# The "If I knew then what I know now" thread.
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-if-i-knew-then-what-i-know-now-thread/308263
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [June 14, 2005, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-if-i-knew-then-what-i-know-now-thread/308263 "2005-06-14T19:44:16Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Lady\_Venom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lady_Venom)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2005, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-if-i-knew-then-what-i-know-now-thread/308263/1 "2005-06-14T19:44:16Z")
I know it is said that everything happens for a reason, but what would you have done differently (or the same) had you known then, what you know now??
[ul]
[li]I would have taken charge of my fertility sooner[/li][li]I still would have married my ex, but I would have left him earlier.[/li][li]I would have kept a closer eye on my sister when she was an unruly teen.[/li][/ul]
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### Author:  [@Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hey_It_s_That_Guy)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2005, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-if-i-knew-then-what-i-know-now-thread/308263/2 "2005-06-14T19:49:58Z")
I would have studied something better in school.
I would have stayed up later, dated more, partied harder, had more fun.
I wouldn’t have gone to law school.
I’ve made a huge mistake. ☹
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### Author:  [@Lady\_Venom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lady_Venom)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2005, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-if-i-knew-then-what-i-know-now-thread/308263/3 "2005-06-14T19:52:51Z")
Ooh, I’m sorry. Didn’t mean to make you ☹
Happy thoughts!!
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### Author:  [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2005, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-if-i-knew-then-what-i-know-now-thread/308263/4 "2005-06-14T19:52:57Z")
I started to answer this, but I don’t want to sink into regrets. We all have decisions we wish we could change. I hope I can just learn from the mistakes i have made.
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### Author:  [@Lady\_Venom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lady_Venom)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2005, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-if-i-knew-then-what-i-know-now-thread/308263/5 "2005-06-14T20:03:01Z")
I didn’t mean for this to be a depressing thread.
I have one that my client just answered…
I would have made sure the pool installation guy put the proper valve on the hose so that if/when the hose broke the pool wouldn’t START EMPTYING INTO MY BASEMENT!!!
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### Author:  [@Rodd\_Hill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodd_Hill)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2005, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-if-i-knew-then-what-i-know-now-thread/308263/6 "2005-06-14T20:05:14Z")
That $5000 you came into in 1982? And basically pissed away?
Two words.
Micro. And Soft.
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### Author:  [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2005, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-if-i-knew-then-what-i-know-now-thread/308263/7 "2005-06-14T20:07:51Z")
I’ve made a couple of poor financial decisions that I regret (which actually sound completely minor compared to the financial decisions of everyone I know).
But as far as school, locations, relationships, not much. I left grad school with a masters after going there to get a Ph.D. I don’t regret not getting the Ph.D. I regret, a little, not leaving earlier. But actually, staying there that long led to a great opportunity. So I don’t really regret it at all.
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### Author:  [@arjee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/arjee)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2005, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-if-i-knew-then-what-i-know-now-thread/308263/8 "2005-06-14T20:14:40Z")
I would have been less of a control freak with my son when he was younger.
I would have taken better care of myself, physical health-wise.
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2005, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-if-i-knew-then-what-i-know-now-thread/308263/9 "2005-06-14T20:26:12Z")
> [@Rodd Hill](#):
>
> That $5000 you came into in 1982? And basically pissed away?
>
> Two words.
>
> Micro. And Soft.
In 1982 I’d heard about this new company called Microsoft. I thought it would be an excellent investment. But $50 per share? I was just a kid! (Well, relatively speaking.) I was making minimum wage doing data entry at the air force base, and didn’t have the money to spare.
Beechcraft T-34. My dad, who was in the FAA, told me in the mid-1980s that someone was selling surplus T-34s for $5,000 each. No engines, and they needed some other parts. I told him he should get one, but he said that it would take $50,000 to get it airborne. Back in the '90s I saw one sell at auction for $250,000.
More recently: If I had known that it would take more than two years, and much more than I had intended to spend, to restore my '66 MGB roadster, I would have bought one already-restored. It would have been cheaper, and I would have been driving it these last two years.
If my mom had been a couple of weeks quicker saying that she would buy the house my sister and I inherited, we could have sold it to her and inherited it again.
If I hadn’t gone skiing one time to many, I could have realised my dream of flying jets off of aircraft carriers.
In retrospect, I should have kept my dead-end job and completed college instead of going into a career in computers. I would have had touble living, but I’d be in a better situation now.
I should never have let my career sidetrack my filmmaking.
_Right now_ I should bite the bullet and invest in more flight training. I should get re-trained in fixed-wings and get my Instrument Rating and Commercial Pilot Certificate. Then I should take the test for Commercial Pilot Helicopter and get my Flight Instructor rating. Then I could fly while somebody else paid for the aircraft.
There are lots of other things I would have done differently. I’d not be so naïve in my dealings with people. I would have had more confidence in asking women out. And so much more…
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### Author:  [@Rich\_Mann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rich_Mann)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2005, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-if-i-knew-then-what-i-know-now-thread/308263/10 "2005-06-14T20:48:35Z")
My biggest regret is helping my neice find her deadbeat Dead-head dad.
I can’t be sure things would have been different and better otherwise, but I believe they would have.
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### Author:  [@Velma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velma)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2005, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-if-i-knew-then-what-i-know-now-thread/308263/11 "2005-06-14T20:49:09Z")
I look back at some things now and want to smack myself around for being so stupid. Miraculously things turned out ok, even great in some cases. I’ve had some near misses though…sheesh! Someone was watching out for me. So knowing now what the outcome was I guess I wouldn’t change much, but if that same choice was presented to me tomorrow I wouldn’t risk it again.
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### Author:  [@Agent\_Foxtrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agent_Foxtrot)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2005, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-if-i-knew-then-what-i-know-now-thread/308263/12 "2005-06-14T20:54:18Z")
I would have worked harder and done better in school, and I **definitely** would’ve joined Americorps instead of the Air Force. Now I’m a year too old to join. ☹
Adam
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### Author:  [@fishbicycle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fishbicycle)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2005, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-if-i-knew-then-what-i-know-now-thread/308263/13 "2005-06-14T20:55:26Z")
If I knew then what I know now, my whole life would have been 'way different. OTOH, I’m not a believer in fate, but what if I’d done one thing differently? I may not have ended up in Florida married to a wonderful woman and working at my dream job. So who knows? Maybe all that stuff I regret was the dues I paid to get what I have now.
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### Author:  [@Draelin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Draelin)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2005, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-if-i-knew-then-what-i-know-now-thread/308263/14 "2005-06-14T21:00:49Z")
For the love of all that’s holy _don’t_ ask him what’s so wrong with you that he doesn’t want to stay together. It will ruin your self esteem for at least the next ten years.
And finish college, you idiot.
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### Author:  [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2005, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-if-i-knew-then-what-i-know-now-thread/308263/15 "2005-06-14T21:07:53Z")
I probably would have majored in politics or international relations instead of anthropology. But I still like anthropology and it was what I wanted at the time, so it’s hard to get upset about it. Although everything hasn’t always turned out the way I wanted (like moving across the country for an opportunity that didn’t pan out), I’ve learned a lot. If things had gone exactly as I’d planned, that would have been almost too easy. Dealing with the stupid shit has made me stronger.
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### Author:  [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2005, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-if-i-knew-then-what-i-know-now-thread/308263/16 "2005-06-14T21:08:04Z")
Damn your mother. Wear the vintage red flapper dress.
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### Author:  [@elfbabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfbabe)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2005, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-if-i-knew-then-what-i-know-now-thread/308263/17 "2005-06-14T21:08:49Z")
Like others, I wouldn’t want to mess up what I’ve got going for me now.
But on the other hand… I really should have dumped my first boyfriend a year and a bit before I actually did. And considering _only_ extremely selective universities when deciding where to apply, just because I _could_ get into extremely selective universities… in retrospect, that wasn’t such a good idea either.
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### Author:  [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2005, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-if-i-knew-then-what-i-know-now-thread/308263/18 "2005-06-14T21:25:53Z")
I would have thought with my head and not my heart.
I would have made a more sensible career decision.
Of course, that means I wouldn’t have met my wife or ended up where I am now.
One thing for sure, I wouldn’t have bought that used Volvo.
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### Author:  [@Ghanima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ghanima)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2005, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-if-i-knew-then-what-i-know-now-thread/308263/19 "2005-06-14T21:40:13Z")
I would have always driven on the right hand side of the double yellow line (whoops!)
I would have thrown the pipe away instead of trying to get through airport security with it.
I would have not been quite so promiscuous. Almost, but not quite. 🙂
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### Author:  [@SolGrundy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SolGrundy)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2005, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-if-i-knew-then-what-i-know-now-thread/308263/20 "2005-06-14T21:47:39Z")
> [@Ghanima](#):
>
> I would have not been quite so promiscuous. Almost, but not quite. 🙂
Heh, I would’ve been **more** promiscous. And less fearful.
And I never should’ve started smoking.
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