If your mind got transported back 10 years right now with no time to prepare, how could you exploit your knowledge for personal gain?

kabi@lemm.ee to Ask Lemmy@lemmy.world – 118 points –

Besides crypto...

101

I'd go to my doctor and get a head start on what's to come.

I'd go to festivals and spend more time with friends.

Leave an toxic relationship.

But uh you probably meant how to make cash.

Buy Gamestop, Nvidia & Pfizer stock.

Nah, not just monetary gain! Just wanted to get in front of the most obvious answer.

I'd pump out the MAGA merchandise. I'm talking grift of biblical proportions.

Would you like a cherry on top? After becoming America's #1 purveyor, I'd go all out telling the world that I got rich suckering rubes.

Put the big reveal on the 3rd last page of your book : Becoming MAGA Rich , that way they have to buy the book first πŸ˜„

.......you guys realize that you're both overthinking it. Maga books won't make you rich. They don't buy books. They BURN books. If anything, you release a book with Obamas face on it, and the title of the book is "Very Burnable". The pages don't even need text. Just a thick wad of paper, Obamas face on the cover, with the text "Very Burnable".

Then charge $200 per book.

Make every 10th page out of flash paper!

You did say, β€œvery”, yeah?

Probably a several-way bet on trump winning a presidency, suggesting everyone inject themselves with bleach and then staging a coup, Britain shitting the bed, deciding to leave the EU, manifesting Β£60bn of debt and shocking the Queen to death, Russian war in Europe, a global pandemic killing millions getting turned into political football, the Taliban taking over Afghanistan again, several of the big names in 2016 dying, a trend of people wanting to eat laundry capsules & idk Alec Baldwin shooting someone.

I reckon a quid on that would net me enough to buy an island with a mansion on it

Fuck me, have we had a bad decade

Plot twist, your crazy bet goes viral (no pun intended) and the guy who dropped the test tube in Wuhan was late to work that day because he was watching a video about it. No pandemic occurs, Trump fades into obscurity, and a small company working on climate change solutions makes an incredible finding and fixes the planet because they didn't have to go bankrupt during COVID.

Alec Baldwin still shoots someone.

I'd wait a couple of years and talk my ex-husband into keeping our house and renting it instead of selling it when we split up. It made sense at the time, since selling it was the fastest way to pay off all of our mutual debt (and most of our individual debt, too) and make it an easy split, but if we'd waited a few years, we would've made a solid 6 figure profit. I have no desire to be a landlord and mostly I'm glad we sold it to a nice family for what was still an affordable amount, but it would've been the only way I could ever afford to buy anything else on a single income, and it would've set him and his new wife up a lot better. I kind of hate the idea morally, but from a purely pragmatic view, it would've made sense.

PPE and Vaccine maker stocks, it'll be 5 years to get the initial capital but once I've got it together, those are gonna explode in value on me.

I'd hesitate to switch my college of choice for the friends I'd lose out on, but if I did I would know where I'd try extra hard to get in instead. Def reconsidering the major I study though, the one I went with was sold to me as one of the best and turned out to be fucking useless trying to find any work.

Nothing. No money for investments then or now, which is also why I never kept up enough with stocks, crypto etc. to be able to cheat the market as a one-time time traveller. Plus I have several medical issues (then and now) that remain unsolved mysteries.

Only thing I can think of is using a bigger boot partition when I installed reinstalled Ubuntu from scratch about 5 years ago.

Least Linux-obsessed Lemmy user :P

It's mostly just a recent issue that popped up. I'm currently running Ubuntu 20.04 (i.e. version from 2020, there have been two major releases since then) and since I use LUKS, resizing the boot partition is going to be fairly complicated, if I can figure it out at all.

Besides moving to linux sooner, I would not dual boot at all, since I almost never used the other system.

Realistically, I would grieve the loss of my children, who would never be born if I didn't line things up just right to cause them to happen again. I'd spend more time with my parents, who are getting along in the years, and I'd make the most of my time with them while they're healthy and happy.

There are a few specifics where I'd try to get some loved ones out of trouble before some critical tipping point that would later cause a bunch of heartache and stress.

There are general things about money and politics I'd probably do differently, knowing about how stocks have performed and what not, but that's not super interesting to me, because I'm mostly content in my personal life (including my career) and wouldn't want to upset that balance by doing anything too different from what brought me here.

Realistically, I would grieve the loss of my children, who would never be born if I didn't line things up just right to cause them to happen again

This right there is the one reason I wouldn't go back in time if given the chance.

I would help myself become more confident, less anxious and a better person.

I know that sounds lame but that alone would be worth more than any stock tips to me.

Sending my mind back to the past is the wish I keep in my back pocket to blurt out if I see a falling star or meet a geanie.

This is what I would do. My charisma stat is way higher than it was as a kid, so I might be able to make my school years less hell.

I would have started coding quicker and go into software development and leave the job I had.

Harambe, whatever happens, dont try to play with a child, that does not go well

Besides the obvious monetary stuff, I'd be going into my second year of university knowing that I am autistic and having learned a lot of the social skills and coping strategies that I learned from therapy. I'd probably be able to find a fulfilling relationship before I turned 20 (rather than 28), and I would have felt far more comfortable joining up with clubs and groups at school and developing a social network.

I often feel bad that I only started getting help with those aspects of myself within the last couple of years. But I wasn't aware that I was autistic.

I'm doing this from memory to stay in the spirit of the question. I'd buy ethereum, then pivot to zoom in early 2020, pivot back to etherum mid 2020, then finally to NVIDIA at the end of 2022. I'll look up how well my memory works have served me.

OK, I did the math. I could turn $1K into $74M in 10 years with that strategy. I lost a year of growth because I thought Ethereum was released in 2013 however it was the white paper that was released in 2013, the coin started public trading in August 2015. Either way, I'd still be happy with that return.

  • 2014-06-19 twiddle my thumbs because Ethereum hasn't been released yet
  • 2015-08-01 $1.00 = 3.22ETH
  • 2020-01-02 3.22ETH = $421.24 = 6.12 ZOOM shares (also buy toilet paper and n95 masks)
  • 2020-06-01 6.12 ZOOM = $1538.262 = 6.80ETH
  • 2022-12-30 6.80ETH = $8170.67 = 570.18 NVIDIA shares
  • 2024-06-18 570.18 NVIDIA = $74773.41

Why not just look up numbers for a big lottery jackpot before you go back? Way quicker, much less effort?

I would start drinking coffee a lot sooner. I've found that it has a remarkable effect on my cognitive ability (supposedly a common thing amongst ADHDers), and in 2014, I'd have benefitted massively from that.

Depends highly on your age 10 years ago. Caffeine can have a negative effect on a developing mind.

Bumping me back to 2014... I'd buy Nvidia stock and Gme stock.. Bitcoin .

I'd then ditch the ex wife earlier... Get into a local scene earlier and enjoy my time till my baby momma / best friend / wife came along.

2011/12~ ish my wife said "we should build a computer to mine crypto" my answer was "that is dumb, how can some digital ones and zeros be worth any actual cash, it seems like a waste of money to spend thousands on a computer with multiple gpus for something that will never pay for itself."

A couple weeks later I regretted my answer because I could have had a SICK gaming computer. A decade later I regretted it for other reasons and decided to start letting my wife make all the financial decisions.

Yeah like 2010 or so.. I was like

hmm bitcoin. Too bad I don't have $500 to buy some...

You know while it was $.007

¯⁠\\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

Oh well

If my previous consciousness coexisted: Support my young shitbrain self in the tough times he's going through and become the best supporter anyone could ever want...or maybe that already happened and that's why I'm constantly being sidetracked.

Do better than I did with Bitcoin (sold it waaaaaay before it became money), Do better with GME etc., idk, probably little things here and there if I can remember them. Try to get the good ending.

One thing I'm learning from these types of questions is that knowledge isn't power, money is. There is precious little I could do with future knolewedge outside of personal/family matters without first using that knowledge to make as much money as possible.

Buy bitcoin, then eth when it's released, then solana when it's released. Sell at the top and start a cat sanctuary.

I would buy stock in various companies such as NVIDIA, GME, AMC, etc. Bet on political events such as Obama getting to appoint a Supreme Court justice who doesn't confirmed, how Trump announces his presidency, Trump winning the presidency, January 6, and Harris being Biden's running mate, Harris telling Biden "We did it, Joe", and Biden winning the Presidency. Can't forget Pence's fly friend during the debate.

I would give it another go with my ex since I would be aware of the issues that developed. If it doesn't work again, that would be a major mind fuck.

Getting in business with my current business partner, wouldn't have such a rough start since I still have the skills and knowledge from running a business.

Moderna and Phizer stocks with every cent I could muster

Quit my shitty job I had then

I would chill more, sleep around more, enjoy college more, and probably choose a different career. Also bet big on the Chiefs winning some Superbowls.

I could exploit the knowledge of my mistakes to do them all again but worse.

I wouldn't invest in crypto because it's a shitty scam..

Of course it is, but if you bought at cents and sell at $50K, then you're only scamming rich assholes anyway.

(And now you're the rich asshole!)

First I wouldn't buy my Mustang, I'd rebuild my Jeep and stick to Offroading instead of racecars wayyy cheaper over time. Then I wouldnt get out of the Army because the real world sucks, from there everything I know now wouldn't have happened and I probably wouldn't even live in the State I live in now

If it were maybe 15 years, I could very quickly identify some changes that would easily change the entire trajectory of my life.

At 10 years, it's hard to say since by today's perspective, I've had my life in reasonable order and heading in the right direction for the past decade. So there aren't a lot of options to make different choices I'm certain would help me gain things personally. That being said:

I would make a more concerted effort to leave the job I had in 2014. It was a regrettable decision to stay as long as I did and a very toxic work environment for me. I could have made more money almost anywhere else and by that point I had met all the important and amazing people that worked there during my reign, so I wouldn't have missed out on those friendships.

I do have much better employment skills than I had 10 years ago and most of what I know and do would still apply back then, so I guess I could make use of that to climb the ladder a bit faster and/or earn more money sooner in my career.

I suppose one day to day "exploit" would be that I'd know in advance if any specific purchase was a good decision or not. For instance, I'd know that the car I was going to buy ended up being a fantastic choice or that the piece of crap bookshelf was only going to last me a year before it started to disintegrate at which point I would have to replace it. This could be useful for saving money, since at the very least I could avoid purchasing the stuff that I know would not last or live up to expectations.

I did not have a lot of money back then and certainly not enough to make good use of any stock market foreknowledge from today turn into a big payday. I don't keep up with lottery numbers. I'm not a sports person, so I wouldn't / couldn't make any money off that kind of betting.

If I were motivated enough, I might try to teach myself some music / music production skills and then start releasing my own version of popular songs from the future that haven't been released yet. Maybe I'd luck out and end up with a lucrative music career! Or similarly, I might try to figure out the patenting process and then start patenting ideas for stuff that had not yet been invented, then do my best to become a bit of a patent troll.

There's a slim chance I could save the lives of some relatives, but honestly that's hard to know. I had one family member die suddenly of a heart attack and another that died of an accidental drug overdose. I also had a friend that ignored people's advice to go see a doctor and ended up the problem she was having was cancer, which she passed away from. Apparently, one of her doctors even told the family that if she had gotten treatment a little sooner, things could have turned out quite differently. We'd been telling her to go for at least a year, but if I could go back I would try a lot harder and be more persistent.

I wouldn't change anything, but I would be far less stressed that everything would work out just fine.

I'd be sucking dicks for NVIDIA stock money.

TIL that knowledge is for personal gain.

We're all capitalist girls living in a capitalist world.

Come on barbie let's go... accumulate knowledge for the sole purpose of extracting wealth.

Not as fun of a song :/

I'd tell myself not to waste the time, money or energy on college.

I'm not against it in general, but going for a compsci degree when you've already gotten software dev work is definitely a waste of time unless your employer is paying for it. I just let my dad talk me into it after getting out of a bad job. Thankfully I only wasted one semester on it and got out because I found another job.

Still, that turned out to be $4k in loans for just 6 units because I couldn't file my FAFSA in time to qualify for any grants, thanks to my fucking undiagnosed ADHD father who couldn't be bothered to file his taxes or even give me an accurate income required by the form. That was $4k I could have put into savings or invested instead.

<- should be learning for his comp-sci final whatever right now. I was hoping it would get better. And then sunk cost fallacy...

It's a troll toll. It'll get you a software engineering job with a roman numeral in the title at a company you've actually heard of. But if you're almost done then there's no reason not to stick with it.

The early years of my career were quite a slog, having taught myself to program. I started out on freelancing websites, competing with devs from the third world who worked for pennies a day. I lucked into my first salaried job, got hired through my cousin.

I will say, having some theory knowledge does come in handy occasionally. You might never have to write your own hashtable, but being able to understand the implementation of the structures you're using helps a lot to make informed decisions about how you organize and access data, especially when you're trying to optimize for performance or memory usage.

One piece of unsolicited advice you might have heard before is to not discount the power of networking. The best written cover letter in the world can't hold a candle to knowing someone who can put in a good word. Make friends with your professors and classmates, you never know who might think to look you up one day when their company is hiring. My old boss still offers me a job occasionally, more than five years later.

More time with family. Buy a ton of bitcoin for cheap. Give up smoking sooner.

Buy Bitcoin, short DJT. Stockpile TP.

Mostly stock market shit.

Well I'd have more time to practice flow arts, and I'd know where not to be to get hit with a fake conviction.

I'd probably just shoot my younger self. It's not suicide when it's murder. Or something. Anyway obliterating the universe with a paradox would definitely be a better result than the hell we're currently living in.

Win the lotto for me and a buddy then toss some into investments and properties to sell/rent at a discounted rate following 2019 in comparison to those who inflated theirs. Instead of 2k/m I'll go $1,500 as long as it's still above the profit line I don't need hoards of wealth from it I kinda enjoy working.

Also I'd probably just dump a bunch of money into my kids name to let it start building interest for them.

I'm confused you just randomly have the lotto numbers from a decade back memorized?

You saying "right now" kinda ruins it :)

I'd rather take two more hours to collect some data from the stock markets, and how they went up and down after our beloved lunatic CEO's bigmouth accidents.