Would you succeed in 1900?

[SpokaneCY]

If you were transported back to 1900 with all the knowledge you currently have, would you succeed, would you be able to change the world, or would you suffer and die from some common ailment.

As a trained bean-counter, and current natural gas guy, I would be able to offer NOTHING to society and would likely suffer and die. I couldn't offer new designs or ideas on mechanical or technical processes, couldn't offer insight on diseases, or otherwise monetize my 2020-based knowledge and experience. I think my only shot would be to leverage what i know about gas and oil exploration and roll dice if I could scrape up money or con someone WITH money. I know enough about WHEN to get out of the stock market but I'd be a seriously inept modern man in the 1900s. But that would just be for personal enrichment and I'd be adding nothing to "society" writ large.

I think ag folks, engineers would be able to offer a huge benefit to society, but how do you think you'd fare using the way-back machine?

 

[ISUCyclones2015]

As a white male, I think I'd do better than average purely on that fact. (sorry women and POC)

 

[BCClone]

If given a chance to study for a day, I would thrive. Know when the grain markets broke and what land would do well and who would be selling at that time would be huge. 1900 would be better than 1920.

 

[madguy30]

Interesting topic.

Only chance I have is that I'm a creature of habit and did work like detassling, some other farm work and other repetitive jobs and may be useful as a farm hand or something.

I assume solitude was a more common way of life back then so I'd be fine on that end.

 

[Cyched]

A 20 year head start to set up my bootlegging operations would pay dividends

 

[CycloneErik]

Most people didn't, so probably not. Very few of us would.

 

[3TrueFans]

I'd be dead in 4 days.

 

[BCClone]

Tractors would not be named John Deere, but BC's instead. big bucks.

With my family living in the same general area since pre Civil War, my concerns would be how that would be handled. Can't avoid family that much I would think, especially with the same last name.

 

[Sousaclone]

I think ag folks, engineers would be able to offer a huge benefit to society, but how do you think you'd fare using the way-back machine?

Even the ag folks and engineers would have difficulties. Most current farmers would be SOL. Sure they have lots of agricultural knowledge but how much of it would be relevant? I don't think many farmers nowadays are doing much planting with horses or oxen. Even the livestock people would be hurting. Lots of stuff is very, very different.

Most engineers would be hurting as well. I'm a CE and 95% of what I know wouldn't transfer over. Sure I can design some stuff but sourcing the materials I need to make my designs work would be difficult. I can't call up LaFarge and get Type III cement or BASF for superplasticizers. Welding and bolting was practically unheard of at that time (pretty much all riveting) so there goes that knowledge base. Not to mention that all my drafting has to be by hand.

I guess the pure science people might be advantageous but it would be difficult.

 

[DurangoCy]

If you were transported back to 1900 with all the knowledge you currently have, would you succeed, would you be able to change the world, or would you suffer and die from some common ailment.

As a trained bean-counter, and current natural gas guy, I would be able to offer NOTHING to society and would likely suffer and die. I couldn't offer new designs or ideas on mechanical or technical processes, couldn't offer insight on diseases, or otherwise monetize my 2020-based knowledge and experience. I think my only shot would be to leverage what i know about gas and oil exploration and roll dice if I could scrape up money or con someone WITH money. I know enough about WHEN to get out of the stock market but I'd be a seriously inept modern man in the 1900s. But that would just be for personal enrichment and I'd be adding nothing to "society" writ large.

I think ag folks, engineers would be able to offer a huge benefit to society, but how do you think you'd fare using the way-back machine?

I think most of the major O&G fields were discovered after 1900, so I think you could've been a gajillionaire back in that timeline.

Hey President McKinnley, we should buy Saudi Arabia.
Why?
...dig here - Oil for 100 years

Looks like the Panama Canal was being dug in the early 1900s, so I would've just headed down there with some mosquito nets to get that thing moving along. Then back to the CO river basin to build some dams.

I've read a lot of historic non-fiction on the topic and I definitely would've been rowing on some of the rivers that are now dammed up. Those guys were nuts

 

[LeaningCy]

Assuming I didn't die of some kind of infection that is easily treated with penicillin, no one would know anything about the Wright Brothers.

 

[isucy86]

I think someone who has a college education would be able to succeed in 1900. That was the beginning of modern industrialization, so there would be a lot of corporate opportunities to work. I think for someone who would gravitate toward Ag or blue collar jobs that would be an eye opener. Hard Work!

I think the biggest benefit going back in time would not be in stock picking, but in real estate development. What was the cost of land in San Fran, Miami, Beverly Hills, Aspen, etc. in 1900.

 

[BCClone]

Even the ag folks and engineers would have difficulties. Most current farmers would be SOL. Sure they have lots of agricultural knowledge but how much of it would be relevant? I don't think many farmers nowadays are doing much planting with horses or oxen. Even the livestock people would be hurting. Lots of stuff is very, very different.

Most engineers would be hurting as well. I'm a CE and 95% of what I know wouldn't transfer over. Sure I can design some stuff but sourcing the materials I need to make my designs work would be difficult. I can't call up LaFarge and get Type III cement or BASF for superplasticizers. Welding and bolting was practically unheard of at that time (pretty much all riveting) so there goes that knowledge base. Not to mention that all my drafting has to be by hand.

I guess the pure science people might be advantageous but it would be difficult.

To a point it is different, but not as much as people want to believe. Im in my mid to later 40s and outside of knowing how to rub down the horses, I feel that I would have a decent feel on crops. More rotations, which my dad did when I was young. Hogs and cattle still reproduce the same general way, they still eat ground corn and soybean meal. We understand things about genetics with crops and livestock that they had no clue about 120 years ago.

 

[JRE1975]

In my career I was a very active entrepreneur with an accounting background. I think that skill set would work in about any era, other than the depression. Around 1900's would have been a great time since several industries got really going in the 1900-1910 period.

 

[Rabbuk]

I think id do ok job wise, and not being systematically fleeced by boomers would be neat.

 

[alarson]

Its probably also worth noting there were probably more jobs that would train you on the job back in 1900, so if you had a base skill level it would be all the more easy for a business to train you and you could pick up on the differences between then and now that way.

 

[Remo Gaggi]

I'd set up shop in this dusty little rail stop known as ... Las Vegas.

 

[20eyes]

I'd set up shop in this dusty little rail stop known as ... Las Vegas.

It's a good idea but a bad location. You'll be waiting for decades before you'll be able to get rich off that land.

 

[BCClone]

It's a good idea but a bad location. You'll be waiting for decades before you'll be able to get rich off that land.

Then immediately get shaken down and whacked by the mafia/mob.

 

[cmjh10]

Do we have knowledge of events about to happen? That would change a lot of answers.

I would be surprised if most people from today would survive long in 1900.