Basically the title, you need to use the skills you have now and be a productive member of society.
I don’t mean go back and show the wheel or try invent germ theory etc.
For example I’m a mechanic i think I could go back to the late 1800s and still fix and repair engines and steam engines.
Maybe even take that knowledge further back and work on the first industrial machines in the late 1700s but that’s about it.
I could be an excellent prostitute, so checkmate motherfuckers.
My skills travel pretty far. But with my gender id not be allowed to use them.
I put all my skill points in computers so I could go back to the 70’s maybe. The computers made before the ibm pc still seem close enough to be usable by me.
I could also go to neolithic era as rock-on-stick-skull-crusher
I’m a musician, so my skills have always been in demand, although the wages have always been in dispute for as long as there has been music. People love music, they just don’t like to pay for it.
I can learn new things, so any time in human history.
If I had access to good quality copper, I could invent electricity and do very well for myself.
So long as I can avoid Ur in the 18th century BC, I could go back pretty far.
Don’t buy it from Ea-Nasir, he’s got a complaint.
As a supply chain guy, I’m confident my procurement skills of bitching at vendors about off spec shit goes back to the days of Ea-Nasir.
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I don’t even got skills for today
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
That’s interesting - I wasn’t aware of how fundamentally we’ve moved on in the last 10 years. Presumably you went to uni, so that’s 4 years, so you’ll have the theory I guess? I did my Degree in ‘computing’ in 2003. Did some Java and Web design using Dreamweaver and a whole module on Lotus Notes. Yeah, not super useful!
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
I’m a structural engineer. I might not have all the materials needed, but I could probably still design old masonry structures if needed.
Some of the original plastic reactors still run where I work so 1950’s is the oldest operational unit and wasn’t modernised. No computer. The corpses of the older stuff remain abandoned and in place. Not much different, just much less production rate and smaller.
1940’s I suppose.
I’d be fine in any time period where I could still understand English spoken however. I don’t care what I do for a living. Can’t remember how far back that would be, Rob Words surely has a video about this.
With my work skills I won’t be particularly useful before the first high level programming languages started coming in the 60s. But I also gained some handiwork knowledge over time so I won’t be a lost cause if someone sends me further back.
I’ve been doing computer engineering long enough to do the field in the 80s and still live as comfortably as I do now, if not more so.
I also sail, with a license old enough that I have my own sextant and reduction tables. I’d assume those skills transfer hundreds of years back, but I wouldn’t like those survivability odds.
Hmm. Before the end of the 19th century you’re going to run into non-standardised/completely bespoke parts problems. How are you on a lathe, or doing blacksmith work? Hot riveting was a separate trade which you wouldn’t have to do, at least.
I’m kinda obsessed with what I call technological bootstrapping, and so I have useful book knowledge about every step along the way. Doing it in practice is another thing, though; the locals are going to run circles around me unless I can invent stuff. (And even the scenario rules aside, not starving or being “disturbed” while I work on whatever project is a thing)
So, I think I have to echo the “it’s not going great in 2025” answer.
Lathe work I’m pretty good at, all be it a modern lathe.
Blacksmithing i have some experience given my involvement in HEMA but it certainly wouldn’t get me far
Well then you’d probably be fine all the way back to premodern times, assuming you can convince clients to trust you with their mine water pump or whatever. As long as you could get along without devoted replacement parts.
Once you reach that point, the modern lathe thing becomes an issue, a commercial foundry might not be around for cast parts, and the technology to cast ferrous metals at all isn’t guarenteed. The ability to perfectly eyeball things and use relatively primitive materials becomes a major constraint. If you master that, you can probably hack it all the way back to early civilisation building crossbows or animal-powered pumps.
Weaving, pottery, gardening, spinning. Yea it’d take a while to adjust to the culture and way of life but I could probably go all the way to Sumer if I wanted and language & diseases weren’t a problem.
I think my knowledge of first aid and basic anatomy would be of some use in any pre-modern time period. I know enough to make a positive difference at least (wash that cut, dont drink water from downstream of your encampment, give the sick plenty of fluids, etc)
Beyond that, i’d be behind everyone else. I can fish, forage, garden, cook, start fires, and build shelter, but so could everyone for most of human history. I could probaby keep up with a hunter-gatherer society, but i’d be the least capable among them.
