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Everybody knows that guy that spent his whole life working, then got to 62/65/whatever age you and I might get to retire, then sat in a chair watching TV and di
by douche 11y ago
Everybody knows that guy that spent his whole life working, then got to 62/65/whatever age you and I might get to retire, then sat in a chair watching TV and died of a heart-attack a year later.
A lot of people don't have enough to fill their lives with after they get done working. God help you if you don't have family, friends, interests, or some higher purpose to sustain you outside of work. For all the talk of work-life balance, I worry about this - work seems to be expanding to take up an even bigger chunk of our lives all the time.
Oh well, with my family history, I won't have to worry about living to retirement age, and without some major changes to demographics or policy, Social Security won't either.
- dghughes 11y agoThe announcer on Hyundai commercial on TV lately says "When did leaving work on time become an act of courage?" So true!
- incompatible 11y agoAnecdotes don't mean much. I can cancel out that dead guy because I retired over 8 years ago and I'm fine.
- rithms 11y agoMy dad always talks about how his dad worked his ass off all his life, saved for retirement, and never got to enjoy it because the second he retired he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. "He worked all his life, and for what? He didn't even get to enjoy what he worked for. Fuck that." Dad shuts down business to live a simpler lifestyle
- mikekchar 11y agoI'm sure this sounds very strange, but I retired at the age of 39... without much money in the bank. I quit my job and went to Japan to teach English. If you ever interview me for a job, the narrative goes, "I wanted to improve my people skills, especially my presentation skills because I was doing more coaching than programming. But I also wanted to learn Japanese". This is not untrue, but to be honest I knew at the time that making such a radical change might mean that it was impossible to return to my programming career. So I retired. I worked for 5 years teaching English and enjoyed every second of it. I got married in Japan and my wife wanted to learn English, so we moved to the UK. At that point, I got a programming job again. However, in my mind, I'm still retired. You have to do something with your life. I suppose some people dream of the ability to lie on a beach every day and get drunk, or whatever. I've never been that way. I want interesting challenges. My "job" furnishes me with those. I don't really treat my "career" seriously any more. I like programming. I program. People give me money. I'm happy. I don't show up for my 9-6 (or 8am-12pm as I used to do when I was young) and push bits for money. I just write code for fun because I'm retired. My "employers" give me money because they like my code. I think the only thing that gets me down is interacting with people in difficult situations. If your personalities don't mesh, or if the person is going through one of those times as a programmer where they are as annoying as hell (and everyone has times like that)... But that's life, isn't it. Even when you are retired, it's not like all the ass-hats of the world will suddenly disappear. So if you feel like it, I highly recommend retiring as well. What do you want to do in your retirement? I want to write code.
- GFK_of_xmaspast 11y agoThat's not a usual, or even useful, definition of 'retired'.
- mikekchar 11y agoI admit it is not usual. "Useful" is in the eye of the beholder. It's quite useful for me. Sorry it isn't for you.
- ksikka 11y agoThat's a pretty amazing mindset. Thanks for sharing. Also I enjoy the writing style of your comments in general.