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

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.

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’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.

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.

I could be an excellent prostitute, so checkmate motherfuckers.

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!

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.

I’m not even sure I can survive with my skills now.

and be a productive member of society

I just write useless software for a useless company. I’m not a productive member of society today, I wouldn’t be one at any point in the past. 🤷‍♂️

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.

My skills travel pretty far. But with my gender id not be allowed to use them.

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.

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.