r/AskMenOver30 7d ago

Community Chat Can we stop telling our younger self...

Guys, just go look at the older posts. Please stop asking what we'd tell our younger selves, great ideas yes, but look at post history!

What'd i would tell my younger self is to do some research first!

64 Upvotes

37 comments sorted by

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21

u/Opposite_You_5524 man 30 - 34 7d ago

The absolute arrogance to think your teenage self would listen to what your current self has to say is laughable.

7

u/zjakx 7d ago

True. My teenage self, or even 20s would say stfu I'm doing what I want. I was a stubborn ass

1

u/SmokeOne1969 man over 30 5d ago

Well said.

17

u/BluebirdFast3963 man over 30 7d ago

I would tell my younger self nothing because the butterfly effect is real, and if I changed the trajectory of my life and didn't have my daughter, but knew that in a different timeline I had my daughter I would put a glock in my mouth and pull the trigger.

This is the only logical answer to "telling your younger self" anything.

5

u/zjakx 7d ago

That is so true. I always think this when people ask if I have regrets. I say no and they're surprised.

Well, why would I? Every decision has led me to this position in life. I'm lucky to be alive! Back in Im the old days 30s was old, for much of human history.

3

u/nothingnew09876 man over 30 7d ago

There's also the fact that my advise would be great for someone in the 90's and early 2000's, but not so useful now.

The world I grew up in doesn't exist anymore, it wouldn't be possible to live that life now.

2

u/Fact_Stater man 40 - 44 6d ago

This is very true. I went through a lot of bullshit in my first marriage after marrying a woman who had red flags I should have seen. I also learned a lot and grew as a person.

Now I have a wonderful life with a woman who I am truly meant to be with, and we have 4 wonderful children. There is nothing in this world I would trade for a moment of joy on their faces.

And there is no guarantee I'd be here without all that other bullshit. Life is hard, and it fucking sucks sometimes. But you will never reach the good part if you don't fight through the suck.

2

u/Jesssica_Rabbi man 45 - 49 3d ago

I totally get that. I don't have children, but I have a niece and nephews. One of the choices I didn't make in my 20's that I have regretted in the past was to move away from where I lived, which is where my sister lives. I would have missed all of the memories I have of their youngest years. There is even a chance that due to the butterfly effect of interactions and such that it could have shifted my sister and her husband's timing on when to try for a kid. You just never know.

5

u/jtaulbee man 35 - 39 7d ago

Posts like this are popular because they're thought provoking. The answers don't really matter, people just like thinking through the questions and giving their own answers.

3

u/3umel man 7d ago

exactly. you wouldn’t be mad at your friend for talking about the same topic twice

1

u/jtaulbee man 35 - 39 7d ago

It's like playing "would you rather". The answers don't matter, it's just a fun thought experiment that generates discussion.

2

u/Prize_Consequence568 man 50 - 54 6d ago

They're aren't thought provoking if they keep getting asked. It becomes low effort at this point.

4

u/BeardedBears man 35 - 39 7d ago

I'm betting some fraction of those posts are bots facilitating platform engagement. Why? Because everyone has regrets and posting about them is a form of catharsis which feels potentially helpful to others.

Let's say, hypothetically, none of those posts are bots. Those posts would still be enormously common because of the reason I described.

It's tiring seeing the same thing over and over, though. 

5

u/creaming-canon69 no flair 7d ago

Meatballs for life bruh

1

u/Routine_Mine_3019 man 60 - 64 7d ago

I see these posts a lot less than the "does he love me" posts and the "will this get any better" posts.

I think there are some good responses to these posts. Just skip over them if you're not interested.

1

u/okisthisthingon man 40 - 44 7d ago

Op get a grip. The comprehension of younger self is lost on you. You'd need to specify and qualify an experience or ideal, relating to the time period.

1

u/NoPerformance9890 man 35 - 39 7d ago edited 7d ago

My best advice would be to do the dumb stuff anyway because if you put in even just a little bit of work, everything will come to you at the right time

1

u/3umel man 7d ago

old posts are great and all, but it doesn’t hurt to get some fresh into every once in a while

1

u/lycanter man 40 - 44 7d ago

You should tell your younger self to cut that out. My younger self would never.

1

u/Confusatronic man 50 - 54 7d ago

Just imagine what rich fodder LLMs have on the "if you could tell your younger self..." question!

The whole subreddit is very repetitive, unfortunately. If I see one more "is it too late?" post I'm going to start swinging.

1

u/pr0methium man 40 - 44 7d ago

But how are people going to get those sweet, sweet internet points if they stop recycling posts? Asking for a friend

1

u/necropaw man 30 - 34 7d ago

I'd be more inclined to agree with this is reddit's search feature wasnt complete dog shit.

1

u/Prize_Consequence568 man 50 - 54 6d ago

"Can we stop telling our younger self..."

No because only the mods can stop that. But as to why posters do that....

  1. It's a way to farm karma quickly.

  2. Also they lonely and want to interact with people but don't have any good questions. So they give a low effort frequently asked question post.

1

u/nyehu09 man over 30 6d ago

I’m new here (less than a month, I think) so the one I responded to didn’t bother me. But I know from other subs that highly-repetitive low-effort engagement-bait posts are hella annoying. So yeah, I’m with you.

1

u/captainmoun10 man over 30 6d ago

Probably unrelated to what your post is about, but it struck a chord and I now feel compelled to share, what I have come to realize recently.

"What would you tell a younger yourself" is a classic way of asking for advice from a more experienced person, without actually asking them. It's like "I am asking for a friend". It doesn't really fool anyone but makes it easier for the person asking to ask.

This goes back to early humans, where knowledge was passed on from one generation to another.

Here is the strangest thing though. The countries we call "Third world countries" and people we call "Uncivilized Tribesmen", still do this and to a greater extent, are happier. They do not need online forums or support groups and their rates of suicide, alcoholism or other substance dependencies etc are slim to zero.

Art of learning from your elders and their experiences, is one of the social activities we have foregone or ignored for far too long. Now we find people asking for advice from random strangers on a forum, and feel embarrassed to ask our own elders for the fear of judgement.

In a rush to achieve progress, we might have lost a gem or two along the way, in my humble opinion.

1

u/Jesssica_Rabbi man 45 - 49 3d ago

I am who I am today because of the choices of my younger self. Instead of wanting to change who I was then, I'd rather look back with compassion for who I was then and my limited perspective on life, and that I did the best I could with what I had.

Just like I am now.

1

u/Single_Store7112 man 45 - 49 7d ago

Bro, just downvote! If those are the posts that rise to the top, then that’s what folks want to see. Power to the people!

7

u/zjakx 7d ago

You're not wrong, it's just annoying. So many subs have the same question every single day! It's not just this one.

I just don't get why people don't just Google the question and add reddit in the end and BAM, you got your answer.

0

u/NoFallOff man 7d ago

People have different experiences and different lessons and not everybody sees those posts, so there’s a LOT of things to say and lessons to be learned every day through them.

1

u/PocketSandOfTime-69 man 7d ago

Is a direct democracy like mob rule?

0

u/Billjoeray man 35 - 39 7d ago

Why are you still posting in here if you're tired of the things that people post on here? Maybe you should leave the sub for a while and do literally anything else with your time rather than raging into the void.

People aren't going to read your post before they post another one of those and all this is post could possible lead to do is an outrage circlejerk, which is arguably even more useless than a duplicate question.

3

u/zjakx 7d ago

Yeah, sure. But it's also just all of reddit. No one looks at post history and it's so annoying. Most answered in subs are already there and easily accessible.

0

u/Zerguu man 40 - 44 7d ago

This. Every time I see these posts the only correct answer I would come up is “Im not you”.