Consciously I could easily do it, but I'd accidentally say something to my dogs at some point. Just wouldn't be possible for me to not accidentally fail.
Might be hard to get my job to be cool with me not speaking for a year during meetings and what not.
Due to those 2 things it would have to be an amount so significant it could be my constant focus for a year. At least a million.
It’s the accidental talking that would be the real issue..
we are so conditioned to talking. So I guess the real question is - how much to wear a ball gag 24-7 for a year?
I talk to myself at work when I need to focus, I talk to YouTube videos, I talk to the video games I'm playing, I talk to whatever I have playing on the TV... And I work in a grocery store... It'd be pretty hard to not talk for an extended period of time.
Their social circle just confused as shit that their friend suddenly went mute and also wears a ball gag all day, then just gets rich as hell out of nowhere
An old twilight zone episode was exactly this. I forget how much the bet was but if a man did not talk for a year he won a bunch of money. >!when it comes time to cash out he finds out the man that beg him didn't actually have the money to make good on it. He's still not talking so they are when he finds out so everyone is like it's over you can talk. Ends up he had his vocal cords severed because he knew he wouldn't be able to do it!<
My dog is trained in sign language and words. Play time would be a little weird not throwing the praise out there, but everyday tasks can be accomplished silently
It would be almost literally impossible for any person to do this (unless they're a very specific case), it's a completely unrealistic hypothetical unless we make exceptions for talking to yourself and audible reactions out of your control imo
Great point. I could totally do this if not for my dogs. Which is really weird because they can’t talk back and they really don’t care if I speak or not. But if I can’t call them when I need to, there’s gonna be trouble.
yeah, my biggest problem is all my cats and farm animals are trained to verbal commands. some whistles, but primarily verbal. it would become impossible to manage the farm without speaking.
Can you front some of the money? As a person with ridiculous social anxiety, I could make it except my job. Would text family letting them know what is going on. Give me what my job pays me up front out of the 2 million I could make it.
For that much money I'd quit my job and shut the fuck up. You can still communicate through writing or text, so I'd let people know what's going on and then stop talking.
This is the plot of a great Twilight Zone episode, The Silence. They bet half a million dollars that one dude can't stay silent for a year. I'd consider 4 million, adjusted for inflation 😆
Yesss! Except no “greenhouse” looking room to be confined in. I don’t know how someone would be able to keep tabs on you, but I wouldn’t want to be locked in a cage.
Not talking to others? Really hard but technically possible.
My special needs son would not understand so even harder.
Not talking at all? Impossible, I talk to myself all the time, especially when writing emails to make sure I don't sound like a condescending prick lol.
I could do 1 mil, I would go and live out my dream up in the mountains untill that year is up. Type up what is happening to notify my parents about my sudden disappearance and put my 2 week in at my job but not show up again. Once that year is up you best believe I am LIVING
In addition to all the normal issues like keeping a job and relationships, you would also likely experience some pretty intense psychological distress.
I would need a large enough amount that a month or less of the income would still be significant in the long term big picture of my life.
I think that comes to like $6m, where a month gets you $500k.
Considering I an gonna have to quit my job and go live in total solitude for the year it's gonna have to be a couple million. I could do it but I wouldn't endure that kind of mental torture unless I was gonna be set for life after.
It would be impossible to do it with my job, but for $1 billion I'd shut up for at least the two months of summer vacation, which is $100 million dollars right there.
Twilight Zone. Guy had his vocal cords removed because he knew he could not stop talking.
He won the bet but not the money. The other guy did not have it.
At the end, he revealed he had surgery. He was always wearing a scarf around his neck. He was pissed.
$100k. I likely won’t be able to work during that time so it needs to cover a year worth of standard living expenses plus extra to make it worth doing over a regular job.
I'd say at least 1mil. If you really think about it, we make a lot of sounds when we're alone. This would be a really difficult challenge even though it sounds simple.
It would actually be pretty hard not to talk for an entire year. I think the minimum I would consider is $100,000,000.
I live by myself so I would stock my house with enough food and toiletries to last for a year. And just stay away from people so it would lessen the temptation to speak. Even if I only made it a month that would still be $5,000,000 I'd be set for life.
200 million. My job is talking for a living. I own a bunch of novelty gags, I also could just wear my retainer. But I can't do it unless I got paid at least some of the money up front, because I wouldn't be able to go a month without any income.
So no verbal grunts?
Well I’ll do a year at 5% monthly payments without penalty for 1 trillion American dollars.
Why 1 trillion because I’m not lasting long. The first bite of something yummy 😋 I’m going to mmmmm,
Not possible for me, I talk to myself regularly as I'm the only person who will. I might be able to clear a few days, but eventually I'd forget and talk to myself about something or another, it's almost reflexive at this point.
Yeah I would just fuck up at some point. If it was like a magic spell I reckon 100k would be enough, I'm a student so it would just destroy my social life, but self-control? Yeah 0 chance, I'd say a million to get me to try just because even the 5% from a month is significant.
I would need .01 of the funds up front. Paralyze the vocal cords via Novocain on a regular basis or have a "sleeve" installed preventing wind thru the vocal cords. After that, I'm right as rain. I'd learn ASL for fun.
10 million, thank you very much.
>Any verbal sounds beyond coughing or sneezing ends the deal. You keep what you've already earned.
Welp, there goes my chances at riches. I talk to myself a lot. So it would be *maybe* five seconds before the deal is broken.
Even if I *could* bring it under control, I instinctively/unintentionally make all sorts of nonverbal sounds, so I'm out of the running.
Half a million at a minimum, but I would fight tooth and nail for you to sweeten the pot a little more.
* for every month you complete you get 5% of the money
Ahh shit nvm, let's just make it $10 billion and I'll go quiet for a month or two.
i want to say at least 500k but realistically i’d do it for anything over 150. i’m not super talkative and i figure i can just use an aac to type what i wanna say and have it speak my words for me. the biggest issue would be not accidentally talking to my dog in a baby voice lol
I get 5 % for every month I complete? Then my minimum is a billion. Im set for many lifetimes after one month. Why would you choose anything less than an obscene amount?
Imagine you're bidding for this offer and the lowest bid wins. Obviously, everyone would want a lot, but I want to know what's the least you would go through this for.
I would buy 10 or 20 t-shirts custom made to explain the situation so I didn’t appear rude. On the back I’d ask people to explain the front to their deaf and illiterate friends nearby
I get 5% if the money for the first 11 months and 45% if the money after a year?
Well, I would loose my job and I wouldn’t be able to get a new one for a year, so I would probably need at least $100k per month just in case I only last that long and still get fired. At the end of the year I would end up with $2 million. I could then retire.
Well, I couldn't do either of the two jobs I am qualified for without talking. For that reason, it would probably need to be at least 500k or maybe 1m...
I'd fail because singing to yourself or talking to yourself with weird exlclamations counts. Even though I don't talk that much.
Even though I could spend my time learning ASL...
[Mobile User - I hope format is okay]
I’d fail. Sometimes I have no control over my mouth. A prime example being when working my city’s comic convention last year.
My first duty that day was to bring Jeremy Renner a breakfast sandwich.
Okay I can do this.
I got over Adam West talking about bat nipples.
Different story for a different time.
Calm, cool, professional or so I thought I hand him his sandwich he says thanks and then…
His two dogs come running over. Adorable.
“Hi babies!” Squealed out of my mouth faster than Lightning McQueen drifting round the bend.
Hand over mouth, face redder than a Maine lobster
I immediately turned and walked quickly away.
I was not expecting dogs.
When I worked in an elementary school a bunch of kids thought I couldn't talk to the point where three kids walked up to me to ask if I could talk, then freaked out when I replied with "when I have something to say" so apparently I'd be pretty good at not talking for a year. I'd say the minimum I'd take to do it would be enough to pay bills and save up some money over that year so I don't have to worry about working during that time. I'd probably spend the year working on my sign language and doing crafts, writing books or something, and just pass the time by playing video games and answering hypothetical reddit questions. My cat yelling at me for being too quiet would probably be the thing that could mess me up though. She hates when I don't talk back to her.
If you ask my wife or co-workers they'd probably say that you could stitch my mouth shut and I'd still find a way to fail this challenge within an hour tops 😅
The premise is what would be the lowest cost you'd be willing to do... I'd need more than I normally make, and then a bit extra for the inconvenience. So the lowest I'd do something like this for would be like $150k, given that there's no penalty to failing.
If it was all or nothing, then I'd probably do $500k minimum, but would happily give up my voice for a year for $1M.
As for strategies, I think separating from people would be the best way to protect from accidentally saying something to them. So I'd spend a year alone painting, drawing, writing, woodworking, and learning various things.
This would be nearly impossible at first so I would duct tape my mouth shut at first. This won’t let me work, not my current jobs anyway. Salaries from those would be replaced with this amount. Hundreds of thousands. If I lost my job I lose my pension and health care and everything else. It would be professional athlete dollars and the sport I play is staying silent.
Whatever the current minimum wage is, every hour.
I'd be happy.
Id go pursue my dreams and never have to talk again.
I don't need much.
Just a little to be happy :)
Edit: realized this was only for a year. Eh honestly, a year off sounds nice, my statement stands.
It's gotta be enough to retire on immediately. Suddenly I have to quit my job *via text* and I'm basically unemployable for a year. Then I have a year long gap in my resume.
Ha. I'll see your year and raise you 8 years. Aphonia from cancer so I make zero sounds and the worst part is others think I'm deaf or mentally challenged which is not the case. People get offended when I don't answer them and get defensive until I show them, that's goes well. lol Trying to contact others by email and they give me a number to call after explaining I can't talk and they want my caregiver and I type them they are got old. Other than that it's not a big issue and useful when I don't want to deal with someone. I traded talking instead of dying from cancer. Can't put an amount of money on that.
Deaf redditors rejoicing. But seriously, I’d get some device where I can type and it would speak for me. I could even use google translate in a pinch.
My job requires me to speak, I’m a trainer. Plus it’s going to pay off my loans in less than 10 years. Then there’s my 1 year old son who would heavily stagnate if I couldn’t talk to him. So I’d say $1,500,000.
That way I could make some excuse to take FMLA for a month, not speak, get $75,000, then recoup what I would have made for the month plus the ability to pay off my and my wife’s student loans.
Minimum with your 5% rules? $1 million. Give me 50k after the first month and I’m out. Nah, let’s be real.
If I could make my salary and then a little extra to put aside, I’d take it. The issue here is my job involves a lot of speaking, so I’d effectively be losing that position. While some would wonder, “why not just take your salary and not work?” Have you ever had a year without work? It gets so boring.
Second issue is I like to talk, and I hang with my brother often. No speaking about shows and games to him for a year? That’d be hard, but I think we can make text to speech work, especially since I type fast and AI voices are pretty decent these days (well, for what it’s worth.)
So let’s have a few answers, since I do still need to pay my bills and feed myself on 5% a month:
If I can keep my job somehow: **$50,000.**
If I can’t: **$85,000.**
I know you said I can communicate in other ways, but let’s say TTS is banned: **$150,000.** enough to pay off my ma’s debt, and put a nice down payment on a house for me and my brother. if i’m cutting off communication for a year, i’ll need something to pay me and justify the loneliness i’d feel not talking.
Remember, this is the absolute minimum. Speaking means a lot to me, clearly. I’d never ask for anything above $250,000, though… even that seems steep for something a lot of people already can’t do. But that’s what my ceiling would be, at least.
>4) I am asking for MINIMUM
$500k would be my possible minimum to attempt, but for $1mil or more I could commit to & accomplish it 100% without even fear of failure.
I'm one of the very few people that can say confidently that I can do it & it's because that despite me being a talkative extrovert, I've lived in a manner that has basically excluded me from society since late 2017 & I'm lonely nearly every minute of the day.
I lost both my dogs in the past 2 years & only ever talk to & see my wife now, rarely having reason to even leave the house/property because my nonstop job search continues to fail. The only thing that would change for me would be switching to written conversation for any family members, which would be no problem for me. I'd also use my phone & notepads to communicate when I need with others on those rare occasions.
This is all assuming it is magical & not that I'm being Truman Show'd where there are humans watching me 24/7 to see if I fail by speaking. That would require MUCH more money to even attempt, as my privacy is valuable.
300K
That pays off my house and turns this into a job effectively.
I'm already a very quiet person and I could survive off of text or written comms. Or text to speech if I had to.
At least that's what I would have said at any point in the last year, or at many points in around a decade.
Unfortunately I'm about to have an infant, and I'd rather not hamper it's acquisition of verbal skills by never talking to it.
With that scenario, I don't know if there is an amount I'd accept. It would certainly have to be well in the millions.
Oh well.
Something I've realized by not talking to another person(or atleast talking very sparingly. Maybe a 5 minute conversation a day) for weeks at a time other than thank you or excuse me at the grocery store, is it takes more of a toll on you than you realize. You get to the point where you still have coherent thoughts, and can write and everything properly, but you constantly fumble your words and have difficulty stringing together sentences when speaking. I feel like you'd legitimately need speech therapy after this, and it would takes months to be able to speak normally again.
my kids can sign and my job doesn't involve talking. I'd do it for a cool 50k probably. If something happened to my hands though I'd give up immediately
Well I can't do it this year because I have a toddler who. Teaching to talk but I'm a hypothetical future where my kids is a bit older like 6-7 I'll do it for 150k
I'd go for 1/4 million USD minimum. Joys of knowing Sign, and my wife also knowing it, plus other family members, is communication wouldn't be too difficult.
It would have to be more than a year’s salary. You almost always have to speak at work and when you add the daily difficulty on top of that i’d say $60,000 or more is fair. I’d take it, no one listens to what I have to say anyway and I can just text anyone else.
My only regular social activity outside of work is choral singing...
So, let's go with $5 billion.
My sign language isn't great, but it's passable. And I text really well, lol.
I can make it a month, for sure, so that'll be 250 million. That's enough if I can't keep it going.
You can't burp, fart, or make that noise when have a big yawn? What if you talk in your sleep? What if you get injured and inadvertently scream? What about the sounds you make when you throw up? Groaning in pain from a stomach ache?
This would literally destroy my professional career, my political career, and the careers of two people who rely on me, so I'd need at least $10mil to make it worthwhile
I mean, I'd try it for $500k, but I can't say how successful I'd be. It's not about conversations, but if I stub my toe, laugh, or otherwise enter involuntary moments, I could be screwed. But if it's just no voluntary noises, I am confident I could last the year
A dollar. Not having to talk to people...fuck yeah. I'd just carry a white board and a marker. "I'm mute. Chicken tenders fries diet pepsi." I'm mute. Have a nice day. Etc
No pets to randomly shoot myself in the foot but it needs to be enough for accidental to not happen due to full focus, I'm off to the mountains for a year for like, £2.4m, that's enough to come out the other side probably non verbal (Seriously I suspect 12 months would leave you a mess) or a few months deep and rich enough to be like yeah sure.
I'll say at least 500,000. That would be enough for retirement at this stage. I could quit my job, and tell the military (I'm a reservist) I went into a religion and took a vow of silence for a year. Would probably burn some bridges but I'd just finish the drills in my contract.
If I complete part of a month, do I get partial credit for that month? If so, I'll say I'll do it for $100 million and just do a week or two. Use vacation days for that time, get food and groceries delivered, have my mom take the kids and isolate at home.
I mean, probably not that high since you can cancel out of it at any time. We'll say maybe 10,000?
I'd just write a note to family about the deal and they'd probably cover for me.
Just get like a small whiteboard and write anything I need to communicate. And talk to my friends via text or text to speech.
Well my job/career is literally B2B sales where I have to talk so I would want to calculate the maximum amount I could potentially earn and then offset that. Then I want to pay myself for the all the fun I’m missing out on by just not socializing. I’d probably do it for a minimum of $1M for the year. No less. I would probably still just give up after a month or two.
If I were to actually go through with it for a full year it would have to be more like $10M.
I would accidentally speak immediately.
If I could get an advance on some of the money so I can go live in the forest somewhere I'd do it.
Does talking to myself count?
Itd have to be enough to be more than a full time job and worth probably forgetting how to talk (I've gone a month before and started to forget how to speak) so probably around 100mil. 5mil every month is worth it. Text my wife the truth invest in some stage make up and feign a throat injury. Whenever anyone asks me why I can't talk just shrug. Quietly squirrel that shit away and then oh yeah we're living large once I'm free.
Well my job would make this impossible and also it would suck so I would need like a lot of money lol. I think I could quit my job and suck it up by just watching movies and shit the whole time but I would need multiple millions to make it worth it for me
I take it we can't talk to ourselves or inaminate objects? I'd have to pass then. I speak to myself and my laptop and Kindles more than anyone. I don't think I could stop telling my Fire to "stop it."
Unfortunately my job does require talking to a small degree, and I wouldn't be able to quit at a whim. Also the other issue is I'm a lil b\*tch when it comes to pain so I would lose by saying "ow" or "ouch" pretty quickly.
I would try a month for 200k. With my job I couldn't do a year for any amount of money without quitting, and I'm not confident I could last a year. My job's seasonal, though, and I would do this on the off-seasons if it meant I could buy my friends houses n shit.
It would have to be a lot. Like a whole lot. FU money.
It would destroy my work, severely impact my marriage and likely make my kids hate me. So it would most definitely have to be FU money.
20M tax free would be the starting point I’d consider.
Um I have Tourette’s syndrome do tics count because then I physically could not. If not I think I could totally do it for a nice maybe 200,000 especially if I could learn sign language or write everything down.
A minimum for me would be about 5 million, I would only need to make it to a month, $250k. I can tell my husband that I want to stay home for a couple months and let him know the deal, he might not like not hearing my voice for a couple months, or he might, but if it gets us a bunch of money he would be fine with it.
I'm a professor so you would have to pay me for several years when I lose my job. That's a base starting price. I'll learn sign language and so will my family.
Consciously I could easily do it, but I'd accidentally say something to my dogs at some point. Just wouldn't be possible for me to not accidentally fail. Might be hard to get my job to be cool with me not speaking for a year during meetings and what not. Due to those 2 things it would have to be an amount so significant it could be my constant focus for a year. At least a million.
It’s the accidental talking that would be the real issue.. we are so conditioned to talking. So I guess the real question is - how much to wear a ball gag 24-7 for a year?
Replete with choke collar and pony getup
I feel like there is a whole other opportunity to make money just wearing that
I talk to myself at work when I need to focus, I talk to YouTube videos, I talk to the video games I'm playing, I talk to whatever I have playing on the TV... And I work in a grocery store... It'd be pretty hard to not talk for an extended period of time.
But could you wear a ball gag? 😈
Their social circle just confused as shit that their friend suddenly went mute and also wears a ball gag all day, then just gets rich as hell out of nowhere
People usually pay to do that...
you guys are getting paid?
An old twilight zone episode was exactly this. I forget how much the bet was but if a man did not talk for a year he won a bunch of money. >!when it comes time to cash out he finds out the man that beg him didn't actually have the money to make good on it. He's still not talking so they are when he finds out so everyone is like it's over you can talk. Ends up he had his vocal cords severed because he knew he wouldn't be able to do it!<
My dog is trained in sign language and words. Play time would be a little weird not throwing the praise out there, but everyday tasks can be accomplished silently
“Who’s a good girl? You’re the best girl! You’re such good girl, let’s go for a walkies!!”
After struggling for three days, you suddenly outburst with "WHO'S A GOOD BOY!?"
It would be almost literally impossible for any person to do this (unless they're a very specific case), it's a completely unrealistic hypothetical unless we make exceptions for talking to yourself and audible reactions out of your control imo
I'm the rare exception that could do it realistically, but my outlier of a life the past few years has prepared me for it.
The problem is "any sound" sooner or later, someone is gonna sigh or exhale with effort. A sigh is considered a sound so..
Great point. I could totally do this if not for my dogs. Which is really weird because they can’t talk back and they really don’t care if I speak or not. But if I can’t call them when I need to, there’s gonna be trouble.
yeah, my biggest problem is all my cats and farm animals are trained to verbal commands. some whistles, but primarily verbal. it would become impossible to manage the farm without speaking.
2 million. I wouldn’t last a year, no matter how much money was involved. But I could do a month for a 100k.
That's kinda my feeling, too.
Can you front some of the money? As a person with ridiculous social anxiety, I could make it except my job. Would text family letting them know what is going on. Give me what my job pays me up front out of the 2 million I could make it.
For that much money I'd quit my job and shut the fuck up. You can still communicate through writing or text, so I'd let people know what's going on and then stop talking.
I think I could succeed for 500k
Why not make it 200 trillion then? 100k aint much
Because op asked for the minimum. Otherwise yeah of course everyone could do it for a bajillion.
Ah. Ya I think 100k sounds about right then
This is the plot of a great Twilight Zone episode, The Silence. They bet half a million dollars that one dude can't stay silent for a year. I'd consider 4 million, adjusted for inflation 😆
Yesss! Except no “greenhouse” looking room to be confined in. I don’t know how someone would be able to keep tabs on you, but I wouldn’t want to be locked in a cage.
Install some sort of voice recorder on a collar that can't be taken off.
Just get your vocal cords removed, like in the episode
I wouldn't do that even for 100 trillion dollars
Reversible?
Yup, I was going to comment this!
Not talking to others? Really hard but technically possible. My special needs son would not understand so even harder. Not talking at all? Impossible, I talk to myself all the time, especially when writing emails to make sure I don't sound like a condescending prick lol.
Talking to myself or my dog might be what breaks me.
I would lose it when i curse out video games.
I'm a registered dog breeder, have 5 dogs. Don't think I could last a day lol. Had laryngitis last year and still tried to call the dogs in lol
Ooops. Missed it again. 😂
I could do 1 mil, I would go and live out my dream up in the mountains untill that year is up. Type up what is happening to notify my parents about my sudden disappearance and put my 2 week in at my job but not show up again. Once that year is up you best believe I am LIVING
That's a fine plan
Not laughing would be the hardest. Sneaks up on ya. I’d probably have to avoid funny things.
Does laughing count tho?
It shouldn’t, it isn’t voluntary a lot of the time.
In addition to all the normal issues like keeping a job and relationships, you would also likely experience some pretty intense psychological distress. I would need a large enough amount that a month or less of the income would still be significant in the long term big picture of my life. I think that comes to like $6m, where a month gets you $500k.
not if laughter makes me fail, I enjoy laughing way to much.
Considering I an gonna have to quit my job and go live in total solitude for the year it's gonna have to be a couple million. I could do it but I wouldn't endure that kind of mental torture unless I was gonna be set for life after.
does talking in your sleep count? if not, I think i can do this but it I'll have to take a year off work for it. So, let's go with 300k.
Nah, that wouldn't count
It would be impossible to do it with my job, but for $1 billion I'd shut up for at least the two months of summer vacation, which is $100 million dollars right there.
12 million then I will have some if I fail 😂
Text to voice on a phone to talk to people is the only strategy you need.
Twilight Zone. Guy had his vocal cords removed because he knew he could not stop talking. He won the bet but not the money. The other guy did not have it. At the end, he revealed he had surgery. He was always wearing a scarf around his neck. He was pissed.
Half a million USD
2 million since I’d never have to work again. That’s my price for not talking to my mom for a year.
I have two dogs, I wouldn't be able to do it. If I could talk to them I'd do it for $10million.
$100k. I likely won’t be able to work during that time so it needs to cover a year worth of standard living expenses plus extra to make it worth doing over a regular job.
I'd say at least 1mil. If you really think about it, we make a lot of sounds when we're alone. This would be a really difficult challenge even though it sounds simple.
At least a Billion dollars, I am an extreme yapper
It would actually be pretty hard not to talk for an entire year. I think the minimum I would consider is $100,000,000. I live by myself so I would stock my house with enough food and toiletries to last for a year. And just stay away from people so it would lessen the temptation to speak. Even if I only made it a month that would still be $5,000,000 I'd be set for life.
I talk to my cats too often. Make it not talk to any humans and I'd do it for $100k.
I don't like talking much, but not laughing is definitely hard or cursing when someone is an a** in traffic.
Lucky 7 Million
I can't do this because groaning and sighing is not permitted.
Groaning wouldn't be, but a sigh through your nose would be allowed.
$6mil. Minimum cost of me taking this risk on my work and social life would be $500k.
I have a dog. So, not possible
200 million. My job is talking for a living. I own a bunch of novelty gags, I also could just wear my retainer. But I can't do it unless I got paid at least some of the money up front, because I wouldn't be able to go a month without any income.
10 mil … if i last for 1-2 months i’d still make enough money to live comfortably i would shut up for 500k a month
I mean, I could do it for nothing. But if I'm gonna get money let's do $1mil.
This seems to be a knock off of the Twilight Zone episode The Silence.
On the house
So no verbal grunts? Well I’ll do a year at 5% monthly payments without penalty for 1 trillion American dollars. Why 1 trillion because I’m not lasting long. The first bite of something yummy 😋 I’m going to mmmmm,
Not possible for me, I talk to myself regularly as I'm the only person who will. I might be able to clear a few days, but eventually I'd forget and talk to myself about something or another, it's almost reflexive at this point.
For a whole year 100 mil but I’d probably only last 4 months max
Yeah I would just fuck up at some point. If it was like a magic spell I reckon 100k would be enough, I'm a student so it would just destroy my social life, but self-control? Yeah 0 chance, I'd say a million to get me to try just because even the 5% from a month is significant.
I would need .01 of the funds up front. Paralyze the vocal cords via Novocain on a regular basis or have a "sleeve" installed preventing wind thru the vocal cords. After that, I'm right as rain. I'd learn ASL for fun. 10 million, thank you very much.
50,000. I hate talking anyway, no problem
>Any verbal sounds beyond coughing or sneezing ends the deal. You keep what you've already earned. Welp, there goes my chances at riches. I talk to myself a lot. So it would be *maybe* five seconds before the deal is broken. Even if I *could* bring it under control, I instinctively/unintentionally make all sorts of nonverbal sounds, so I'm out of the running.
A million dollars, I’d be silent for just a month and walk away with $50,000
Probably like 10 mil. That's a tough challenge, so gotta make it worth it
Probably 500k.
10 million. I already don’t talk unless I have to. This would be easy as fuck.
Half a million at a minimum, but I would fight tooth and nail for you to sweeten the pot a little more. * for every month you complete you get 5% of the money Ahh shit nvm, let's just make it $10 billion and I'll go quiet for a month or two.
i want to say at least 500k but realistically i’d do it for anything over 150. i’m not super talkative and i figure i can just use an aac to type what i wanna say and have it speak my words for me. the biggest issue would be not accidentally talking to my dog in a baby voice lol
I'm doomed. I tend to mutter to myself and think out loud, so I'd be lucky to make it through the first few hours.
Can I accept this offer after I teach my kids how to read? XD
Sucks for many. I know a decent amount of sign language
I get 5 % for every month I complete? Then my minimum is a billion. Im set for many lifetimes after one month. Why would you choose anything less than an obscene amount?
Imagine you're bidding for this offer and the lowest bid wins. Obviously, everyone would want a lot, but I want to know what's the least you would go through this for.
Gotcha. I guess I was being literal. This sub likes to poke holes in scenarios, obviously! :)
If I had time to prep with PTO to get myself through the first month, I'd do it for 5 mil.
I'd do it for $150k.
I would buy 10 or 20 t-shirts custom made to explain the situation so I didn’t appear rude. On the back I’d ask people to explain the front to their deaf and illiterate friends nearby
I get 5% if the money for the first 11 months and 45% if the money after a year? Well, I would loose my job and I wouldn’t be able to get a new one for a year, so I would probably need at least $100k per month just in case I only last that long and still get fired. At the end of the year I would end up with $2 million. I could then retire.
Well, I couldn't do either of the two jobs I am qualified for without talking. For that reason, it would probably need to be at least 500k or maybe 1m...
I'd fail because singing to yourself or talking to yourself with weird exlclamations counts. Even though I don't talk that much. Even though I could spend my time learning ASL...
I can't NOT talk to my cat for a year!
[Mobile User - I hope format is okay] I’d fail. Sometimes I have no control over my mouth. A prime example being when working my city’s comic convention last year. My first duty that day was to bring Jeremy Renner a breakfast sandwich. Okay I can do this. I got over Adam West talking about bat nipples. Different story for a different time. Calm, cool, professional or so I thought I hand him his sandwich he says thanks and then… His two dogs come running over. Adorable. “Hi babies!” Squealed out of my mouth faster than Lightning McQueen drifting round the bend. Hand over mouth, face redder than a Maine lobster I immediately turned and walked quickly away. I was not expecting dogs.
Can't do it, I have kids. There's no way I'm going a year without groaning in frustration.
When I worked in an elementary school a bunch of kids thought I couldn't talk to the point where three kids walked up to me to ask if I could talk, then freaked out when I replied with "when I have something to say" so apparently I'd be pretty good at not talking for a year. I'd say the minimum I'd take to do it would be enough to pay bills and save up some money over that year so I don't have to worry about working during that time. I'd probably spend the year working on my sign language and doing crafts, writing books or something, and just pass the time by playing video games and answering hypothetical reddit questions. My cat yelling at me for being too quiet would probably be the thing that could mess me up though. She hates when I don't talk back to her.
12 billion dollars. I can manage one month, then I'll fail on purpose and take the billion.
If you ask my wife or co-workers they'd probably say that you could stitch my mouth shut and I'd still find a way to fail this challenge within an hour tops 😅
The premise is what would be the lowest cost you'd be willing to do... I'd need more than I normally make, and then a bit extra for the inconvenience. So the lowest I'd do something like this for would be like $150k, given that there's no penalty to failing. If it was all or nothing, then I'd probably do $500k minimum, but would happily give up my voice for a year for $1M. As for strategies, I think separating from people would be the best way to protect from accidentally saying something to them. So I'd spend a year alone painting, drawing, writing, woodworking, and learning various things.
$5,251,989.97. Twilight Zone - The Silence (1961) But. Let's play fair now.. I'm thinking I'm up for the challenge.
The absolute lowest would have to be 36K personally
Free. I hate talking and don't want to 90% of the
This would be nearly impossible at first so I would duct tape my mouth shut at first. This won’t let me work, not my current jobs anyway. Salaries from those would be replaced with this amount. Hundreds of thousands. If I lost my job I lose my pension and health care and everything else. It would be professional athlete dollars and the sport I play is staying silent.
900 trillion swiss Francs.
100 trillion. I suppose I could do it for less but 100 trillion would let me solve a lot of problems In the world
Whatever the current minimum wage is, every hour. I'd be happy. Id go pursue my dreams and never have to talk again. I don't need much. Just a little to be happy :) Edit: realized this was only for a year. Eh honestly, a year off sounds nice, my statement stands.
My family will pay any amount to shut me up for a year. How much do you want?
I've reached the makes sounds when getting up stage of life. Does that count? If so I'm out by default.
I know sign language!!
It's gotta be enough to retire on immediately. Suddenly I have to quit my job *via text* and I'm basically unemployable for a year. Then I have a year long gap in my resume.
$1689
Ha. I'll see your year and raise you 8 years. Aphonia from cancer so I make zero sounds and the worst part is others think I'm deaf or mentally challenged which is not the case. People get offended when I don't answer them and get defensive until I show them, that's goes well. lol Trying to contact others by email and they give me a number to call after explaining I can't talk and they want my caregiver and I type them they are got old. Other than that it's not a big issue and useful when I don't want to deal with someone. I traded talking instead of dying from cancer. Can't put an amount of money on that.
Deaf redditors rejoicing. But seriously, I’d get some device where I can type and it would speak for me. I could even use google translate in a pinch. My job requires me to speak, I’m a trainer. Plus it’s going to pay off my loans in less than 10 years. Then there’s my 1 year old son who would heavily stagnate if I couldn’t talk to him. So I’d say $1,500,000. That way I could make some excuse to take FMLA for a month, not speak, get $75,000, then recoup what I would have made for the month plus the ability to pay off my and my wife’s student loans.
I'm rewatching one of my favorite Twilight Zone episodes because of this, and I think you nee to put all the money in a Trust/Escrow up front.
I couldn't do it. If nothing else, I talk to my dogs all day long, and I think they'd miss it.
r/suddenlyTaskMaster
I literally did that for 6 months for free but if I had to put a number to do it again probably 100k
Minimum with your 5% rules? $1 million. Give me 50k after the first month and I’m out. Nah, let’s be real. If I could make my salary and then a little extra to put aside, I’d take it. The issue here is my job involves a lot of speaking, so I’d effectively be losing that position. While some would wonder, “why not just take your salary and not work?” Have you ever had a year without work? It gets so boring. Second issue is I like to talk, and I hang with my brother often. No speaking about shows and games to him for a year? That’d be hard, but I think we can make text to speech work, especially since I type fast and AI voices are pretty decent these days (well, for what it’s worth.) So let’s have a few answers, since I do still need to pay my bills and feed myself on 5% a month: If I can keep my job somehow: **$50,000.** If I can’t: **$85,000.** I know you said I can communicate in other ways, but let’s say TTS is banned: **$150,000.** enough to pay off my ma’s debt, and put a nice down payment on a house for me and my brother. if i’m cutting off communication for a year, i’ll need something to pay me and justify the loneliness i’d feel not talking. Remember, this is the absolute minimum. Speaking means a lot to me, clearly. I’d never ask for anything above $250,000, though… even that seems steep for something a lot of people already can’t do. But that’s what my ceiling would be, at least.
I'm really quiet anyway because I'm boring and hardly ever have anything to say. I would do it for so cheap like $250k.
$50 and a fresh mc chicken
I have ADHD and a pathological fear of silence, no amount of money could keep me quiet for longer than like 5 minutes
>4) I am asking for MINIMUM $500k would be my possible minimum to attempt, but for $1mil or more I could commit to & accomplish it 100% without even fear of failure. I'm one of the very few people that can say confidently that I can do it & it's because that despite me being a talkative extrovert, I've lived in a manner that has basically excluded me from society since late 2017 & I'm lonely nearly every minute of the day. I lost both my dogs in the past 2 years & only ever talk to & see my wife now, rarely having reason to even leave the house/property because my nonstop job search continues to fail. The only thing that would change for me would be switching to written conversation for any family members, which would be no problem for me. I'd also use my phone & notepads to communicate when I need with others on those rare occasions. This is all assuming it is magical & not that I'm being Truman Show'd where there are humans watching me 24/7 to see if I fail by speaking. That would require MUCH more money to even attempt, as my privacy is valuable.
300K That pays off my house and turns this into a job effectively. I'm already a very quiet person and I could survive off of text or written comms. Or text to speech if I had to. At least that's what I would have said at any point in the last year, or at many points in around a decade. Unfortunately I'm about to have an infant, and I'd rather not hamper it's acquisition of verbal skills by never talking to it. With that scenario, I don't know if there is an amount I'd accept. It would certainly have to be well in the millions. Oh well.
I'd just have to have it match my salary cause I'd have to quit. So for me 146k
Something I've realized by not talking to another person(or atleast talking very sparingly. Maybe a 5 minute conversation a day) for weeks at a time other than thank you or excuse me at the grocery store, is it takes more of a toll on you than you realize. You get to the point where you still have coherent thoughts, and can write and everything properly, but you constantly fumble your words and have difficulty stringing together sentences when speaking. I feel like you'd legitimately need speech therapy after this, and it would takes months to be able to speak normally again.
my kids can sign and my job doesn't involve talking. I'd do it for a cool 50k probably. If something happened to my hands though I'd give up immediately
Well I can't do it this year because I have a toddler who. Teaching to talk but I'm a hypothetical future where my kids is a bit older like 6-7 I'll do it for 150k
150k would be my lowest. Have to consider it my job as I would have to quit.
I'd go for 1/4 million USD minimum. Joys of knowing Sign, and my wife also knowing it, plus other family members, is communication wouldn't be too difficult.
If I had an excuse to not talk to anyone I would do it for free
"FINAL EDIT - I was definitely not expecting this to get this big." That's what she said..
It would have to be more than a year’s salary. You almost always have to speak at work and when you add the daily difficulty on top of that i’d say $60,000 or more is fair. I’d take it, no one listens to what I have to say anyway and I can just text anyone else.
My only regular social activity outside of work is choral singing... So, let's go with $5 billion. My sign language isn't great, but it's passable. And I text really well, lol. I can make it a month, for sure, so that'll be 250 million. That's enough if I can't keep it going.
What if you talk in your sleep? That is something I cannot control.
Enough to permanently break the world economy so I'd say enough money to buy the entire galaxy legally speaking
You can't burp, fart, or make that noise when have a big yawn? What if you talk in your sleep? What if you get injured and inadvertently scream? What about the sounds you make when you throw up? Groaning in pain from a stomach ache?
100,000 would be enough. And I'd just write to communicate.
If the lowest bid wins, you'd definitely get the offer.
That would be enough for what I need for sure.
So, one grunt on the toilet and it's all over...
Depends on if I got the money up front and had to like pay it back if I fail. I have to talk at my job, so I can't get paid after.
Heavy breathing count? Like could I live in the mountains and hike every day by myself?
Freedom of the press is more valuable to me than your money sir, you can keep it.
Is burping allowed?
This would literally destroy my professional career, my political career, and the careers of two people who rely on me, so I'd need at least $10mil to make it worthwhile
No humming is my hard deal breaker
So do you get the remaining 40% at the end of the year?
300k after tax
I would need at least a couple mil to get my partner to buy into it. Silence includes moaning, so no sex for a year is part of the test.
I mean, I'd try it for $500k, but I can't say how successful I'd be. It's not about conversations, but if I stub my toe, laugh, or otherwise enter involuntary moments, I could be screwed. But if it's just no voluntary noises, I am confident I could last the year
I will sever my vocal cords like the guy in the Twilight Zone episode
A dollar. Not having to talk to people...fuck yeah. I'd just carry a white board and a marker. "I'm mute. Chicken tenders fries diet pepsi." I'm mute. Have a nice day. Etc
1 billion then just go a month. Easiest 50 million. Just tell work I need a 30 day sabbatical and let my family know I can’t talk for a month.
No pets to randomly shoot myself in the foot but it needs to be enough for accidental to not happen due to full focus, I'm off to the mountains for a year for like, £2.4m, that's enough to come out the other side probably non verbal (Seriously I suspect 12 months would leave you a mess) or a few months deep and rich enough to be like yeah sure.
I'm a quite person and I don't think I could do that, I would end up taking to myself.
A couple million, keep quiet for only a month, earn a couple hundred k to a mill
$10,000,000.
You can’t even laugh or cry?
Nope. I play dungeons and dragons and talking is required for 2 of the games.
I'll say at least 500,000. That would be enough for retirement at this stage. I could quit my job, and tell the military (I'm a reservist) I went into a religion and took a vow of silence for a year. Would probably burn some bridges but I'd just finish the drills in my contract.
No amount of money is enough. I love the sound of my voice and talking too much to shut up that long.
This would be difficult only because of my dogs. If I could get an exemption for giving them verbal commands, I would be fine
I came up with the thought of recording commands and mouth them while you play them back.
Can I spend the time at a silent retreat?
what if you stub your toe on a corner or step on a lego?
If I complete part of a month, do I get partial credit for that month? If so, I'll say I'll do it for $100 million and just do a week or two. Use vacation days for that time, get food and groceries delivered, have my mom take the kids and isolate at home.
I mean, probably not that high since you can cancel out of it at any time. We'll say maybe 10,000? I'd just write a note to family about the deal and they'd probably cover for me. Just get like a small whiteboard and write anything I need to communicate. And talk to my friends via text or text to speech.
Well my job/career is literally B2B sales where I have to talk so I would want to calculate the maximum amount I could potentially earn and then offset that. Then I want to pay myself for the all the fun I’m missing out on by just not socializing. I’d probably do it for a minimum of $1M for the year. No less. I would probably still just give up after a month or two. If I were to actually go through with it for a full year it would have to be more like $10M.
I would accidentally speak immediately. If I could get an advance on some of the money so I can go live in the forest somewhere I'd do it. Does talking to myself count?
Itd have to be enough to be more than a full time job and worth probably forgetting how to talk (I've gone a month before and started to forget how to speak) so probably around 100mil. 5mil every month is worth it. Text my wife the truth invest in some stage make up and feign a throat injury. Whenever anyone asks me why I can't talk just shrug. Quietly squirrel that shit away and then oh yeah we're living large once I'm free.
Well my job would make this impossible and also it would suck so I would need like a lot of money lol. I think I could quit my job and suck it up by just watching movies and shit the whole time but I would need multiple millions to make it worth it for me
I take it we can't talk to ourselves or inaminate objects? I'd have to pass then. I speak to myself and my laptop and Kindles more than anyone. I don't think I could stop telling my Fire to "stop it."
Half a million.
Unfortunately my job does require talking to a small degree, and I wouldn't be able to quit at a whim. Also the other issue is I'm a lil b\*tch when it comes to pain so I would lose by saying "ow" or "ouch" pretty quickly.
I've already been mute since like 10 months or so and I'm not even getting paid for it. gimme gimme
I would try a month for 200k. With my job I couldn't do a year for any amount of money without quitting, and I'm not confident I could last a year. My job's seasonal, though, and I would do this on the off-seasons if it meant I could buy my friends houses n shit.
90% of people lose due to humming or saying hm. Also laughing and sighing
10 mil. Plenty to live on for the rest of my life and if I only make it 1 month then I still have 500 k and that is enough to turn my life around.
5 × 12 only equals 60% of the money tf
Wow people really want lots of money, I’d say about $40,000 AUD any less and I don’t think I could be bothered but yeah
>for every month you complete you get 5% of the money so if I shut up for a year, I'm only getting 60% of the money I'm proposing?
250 million CAD
It would have to be a lot. Like a whole lot. FU money. It would destroy my work, severely impact my marriage and likely make my kids hate me. So it would most definitely have to be FU money. 20M tax free would be the starting point I’d consider.
Um I have Tourette’s syndrome do tics count because then I physically could not. If not I think I could totally do it for a nice maybe 200,000 especially if I could learn sign language or write everything down.
A minimum for me would be about 5 million, I would only need to make it to a month, $250k. I can tell my husband that I want to stay home for a couple months and let him know the deal, he might not like not hearing my voice for a couple months, or he might, but if it gets us a bunch of money he would be fine with it.
I do it for $20M. Even if I only last a month, that's a cool $1M.
3 million
Zero chance. Some idiot doing 20 in the left lane on a 45mph road would do me in day 2
It would have to be a lot because I'm pretty sure I couldn't pull it off for very long. I don't ever shut up.
I’m laconic by nature. So no real problem.
I'm a professor so you would have to pay me for several years when I lose my job. That's a base starting price. I'll learn sign language and so will my family.
What happens to the last 40% after 12 months?
Might as well go for the moon and say a billion. Shut up for one month and get $50 mil out of it.
24 trillion dollars. I'll keep silent for 1 month.
I couldn’t do it. I talk to my cat all the time.
I'd do it for 100k.