Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Hypothetical Thinking

Let's say you find a genie in a lamp. 

Let's call him Norm.

He's really glad to be out of that goddamn lamp, so he decides to grant you a wish. But he's also pretty cheesed off at the last guy who stuffed him in there, so he's not predisposed to grant just any old thing you desire. Instead Norm the Genie offers you a very specific opportunity: "I will let you go back to any point in your life and choose a different path from the one you took at the time. But in order to receive this wish, you must obey three rules."

Norm's rules are:

  1. You can only change something you did (or didn't do), not anyone else's actions or decisions.
  2. You can only make a choice that was actually available to you at the time based on the person you were - in other words, no inventing the Mac before Steve Jobs or picking the next 10 Super Bowl winners.
  3. You have to decide whether you want the consequences of your choice to be permanent - before you find out what they are.
Telling Norm "no, thanks" is not an option, because he will hound you with bad jokes and an annoying accent until you agree to take him up on his offer.

So...what would you do?

Discuss and comment.

4 comments:

  1. My biggest regret is dropping out of college and not getting a degree...that being said, I am very happy with my life and I don't know if I would like how it turned out if I didn't get married so young and have babies so young. So stressful to think about...

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  2. I would go back to the moment before I rubbed the lamp and not rub it... my life is just that AWESOME!... no really!

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  3. I know exactly what I would change and make permanent. That would signiificantly have minimized the bullshit factor of my 40 plus years.

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You're thinking it, you may as well type it. The only comments you'll regret are the ones you don't leave. Also, replies to threads make puppies grow big and strong.