going to tell a 15 year old boy it'd be a good thing to have sex with as many ladies as possible . surely thats a waste of 15 seconds of future time,

[hpdrifter]

ha!

[MC Moot]

However i think i had to make mistakes to get where i am which is in a solid job, 2 kids and happily married .So i think i might go all "back to the future 2" and tell myself a couple of sporting shocks to put money on instead.

Verbatim from the book:

"Fictionalized motives for time travel generally operate like this:Characters go back in time to fix a mistake or change the conditions of the present (this is like Back to the Future).Characters go forward in time for personal gain (this is like the sub-plot "1" of Back to the Future Part II).

"1": This subplot refers to the actions of of a character named Biff who steals a sports almanac from the futur in order to gamble on predetermined sporting events in the present.There's a popular urban legend about this plot point involving the Florida Marlins baseball team: In the film Biff supposedly bets on a Florida baseball team to win the World Series in 1997,which actually happened.The amazing part part is that Back to the Future Part II was released in 1989,four years before the Florida Marlins even had a major league franchise..."

[Guy Incognito]

Verbatim from the book:

.There's a popular urban legend about this plot point involving the Florida Marlins baseball team: In the film Biff supposedly bets on a Florida baseball team to win the World Series in 1997,which actually happened.The amazing part part is that Back to the Future Part II was released in 1989,four years before the Florida Marlins even had a major league franchise..."

woah, i did not know that - thats awesome

[MC Moot]

I'll cop out with buy the fucking google stock when you want to...

Now you people are freaking me out...

Verbatim from the book:

"One person answered my question by claiming he tell the 1985 incarnation of himself to "Invest in Google".That sounds smart,but I can't imagine a phrase that would have been more useless to me as a teenager in 1985.I would have spent the entire evening wondering how it would be possible to invest money into the number 1 with one hundred zeros behind it."

[Guy Incognito]

Now you people are freaking me out...



ok what about if i told myself that i would be asked this question in 21 years time on an internet message board and it might freak mooty out.

thats not in yer book

[Guy Incognito]

maybe i should tell meself not to start smoking ( i didnt start till i was 18) but i reckon that would be counter productive and would probably think about starting earlier.

[MC Moot]

A warning of a undersea megathrust earthquake on Dec 26,2004 that would result in the Asian Tsunami would be decent of me...

[Guy Incognito]

A warning of a undersea megathrust earthquake on Dec 26,2004 that would result in the Asian Tsunami would be decent of me...

whats a 15 year old gonna do with that information? - even if you went round telling everyone i reckon you would get institutionalised, no one would take you seriously. You would have to tell yourself to do a degree in seismology or something as well as the warning

[MC Moot]

whats a 15 year old gonna do with that information? - even if you went round telling everyone i reckon you would get institutionalised, no one would take you seriously. You would have to tell yourself to do a degree in seismology or something as well as the warning

It would contribute to my pending,NewYork Times Bestseller,autobiography entitled "I was a teenage Nostradamus"...(y)

[TAL]

I wouldn't even need 15 seconds!

"It won't get any better."

[Guy Incognito]

I wouldn't even need 15 seconds!

"It won't get any better."

christ! what about "look on the bright side"?

[MC Moot]

I wouldn't even need 15 seconds!

"It won't get any better."

shit,life was hell at 15...that would likely do me in...

[TAL]

Then I would call again (since I didn't use all the 15 seconds) and say "Psych!"

[Echewta]

I would tell myself that its ok to actually date white women.