You can restart your life with one memory, which is it?

[Drathnoxis]

You get a chance to rewind your life all the way back to the beginning. However, you can only hold on to one memory. You have to pick this and make a conscious effort to remember it. I'm not exactly sure how to define a single memory so let's say it's around 30 seconds of 'experience' or a short paragraph of text. You get what you see/hear/smell/taste/etc in the memory but no additional associated memories for context.

Do you go back, and if so which memory do you bring and why?

 

[gorfias]

You get a chance to rewind your life all the way back to the beginning. However, you can only hold on to one memory. You have to pick this and make a conscious effort to remember it. I'm not exactly sure how to define a single memory so let's say it's around 30 seconds of 'experience' or a short paragraph of text. You get what you see/hear/smell/taste/etc in the memory but no additional associated memories for context.

Do you go back, and if so which memory do you bring and why?

I assume you do not mean for profit, such as remember to invest heavily in Netscape and then short it at just the right time. Just a very important memory for the value of that memory. My son sought advice about school wrestling. He was frightened as he found opponents wanted to defeat him. I reminded him that he needed to want to defeat them too. He had to try. He did so and won. That moment was 30 seconds of glory. Add to that taking him out for dinner to celebrate after. So many memories but that one said something about so much to come.

 

[Drathnoxis]

I assume you do not mean for profit, such as remember to invest heavily in Netscape and then short it at just the right time. Just a very important memory for the value of that memory. My son sought advice about school wrestling. He was frightened as he found opponents wanted to defeat him. I reminded him that he needed to want to defeat them too. He had to try. He did so and won. That moment was 30 seconds of glory. Add to that taking him out for dinner to celebrate after. So many memories but that one said something about so much to come.

Could be for profit, but the problem would be what can you bring back, grow up with, and remember to use at the appropriate time. Random stock tips bouncing around inside your head for 20+ years might be a little tough to use and not accidentally miss. Not saying it's impossible, though. I'm giving you the opportunity to change your life, if you desire, not really asking what your best memory is.

So from your example you'd grow up with that memory in your head of your son's 30 seconds of victory. You'd remember he's your son and the actual victory, but nothing else about him nor the dinner afterwards. You don't have to go back in time, though, you can pass on the deal.

 

[Squilookle]

Hardly seems worth it if you can't bring all your memories and lessons with you.

If I did it, I'd do one of two things- either I'd take with me the conversation I had at my school reunion with a girl I had a massive 4 year crush on, who I didn't reveal that to, because my best friend was crazy about her and everyone knew it. At the reunion she asked if I ever wondered why she didn't ever go with my best friend. It turned out she had a crush on me the whole time too.

That knowledge would be pretty life changing had I known that back in middle school.

Either that or I'd spend 30 seconds, right now, cramming as much life advice as I could into one window, then pick that memory to take with me. Maybe I'd just include the advice to let your crushes know that you like them.

 

[EvilRoy]

"Dentistry, not Engineering. The difference between Vocation and Avocation is why you shouldn't go to school for oil painting and writing, but you should still pursue them".

Not to say I'm unsatisfied with my life, I'm able to afford a comfortable existence and I'm reasonably skilled at what I do, but in hindsight I shouldn't have let my decisions be so heavily influenced by the poorly informed opinions of those around me. What bullshit precognition would allow them to understand how the economy was going to shake out or know what pastimes should be kept or left behind. I regret being so weak willed that I gave up on favorite pass times and a whole potential life path in service of a goal that didn't even come close to the promises I was sold by people who had no right to make the promises in the first place.

I guess in more general terms the memory would be "letting other people think for you didn't pan out in fried gold and constant boobies in the face so you may as well do what you want and just play it by ear instead."

 

[McElroy]

"Bitcoin peaked at 19k in late 2017"

Not that there isn't a chance to squander it anyway. Then again why not remember lottery numbers? You say that I'd have to "actively remember it", but having a memory at birth is impossible anyway, so when would I start to remember this selected memory? Honestly it's a bit difficult to think about a memory from this life (other than money-related) that would seriously alter the restarted one for better. Something like "this girl likes you, but unless you do something about it the last time you will see her is in the Summer of '08" could work out well, but it could also be for nothing.

 

[Elfgore]

"Bitcoin peaked at 19k in late 2017"

Add in lowest trench too and you got my choice. Once you get rich in the U.S., it's pretty much impossible to go back unless you seriously fuck up.

 

[gorfias]

So from your example you'd grow up with that memory in your head of your son's 30 seconds of victory. You'd remember he's your son and the actual victory, but nothing else about him nor the dinner afterwards. You don't have to go back in time, though, you can pass on the deal.

Seeing the victory and nothing else would, I think, keep me moving in that direction in my life. An interesting thought experiment, thanks!

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

The memory of having sex, just in case I don't get lucky the second time around.

 

[Asita]

...Anyone else think of Brad Paisley's "Letter to Me" when they saw this thread?

For me, I'd say that it's a lesson I wish I'd learned earlier: "Don't wait for the perfect moment. Other people won't play to your script". Many of my regrets - particularly socially - come down to me waiting for an opportune moment and then being paralyzed with inaction because the opportune moment never came. So the one bit of knowledge I think I'd benefit most from in a New Game+ is that I need to be more adaptable and take greater initiative.

"Bitcoin peaked at 19k in late 2017"

Add in lowest trench too and you got my choice. Once you get rich in the U.S., it's pretty much impossible to go back unless you seriously fuck up.

I'll do you one better: "Invest in Amazon, 1997". $18 a share then, $1732 today. There's a major problem with that, though. I'm not even in high school in 1997. Even if I had the money to heavily invest in Amazon back then, there's no way the adults would take my ravings seriously enough to let me.

 

[jademunky]

I don't see how any one memory, devoid of context, would be of any value whatsoever.

I mean, my individual memories are only important insofar as they relate to other memories: My wedding day was a very happy memory because of the really good times leading up to it. The day I signed the divorce papers was a happy memory because of the really bad times leading up to it etc.....

I guess I'd pick a generally soothing happy memory (like laying down comfortably in a field or something) just because why not? Starting out a chill, laid-back baby might do nothing at all but is also unlikely to do harm.

 

[Kyrian007]

I'd remember that time my entire life flashed before my eyes. Assuming that happens sometime between now and when I get the choice to go back. The only time that has happened to me so far is when I was 13, and just remembering up until that point wouldn't be very useful.

 

[Xprimentyl]

I'd remember that time my entire life flashed before my eyes? The only time that has happened to me so far is when I was 13?

That sounds like the foreshadow-y opening lines spoken by a disembodied narrator at the start of a film in which he reflects on events leading up to the day something significant happened and his life flashed before his eyes. Y?know the ones I?m talking about: camera pans down slowly from streetlight-height onto a wiry 13-year-old on a bike who comes careening down the street, drops the bike haphazardly in a front lawn, runs in an unlocked front door, gets admonished over the shoulder of a busy-cooking, stay-at-home mom, shenanigans with neighborhood friends ensue, and they accidentally smash the window of a mysterious, curmudgeonly old man or they accidentally open a gateway to Hell?

Basically, I?m now curious: what happened when you were 13 to cause your life to flash before your eyes?

 

[Kyrian007]

I'd remember that time my entire life flashed before my eyes? The only time that has happened to me so far is when I was 13?

That sounds like the foreshadow-y opening lines spoken by a disembodied narrator at the start of a film in which he reflects on events leading up to the day something significant happened and his life flashed before his eyes. Y?know the ones I?m talking about: camera pans down slowly from streetlight-height onto a wiry 13-year-old on a bike who comes careening down the street, drops the bike haphazardly in a front lawn, runs in an unlocked front door, gets admonished over the shoulder of a busy-cooking, stay-at-home mom, shenanigans with neighborhood friends ensue, and they accidentally smash the window of a mysterious, curmudgeonly old man or they accidentally open a gateway to Hell?

Basically, I?m now curious: what happened when you were 13 to cause your life to flash before your eyes?

I did something really... realllllly stupid. I rowed a boat towards a tornado. We were at a summer camp and were boating on the "lake" (it was a mossy bottomed farm pond about 3' deep at most and no more than 100 or so yards square.) Just before the siren at the camp went off our councilor started hollering for us to come back to the dock. We did and when the siren went off we started off toward the camp's shelter about 1/8th of a mile away. That's when we heard screaming. One of the camp's 2 pedal boats was on the other side of the pond, moss had gotten tangled in the paddles and it was stuck again. The 2 girls in the boat seemed trapped. Me and a friend turned back, jumped in rowboats, and headed towards them to help.

Knowing what I know about storms now, we weren't really ever in that much danger. Seeing it with what I know now I would have correctly judged its path to most likely have missed us... and seeing the path it did take back then it missed us by more than a mile or so. But back then... in a rowboat headed towards it... I didn't think anything but it was going to kill us. We got over there, we ditched the boats and convinced the girls to do the same and waded to the far shore and made our way back to the shelter. It might have seemed heroic, but the water was 3' deep. We could have just yelled that from the shore, or just ran around the lake yelling until they figured that out. The boats probably took us twice or 3 times the time to get there. Plus, if there's a place you DON'T want to be in a tornado, its on the water. It seemed heroic, it sounded brave. But it really was stupidly dangerous, had it been headed directly at us it would have been completely pointless and would have resulted in 4 deaths instead of just 2 if we had simply fled or maybe none if we had just handled it smarter. But I had enough time in that boat on the trip over that yes, I had that moment of reflection of the life that had brought me to that point.

Because you brought up the "gateway to Hell" I did also have an encounter with what my friends and I thought was a demonic possession and an exorcism... but that's more for a "tell your scariest true story" Halloween theme thread. To spoil that story if I ever tell it, the ending is a punch line rather than an actual horror story ending.

 

[Xprimentyl]

I'd remember that time my entire life flashed before my eyes? The only time that has happened to me so far is when I was 13?

That sounds like the foreshadow-y opening lines spoken by a disembodied narrator at the start of a film in which he reflects on events leading up to the day something significant happened and his life flashed before his eyes. Y?know the ones I?m talking about: camera pans down slowly from streetlight-height onto a wiry 13-year-old on a bike who comes careening down the street, drops the bike haphazardly in a front lawn, runs in an unlocked front door, gets admonished over the shoulder of a busy-cooking, stay-at-home mom, shenanigans with neighborhood friends ensue, and they accidentally smash the window of a mysterious, curmudgeonly old man or they accidentally open a gateway to Hell?

Basically, I?m now curious: what happened when you were 13 to cause your life to flash before your eyes?

I did something really... realllllly stupid. I rowed a boat towards a tornado. We were at a summer camp and were boating on the "lake" (it was a mossy bottomed farm pond about 3' deep at most and no more than 100 or so yards square.) Just before the siren at the camp went off our councilor started hollering for us to come back to the dock. We did and when the siren went off we started off toward the camp's shelter about 1/8th of a mile away. That's when we heard screaming. One of the camp's 2 pedal boats was on the other side of the pond, moss had gotten tangled in the paddles and it was stuck again. The 2 girls in the boat seemed trapped. Me and a friend turned back, jumped in rowboats, and headed towards them to help.

Knowing what I know about storms now, we weren't really ever in that much danger. Seeing it with what I know now I would have correctly judged its path to most likely have missed us... and seeing the path it did take back then it missed us by more than a mile or so. But back then... in a rowboat headed towards it... I didn't think anything but it was going to kill us. We got over there, we ditched the boats and convinced the girls to do the same and waded to the far shore and made our way back to the shelter. It might have seemed heroic, but the water was 3' deep. We could have just yelled that from the shore, or just ran around the lake yelling until they figured that out. The boats probably took us twice or 3 times the time to get there. Plus, if there's a place you DON'T want to be in a tornado, its on the water. It seemed heroic, it sounded brave. But it really was stupidly dangerous, had it been headed directly at us it would have been completely pointless and would have resulted in 4 deaths instead of just 2 if we had simply fled or maybe none if we had just handled it smarter. But I had enough time in that boat on the trip over that yes, I had that moment of reflection of the life that had brought me to that point.

Because you brought up the "gateway to Hell" I did also have an encounter with what my friends and I thought was a demonic possession and an exorcism... but that's more for a "tell your scariest true story" Halloween theme thread. To spoil that story if I ever tell it, the ending is a punch line rather than an actual horror story ending.

Yeesh, that was pretty dumb (not judging, just agreeing,) but your intentions were good, and in high-stress situations like that, our best judgment can be hard to exercise. All the same, kudos; I?m sure those girls were grateful.

 

[Kyrian007]

Yeesh, that was pretty dumb (not judging, just agreeing,) but your intentions were good, and in high-stress situations like that, our best judgment can be hard to exercise. All the same, kudos; I?m sure those girls were grateful.

I've heard people in dangerous situations afterwards say things like "it all happened so fast, I didn't think." This wasn't one of those. Rowing a boat about 75 yards or so isn't "an instant." Had plenty of time to realize it was stupid... while I was doing it. But I was 13, it isn't hard for me in my 40s now to admit that.

And grateful... not as much as one might think after it turned out we wouldn't have been hit. And to the camp adults it was just enough to save our bacon for leaving our group. No kudos, but no punishment. No punishment for the councilor who left them behind either, after all he "saved" the rest of the group. It was a lesson, "don't be a hero, it isn't worth it."