Besides the obvious answer of making money, or rather, how would you do it as an 8 year old? What else would you do?
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.
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 would wanna see what all this IRC stuff is all about
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?
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.
I’d go insane
Play ragnarok online.
Let’s see so it’s '02, which means I’m powerless to try to stop 9/11. That’s pretty much my only time travel plan, it’s my “kill baby Hitler”, so that sucks.
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.First, I would convince some of those old crazy ass mercenaries that my uncle used to hang out with that Donald Trump touched me. This would be in 1992. Then I’d work my ass off mowing lawns and doing chores and saving every bit of money I could, invest in apple and other big stocks that I could get as they came out before they hit big, id sell them and invest in Tesla before Elon could get in on it, and Bitcoin. Id use my wealth to invest in solar so that it takes off earlier. Create a Superfund to counter lobbyists like the dark roofing lobby. What a completely asinine thing. Just switch to making white roofing materials? Use my wealth and power to become president, reverse citizens United and bring back a 90% tax on the wealthiest people. (Yes, Including myself.) Boom. World saved.
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.
I am sure I would start out trying to excel and impress people but I’d very quickly become depressed and lazy because I can’t relate to anyone my age and school would be stupidly easy. I’d probably play more videogames
