You wake up January 1 knowing everything you know now. From the macro to the micro. Covid. Murder hornets. Riots.
If you remember specific lottery numbers or stock swings, go for it. Friend unexpectedly passes? Maybe have one last hangout if it’s something that can’t be avoided.
Other than hoping you’re not in a 6 month long Groundhog Day loop, what are you going to do different?
Personally there’s not much for myself. I’d have purchased another freezer and stocked up on meat before the prices went through the roof. Bought a case of N95 masks from Amazon to supply my family (about 2 dozen people immediately affected). And a pack of TP from Sam’s club when I first heard Coronavirus in the news.
Assuming I transported back to the stroke of midnight on January 1, I would wake up on a plane on my way to North Carolina to be with my dying mother. I’d be grateful to have five additional days with her, and be much more at peace with her passing, knowing she’s going to miss all the shit that’s about to go down.
After that, maybe I’d spend a crazy week in Vegas to get it out of my system before the lock-down, then stock up on toilet paper and hand sanitizer.
We know a bit more than we did then about COVID-19 and how to avoid it, so I’d have less anxiety while chilling at home for a while.
Disinfectants, an extra 24-pack of TP (which is how we normally bought it), stock up on meat (especially beef, which even at the commissary is reacching ridiculous prices), visit the used book stores…
Probably bet a large amount on Southampton to beat Spurs 1-0 as that’s the only result from NYD I actually remembered, and the butterfly effect will pretty much destroy any other sports results I did know very quickly. I don’t think I can leverage any other information to make money, and there’s nothing I can do about COVID preparations without sounding like a lunatic, so probably not that much else.
Possibly apply a lot to Who Wants to Be a Milionaire as if I got on, I’d have a huge advantage. I saw the entire series and would be pretty much guaranteed to win the Fastest Finger First and remember the correct answer to all the questions that actually aired
I would’ve stocked up on a bunch more things than I did, mostly because I actually believed the shut down would only be for 2-3 weeks. Paper products and counter wipes, frozen foods & meat, the Sudafed that forced me to leave the house today because you can’t get it via mail etc.
But if I was sent all the way back to January 1, I’d immediately get a realtor and bought a house. I decided not to sell in the fall because I figured that having to care for 2 roofs all winter/until this house sold would have been really hard…and this turned out to be one of the mildest winters in my whole life and a total non-issue. I can’t imagine I’d hate sheltering in place in a different house more than I do in this house.
And maybe I would’ve gotten another cat immediately after losing Shamus on December 29th, even if introducing him to kittens later would’ve been hard. Living alone with no furry pets though this whole mess has sucked a lot.
Although thinking more about it this won’t work, the question bank for WWtbaM was probably not finalised by 1 Jan and butterfly effect will probably ensure a completely different set of questions.
I don’t know that there is very much I could do differently. Go somewhere for MLK Day weekend, maybe? That’s pretty much the only stretch of time when I could fit in any travel without having to be at work, and the main place I’d want to go is Utah to visit my brother and his family, which is awfully far for a three-day weekend. I did get to see my parents over our spring break right before everything exploded, and I’m glad I did that, even though the wisdom of it seemed like a crapshoot even before I left.
ETA: Oh yeah, I guess I would know for a fact that I do not have [scary medical condition unrelated to COVID-19], so I wouldn’t have to go through the bother and anxiety of being tested for it! I can’t believe I forgot about that.
I don’t know how to go about doing this, but I’d definitely pay a stockbroker for a few hours of his time to entertain a few crazy hypotheticals for me.
The resellers who flipped hand sanitizer and paper products before Amazon went down made a ton of money but also deprived people of essential products. On the other hand, the profit margins on flipping Nintendo Switches and Oculus Quests have been insane - a couple hundred bucks a unit.