Look man, If I wanted to disappoint two people at once I’d take my parents out for dinner or find a couple of neurotypicals and have a threesome.

I’m one of the few people who’s 14 yo self would fucking admire, mostly for stupid teenage horny reasons but also video game industry reasons.

I’m playing video games all day every day. He would be amazed. It’s adult me knows it’s bad

14-year-old me would not be impressed, but 24-year-old me would be.

The difference is experience and understanding what the hell we’re all up against.

If I had advice to give my younger self, I’d have to be very careful about the whole causality problem. At 45 I have two awesome kids aged 5 and 2. I have an amazing wife who multiplies both my happiness and ability to make a living. Both my wife and I were previously divorced. I wouldn’t change anything that might prevent me from meeting her and helping to bring my kids into the world.

If I had perfect temporal guardrails that would ensure this family path, I’d tell my younger self that it works out pretty well in the long run, but huge mistakes were needed to forge me into who I am today. Also, buy Nvidia stock.

I’m not sure if I’d be proud or disappointed.

I don’t know if I’d be excited that I found things that made life worth living, or consider myself a failure for getting it wrong when I tried. Reflecting on that age, I don’t think myself an idiot or anything, I just see a kid who tried their best with what they had, and had already given up on what seemed like an inescapable situation. I feel bad for 14 year-old me, and I’m not sure I’d be able to face that kid without feeling completely destroyed.

Listen, I’m not here to impress a mentally ill child. But also no.

ftfy.

I dunno about “proud”, 14-year-old me was around when saying “gay” was usually a punchline, or an insult. Maybe he’d be surprised about my ex-boyfriend. Or my current boyfriend.

Whatever problems he might have with my current self, he’d definitely come around after all the insider trading information I’d give him. Then he’d definitely be quick about doing things I actually wish I’d done sooner, like quitting marching band and switching to theatre. Focusing on trades, rather than racking up debt, then later burning out trying to get an engineering degree. Things like that.

I would just encourage 14 year old me to knock my dad out until he figured out I wasn’t his beast of burden to yell and scream at. The last time he laid hands on me was 14. At the time I didn’t realize I physically intimidated him.

Probably not 14-year-old me, but 12-year-old me, yes, because I used to lie to my classmates that I lived in a three-story geodesic dome home with a hot tub on the top main floor, and now that I am an adult, by complete and total happenstance, I live in a three-story geodesic dome with a hot tub on the top main floor.

I am not attempting to defend my lying, I know it was stupid, it was foolish, and I regret it to this very day, but it is interesting that it became the truth eventually.

14 year old me would be very impressed with the things I have in my garage, but I’m not sure he’d be impressed with a depressed man in his 30’s.

I’m an incredibly lucky man

I’ve led a life that even I sometimes have to remind myself isn’t a dream

I have loved deeply, been married, divorced, engaged again to the person who is my best friend

I have travelled, seen amazing things, lived in a few countries and experienced things I couldn’t have imagined

I have studied at university, as well as getting a trade and progressing a very long with that

I have been wealthy, I own some stuff that the younger me would think is pretty cool, but I have few material possessions now because “stuff” doesn’t really matter to me

I have lived in some of the biggest cities in the world, and now I enjoy peace and quiet in one of the most beautiful places in the world

The porn I create has tens of millions of views, I’ve done things that are wild, creative and on occasion, sexy

I’m the luckiest bastard on Earth

I think i would be mostly proud of myself. I did a lot of things right, but recently i keep asking myself the question “would i want to spend time with myself”? Like if there was a perfect clone of myself, same mindset, same body, same everything, would i like them?

Most of my life, the answer has been “Yes”. Now, i’m starting to respond to it with “no”, actually not. I’m just not the kind of person myself that i myself would like to be around; ironically that’s what makes me more popular among other people, it seems. So i’ve traded liking to be around myself to others liking to be around me. I still like myself, but i wouldn’t wanna be with another version of myself, if that makes sense. Of some things, there better exist only one of it, if you know what i mean.

If 14 year old me isn’t impressed with all the MILFs I hang out with on the regular now, #1 being my wife, his judgment can’t be trusted.

I would kick 14 year old me in the ribs without a second thought. Kid was dumb af.