Looking back ten years I used a different set of tools for a different set of programming languages for different purposes. This has been a general pattern as the industry has evolved over my career.

Yes I have a good depth and breadth of knowledge that would help me pick things up but I’m not sure relearning the technology would be different from learning a new one, and all the frustrations of old tech would be there.

As an example, I’d have to relearn the ins and outs of virtual machines and would be damn frustrated to lose the benefits of containers. All that fiddling around with networks, and being tied to specific component brands to get scalable performance. Having to relearn something like puppet or ansible or chef to build out the machines instead of a straightforward dockerfile. And the frustration of how slow it all is and not being able to run anywhere

We have a winner!

I have no callouses or stamina. It would take a long time for me to become productive at labor. As an older guy, maybe never

No medicine, no hospitals, no diagnostic or treatment tools? No trauma care. How much can you really do?

As a non-medical person, I can’t do much more than sterilize a wound and apply a bandage. All respect to you but that far back would you be able to do any more?

Can you do it without a shovel? Even if hard packed? What if there’s a rock too big for you to lift?

As a software engineer, I’d struggle with the limitations of ten years ago.

But on the non-work side, I have no problems with maintenance on my house and hand tools haven’t changed much, so at least 80 years

I’ve read stuff like this online and was hoping it wasn’t real

I certainly hope this becomes true but plastic is damn useful.

On my own journey to reduce plastics in my life, I went back to cotton t-shirts. However it’s been enough years that they need to be replaced but the rayon blend t-shirts of the same age are still nice looking

We can at least cut back but it’s not going to be easy

Gasoline powered vehicles. Not only are they horrible for the environment and require toxic substances that impact people’s health, but they’re so expensive and high wear. All those moving parts, barely controlled explosions: WTF we’re those people thinking?

As electric vehicles enter the mainstream, they’re just simpler, more straightforward, and you can plug in overnight like you do with your phone. The complexity, moving parts, excessive maintenance will be like steampunk is for us (I already joke about that) and people won’t comprehend having to goto a local gas station and handle toxic fuels to fuel up. What is an oil change and who would do that? They won’t be able to comprehend the lead contamination, breathing in benzene, groundwater pollution, etc

There are tv plot points about employers doing a background check, finding the wrong details, so not hiring someone. In real life I hope they would take a few steps to confirm

Have you searched for the name outside your family line? I know you said misspelling but my last name is rare because it was made up by immigration on Ellis Island: they couldn’t understand my ancestor so decided “close enough”. Same thing as a rare misspelling.

Before the internet, we knew of one unrelated person with the same last name but only because he was he was geographically close enough to be in a neighboring phone book. When someone took my Gmail (identical first initial, last name) it was a relative. Now with the internet and person search we’ve found a handful, but only a handful

No, I hope I’d have the self-confidence to own it.

• I went to school with a kid named “dick”. Not Richard or rich, but he insisted on “dick”. He was the first to joke about his name and he laughed about it. I don’t know how he truly felt but everyone loves the comedian, and even bullies couldn’t make fun of him
• I just got a new coworker with the same name as a famous comedian, and same deal. His intro speech started with “not that one”, and he can quote movie lines with the best of us. Actually I haven’t worked with him so know nothing else about him. I remember his name and that he has a good sense of humor
• my name Isn’t at all common but there’s a professor in Chicago with the same name, who has authored a bunch of text books. Does it count that I sometimes joke about my “alternate life”?

I’ve been wondering this too, but out of sheer convenience. I even already have a trimmer for my beard. I like my hair short and usually describe it as “number 3|6 trimmer on the sides and back ….” And I should be able to do that.

Why do I need to use my time to find a barbershop that hasn’t shut down, go sit in a waiting room for 30-60 minutes, have to describe to someone new how I want May hair, and end up with something inconsistent anyway. I can be inconsistent on my own, thank you

If there was ever a good use case for a voice assistant, this would be it.

I don’t like saying it, because it feels like assuming their religion/superstition, especially since I work with a lot of people from countries where Christianity is not the dominant religion. It seems rude.

But it’s polite to acknowledge their sneeze, respond to it: what else do you say? I went through a “gesundheit ” phase but I’m not German.

Come up with an alternative and let’s make it so

I never understood why people like Nutella, especially since I should be one of them

• as someone who loves hazelnuts, it does not taste like hazelnut
• as someone who loves chocolate, any chocolate flavor is below even Hersheys
• tastes like lard, or maybe play dough

Maybe it’s similar to peanut butter, where including the actual ingredients could make a huge difference. If anyone knows of a “natural” equivalent with actual hazelnut butter and actual chocolate, I’d love to try it

Out of curiosity, do you also stand by that for natural peanut butter?

• I grew up with Jif and never understood why people say it tastes like lard
• Now I’ve been eating natural peanut butter for decades. It has a better texture and tastes like actual peanuts
• I recently tried Jif …… gross, tastes like lard, texture like lard

That did not work for me

Although i thought it was sufficient growing up, despite a larger family and more food waste

• maybe i was a kid and didnt notice
• maybe metal garbage cans with toght lids sealed better
• naybe it was just a ventilated garage

I don’t think you sufficiently respect the mess, the smell, the vermin, from a week of rotting exposed food waste. Not to mention the dog waste

Even today there are longer term advantages to getting married. At least women now have economic alternatives so aren’t forced into it, but … you still have things like survivor benefits and inheritance rules that would make a huge difference later in life.

—- For example spousal benefits in social security

• https://www.ssa.gov/oact/quickcalc/spouse.html
• a couple generations ago, women were unlikely to have a career where they’d earn any appreciable social security benefits. But assuming the rule was similar back then, a woman could collect based on their spouses or even ex’s earnings
• my parents generation was very traditional, but my mom faced getting a job later in life with no work experience after my father passed. However as a married woman she collected survivorship benefits then and spousal benefits now, where she had very few options
• my ex has her own career and is doing ok, but when the time comes will likely get more from social security based on my income than her own. This is directly from being married long enough and even though we no longer are