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.
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.
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.
deleted by creator
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 question 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.
As a kind of generalist (risk analysis-mitigation, engineering and NGOs), I think I could go back some centuries in time as an advisor or leading teams to improve their quality of life.
Yikes. I’ve moved from IT tech support to MGMT. I don’t really write with a pen, and largely rely on emails/teams. I think if we went back any further than the late 80s I’d be totally screwed.
Umm, but what if I’m a science teacher? Like, my specialty is history and presentation of science experimentation. The primary limitation is whether I am allowed to bring the tools of my trade (books), which would help me survive in England or Iceland as far back as 900 AD.
If language isn’t an issue I could probably work as an engineer in ancient Egypt or a math teacher in ancient Greece
Considering the Aztecs developed hydroponic technology without other advanced technology, I could probably go back to the beginning of humanity with my knowledge, even if I only get to bring one skillset and not the whole of my knowledge. And boy would things change from there!
I dont know how my skills might translate. But my ex would find work immediately. I mean, being a whore was a living back then. She could suck and fuck cavemen and probably eat well enough. She would probably try to get double teamed by Neanderthals, because filling 1 hole wasnt enough for her.
Yikes!
Hope you’re in a better place now.
being a whore is the oldest profession, she’d be fine. dunno if she likes it caveman rough though
