Besides the obvious answer of making money, or rather, how would you do it as an 8 year old? What else would you do?
Definitely get into programming at an earlier age. My mom’s work gave her one of those green monitor computers when I was around this age, but I didn’t know how to work it so it was useless. I bet I could find some books about how to use it at the library or something.
Write more, including the sci-fi ideas I have in my head now so it’s kinda future-predicting.
Don’t take my high school sweetheart back when they break up and want to get back together (or break up with them earlier than I did).
Start using my study skills I know now in Jr High so I can actually kill it in high school like I thought I would.
Get diagnosed for narcolepsy in high school so I can further my potential.
Oh, and not eat all that McDonalds and other fast food as a kid/teenager!!
Damn, I accidentally responded to you with my comment for the whole thing. Sorry!
But in response to you - what kind of allies? LGBTQ+? Political?
keep head down, shut mouth, don’t draw attention, find allies
The real question, I guess, would be how to strike out on my own as a literal child. School was repetitive the first time, and my home life was pretty mid as well.
Funny story, I think I actually had enough savings at that point to live on for a month or two. I was a weird kid.
Hug my mom
After that I’d probably start the process of establishing that I’m trans, and I’d actually study and put effort into applying to good schools as time goes on.
Convince my parents to put all their money in some fruit company about apples.
I’d spend a lot of its mourning that I’d never be able to replicate my daughter as she is now. I could time it right to get the right egg, but how many wanks, exactly, and when did I have? How could I possibly even guarantee the right sperm even if I manage to secure the same payload?
Probably instead just ride the bitcoin wave hard as hell and start my own game dev company.
Also I’d be better equipped towards mad anxiety disorder. That shit absolutely ruined my life and it took about 3 years before I realised something was actually wrong.
Go to the library a lot. Learn and master the art of lock picking. Make more friends at school (networking). Wear crocs way before they’re cool.
there’s still time to get into crocs. they’re not going to be cool for a while.
LOL. Truer words have never been spoken.
In 1976 give mom and dad a list of large corporations to buy stock in for for my Christmas and birthday gifts. Well into adulthood, buy Bitcoin. Tell my grandmother to go to her doctor and start cancer treatments.
1979 for me and that is exactly what I’m thinking.
I’d go insane
Estrogen. If that plan fails (and it probably would) then DIY orchiectomy. And if that plan fails (and it might) or is otherwise counteracted then I would die by my own hand.
The situation of my eight-year-old self is antithetical to the being of my current mind. My knowledge and understanding would force me to take certain paths and many of them lead to situations beyond my make-it-stop threshold. Is it better to walk to one’s doom unknowingly, or to be dragged beaten ragged and screaming into the confinement of hell?
I would wanna see what all this IRC stuff is all about
Talk my mom into putting us into a better school. Cry because I have to be a kid again. Be an academic hyperachiever, then get ridiculously early onset Alzheimer’s at like 30 years old.
1985. It's 4 years before my first D&D game. 3 years before I pick up a guitar. 10 years before I start snowboarding. 20 years before I convince my republican parents there's a better way. Suddenly I am fluent in several languages, as if by magic. I have a grasp on global politics and the knowledge of what's to come. What do I do? Play. All day. I swim. I run. I bike. I draw. I skate. I be. And I plot.Honestly, I think that would suck quite a bit. I would have the intelligence and experience of an adult trapped in the body of an 8 year old and dependent on my parents. I wouldn’t be able to live independently for years. It would also be difficult to speak and act like an 8 year old. I have a university degree and an 8 year old with university level education would probably make me some weird child prodigy. Not only would I be dependent on my parents, but everyone would be pushing for me to be some genius by the time I’m an adult. I’d eventually grow up to be a huge disappointment. So really I’d kind of just be reliving the past!
The only saving grace is that I might be able to make some money off investing in tech companies and crypto before their drastic increase in value. At least I wouldn’t need to work my entire life.
I think that, while making money would be a primary goal, we would start to act like ourselves again and end up falling back into childish behaviors because that’s what the others would expect of us, and we’d just have that freedom.
Totally agree. At first, they’d think you’re a genius, but you’d only be a genius as an 8 yo. Unless you kept progressing and getting smarter, eventually your age would catch up to your intelligence and you’d just be… well you.
Also, being 8 with the memories and experience of an adult would probably keep us from doing all the dumbass shit we did as kids. Some of it could’ve killed is, but I’m betting most of it was pretty rad at the time.
But here’s the fun thing, your brain is incredibly flexible when you are that age. So your ability to learn and retain at the age of 8 would be significantly easier than it is as an adult. So yes if you put your mind to it, you could potentially be significantly smarter than you are as an adult.
Long story short this could easily 2x your education giving you genius level intelligence you’d get to retain even when you become an adult again.
Fair point, but this assumes I’m relatively intelligent as a middle-aged adult. For the likelihood of that, I’ll refer you to George Carlin’s timeless message about the average person!
At first, they’d think you’re a genius, but you’d only be a genius as an 8 yo. Unless you kept progressing and getting smarter, eventually your age would catch up to your intelligence and you’d just be… well you.
That’s literally what happened to me in high school.
