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This is going to sound really heartless: Imagine working for the same company your entire adult life, retiring and dying 4 years later. The thought of that, as

This is going to sound really heartless: Imagine working for the same company your entire adult life, retiring and dying 4 years later. The thought of that, as a 26-year old, terrifies me.

koolba 9y ago
Heartless? Up until quite recently, that was the norm.
eterm 9y ago
If that frightens you then you shouldn't sacrifice yourself working expecting some kind of future pay-off. Live around your work, so you are working to enjoy life now, not in the future. That doesn't mean "slack off" or "can working", it just means find hobbies you enjoy and dedicate yourself as much to them as your work.
pm90 9y ago
You can die TODAY in a car crash, the 4th largest killer of Americans. Life is pretty fleeting; we plan for a long healthy life and in most cases it does pan out. But you can get super unlucky for whatever reason.
dnautics 9y ago
my dad worked for the federal government. The federal government harassed him in the workplace for being a whistleblower. He sued the federal government. The stress of the lawsuit deteriorated his health. He died one year after retiring.
- micah94 9y ago
  This terrifies me.
- raugustinus 9y ago
  Sorry for your loss. But at least he cleared his conscience. Sorry he had to go through the stress as well. It might take decades, but they will reap what they sow.
  - dnautics 9y ago
    Honestly, I doubt that they will reap what they sow. I repeatedly told him to give up on the case specifically for the reason, so he should have known what he was getting into. I'm also not terribly sad at his death, I think it's just my personality. Thank you for your consideration.
tbrooks 9y ago
Which part is terrifying? Working at the same company for a long duration? Or dying soon after retiring?
- madamelic 9y ago
  All of it. The idea of (seemingly) having never explored other places. He graduated and immediately joined Intel and never left. Maybe he was happy-as-a-clam there but spending your entire adult life having (seemingly) never taken a risk. There is obviously a lot of assumption and judgement to this though.
  - antisthenes 9y ago
    This is just unsubstantiated FOMO. You'll grow out of it once you hit 30.
  - tbrooks 9y ago
    Different strokes for different folks. I hope to work at the same company for the rest of my life, raise my kids, vacation regularly with my wife, then die. I would be completely content with a 'boring' life.
    - irrational 9y ago
      I'm the same. Take risks? No thanks. Give me boring any day. The last time we took the kids to Disneyland I realized that I'm more of a Jungle Cruise kind of guy than that Indiana Jones ride.
  - sillysaurus3 9y ago
    I share your concerns, but it's easy not to do that: we have unparalleled freedom to switch companies nowadays.
  - cortesoft 9y ago
    What is so great about taking a risk when you are already happy? What would you gain? You should only take a risk when the gain is worth it; if you already have what you want, the gain is not worth it. Also, changing jobs is just one type of risk you can take. Maybe his steady work was his foundation for taking other risks in other parts of his life.
apohn 9y ago
Let me restate this a different way. Imagine having multiple jobs where you are recognized and have the type of impact that transforms the entire world. In this case all of that happened at one company. He probably had enough money to retire well before the time he did, so I assume he enjoyed something about working there? So maybe he didn't feel bad he only had 4 years of retirement?
- adventured 9y ago
  > So maybe he didn't feel bad he only had 4 years of retirement? He had a family, including children. Maybe that pointless speculation isn't appropriate either direction.
  - i_cant_speel 9y ago
    The person you responded to isn't saying he would have been fine with dying today. They're saying that working at Intel his entire life isn't something that he was likely bothered by. If he wanted to retire or change companies, he had many opportunities to do so.
    - adventured 9y ago
      I didn't say that's what the parent was saying. Comically you're misconstruing what I think the parent said. I said, very clearly, that speculating on whether Paul would be ok with just having four years of retirement, is pointless speculation and impolite - or worse - toward the family he left behind. It is. A few seconds of thinking in empathy first, would prevent the entire discussion over what Paul may or may not have been interested in. Frankly, I don't even like having to explain the obviousness of how crude this conversation is. To be clear, it's not an issue of whether discussing retirement matters in general in this thread is obnoxious. It's about speculating on Paul's specific choices or preferences. That is obnoxious.
      - jamiek88 9y ago
        In your opinion. It's not like there is some societal taboo being broken here. The trade off between obsessive, 90 hour work weeks that make a CEO, and living for four fucking years afterwards is a discussion worth having. Was it worth it? Do the family think it was worth it?
mc32 9y ago
That presumes that he didn't enjoy and didnt find satisfaction in going to work and contributing to computing. There are many retirees who enjoy their emeritus status so they can continue "work".
ksec 9y ago
That is if working literally means; working. Steve Jobs died soon after he retired. And working at (nearly) the same company / dreams his entire adult life. Or more like he was forced to retire due to his health. But Apple Park. As if He wasn't gonna let death get in the way of his Dream. From reading books and listening to his talks he gave on life, I am sure he didn't regret it one bit. “I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.” - Steve Jobs.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- SmellTheGlove 9y ago
  > “I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.” - Steve Jobs. I agree with the sentiment, but it's also very easy for someone as financially secure as Jobs to make that call.
- valuearb 9y ago
  Jobs didn't retire, he was dying of cancer and passed on the CEO role to Tim Cook 2 months before he died.
tabeth 9y ago
99.99% of people on this site will die and their employers won't care at all (whether they should or not is another story). I'd say if he worked hard and long enough to get recognition he was probably pretty happy with what he did and/or the outcome of his efforts.
- gigatexal 9y ago
  Sure. Depends though where you work: at my firm, a publicly traded healthcare services company, when the last person passed away it was a big deal and everyone knew about it.
- craftyguy 9y ago
  > 99.99% of people on this site will die I'd say that it's probably closer to 100% of us will die.
  - schrodinger 9y ago
    Yes, but the conditional included “and the company won’t care”
geoffreyhale 9y ago
In our 20s, we tend to value newness/variety more highly. Decades later, we tend to value impact/legacy more highly.
- noobermin 9y ago
  And if anything, he has solidified that to a greater degree than most people in SV burning through start-ups and VC money will anyway.
pcunite 9y ago
66 is way too young! Know your place in this life, so that ultimately you are ready at any age. youarehere.place
- exacube 9y ago
  Couldn't have guessed from this comment/URL that it would be about finding/accepting jesus.
nkkollaw 9y ago
I would say that that happens most of the times. Our society is based on work, that's why you should try to get a good one.
noobermin 9y ago
Some people work on a farm for all their lives. Some people stay at home with their kids and don't work. Some people tend to a monastery and meditate all their days. And on and on and on. Different things fulfill different people.
WalterBright 9y ago
I enjoy my work and plan on working until I am no longer able to.
rayiner 9y ago
The companies where people spent their careers aren’t like the ones today where everyone job hops. You grew with the company, and often, the company supported your growth because it was expected that it would grow its talent in house. And you didn’t give up 100% of your life to the company in a continuous sprint trying to get to the big exit. My dad worked for the same company for 25 years. He helped it grow and benefited from that growth by moving up internally, and he had enough time left over to raise a family. When he left at 60 to consult and start his own company, it’s not like he’d spent the previous 25 years in a sprint with nothing to show for it.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
40acres 9y ago
26 year old Intel employee here. Totally get where you're coming from but would like to mention that Intel is a gigantic company. I know 20+ year vets who have had 3-4 different careers here. From the comments floating around in our internal network it seems like Paul had a pretty dynamic career. My biggest concern is folks dying soon after retirement. It's pretty scary to envision working for 40+ years and not be able to enjoy retirement.
narendraj9 9y ago
Retirement is not the only time one lives a life.
jononor 9y ago
Don't plan to live your life when you retire. You will spend the majority of your life working, so better make sure you find something you enjoy. Live today.
Scarblac 9y ago
As a cynical 43 year old: that wouldn't happen to me, age of retiring in my country is 67 and rising...
valuearb 9y ago
I retired when I was 40 years old. It sucked. I'm much happier now that I went back to work.
- hbhakhra 9y ago
  Sounds like an interesting story. Have you written about it anywhere or would you care to elaborate here?
  - valuearb 9y ago
    not that interesting, invested $400k, ran it up over a million while living off it, got squeezed by high expenses (two 15 year mortgages and $200k in therapy bills for autistic daughter) right when market crashed, made a couple hundred thousand playing poker, realized that sucked, started app business, first app took off well but teetered out, now i work for the man.

This is going to sound really heartless: Imagine working for the same company your entire adult life, retiring and dying 4 years later. The thought of that, as a 26-year old, terrifies me.

koolba 9y ago

Heartless? Up until quite recently, that was the norm.

eterm 9y ago

If that frightens you then you shouldn't sacrifice yourself working expecting some kind of future pay-off. Live around your work, so you are working to enjoy life now, not in the future. That doesn't mean "slack off" or "can working", it just means find hobbies you enjoy and dedicate yourself as much to them as your work.

pm90 9y ago

You can die TODAY in a car crash, the 4th largest killer of Americans. Life is pretty fleeting; we plan for a long healthy life and in most cases it does pan out. But you can get super unlucky for whatever reason.

dnautics 9y ago

my dad worked for the federal government. The federal government harassed him in the workplace for being a whistleblower. He sued the federal government. The stress of the lawsuit deteriorated his health. He died one year after retiring.

micah94 9y ago
This terrifies me.
raugustinus 9y ago
Sorry for your loss. But at least he cleared his conscience. Sorry he had to go through the stress as well. It might take decades, but they will reap what they sow.
- dnautics 9y ago
  Honestly, I doubt that they will reap what they sow. I repeatedly told him to give up on the case specifically for the reason, so he should have known what he was getting into. I'm also not terribly sad at his death, I think it's just my personality. Thank you for your consideration.

tbrooks 9y ago

Which part is terrifying? Working at the same company for a long duration? Or dying soon after retiring?

madamelic 9y ago
All of it. The idea of (seemingly) having never explored other places. He graduated and immediately joined Intel and never left. Maybe he was happy-as-a-clam there but spending your entire adult life having (seemingly) never taken a risk. There is obviously a lot of assumption and judgement to this though.
- antisthenes 9y ago
  This is just unsubstantiated FOMO. You'll grow out of it once you hit 30.
- tbrooks 9y ago
  Different strokes for different folks. I hope to work at the same company for the rest of my life, raise my kids, vacation regularly with my wife, then die. I would be completely content with a 'boring' life.
  - irrational 9y ago
    I'm the same. Take risks? No thanks. Give me boring any day. The last time we took the kids to Disneyland I realized that I'm more of a Jungle Cruise kind of guy than that Indiana Jones ride.
- sillysaurus3 9y ago
  I share your concerns, but it's easy not to do that: we have unparalleled freedom to switch companies nowadays.
- cortesoft 9y ago
  What is so great about taking a risk when you are already happy? What would you gain? You should only take a risk when the gain is worth it; if you already have what you want, the gain is not worth it. Also, changing jobs is just one type of risk you can take. Maybe his steady work was his foundation for taking other risks in other parts of his life.

apohn 9y ago

Let me restate this a different way. Imagine having multiple jobs where you are recognized and have the type of impact that transforms the entire world. In this case all of that happened at one company. He probably had enough money to retire well before the time he did, so I assume he enjoyed something about working there? So maybe he didn't feel bad he only had 4 years of retirement?

adventured 9y ago
> So maybe he didn't feel bad he only had 4 years of retirement? He had a family, including children. Maybe that pointless speculation isn't appropriate either direction.
- i_cant_speel 9y ago
  The person you responded to isn't saying he would have been fine with dying today. They're saying that working at Intel his entire life isn't something that he was likely bothered by. If he wanted to retire or change companies, he had many opportunities to do so.
  - adventured 9y ago
    I didn't say that's what the parent was saying. Comically you're misconstruing what I think the parent said. I said, very clearly, that speculating on whether Paul would be ok with just having four years of retirement, is pointless speculation and impolite - or worse - toward the family he left behind. It is. A few seconds of thinking in empathy first, would prevent the entire discussion over what Paul may or may not have been interested in. Frankly, I don't even like having to explain the obviousness of how crude this conversation is. To be clear, it's not an issue of whether discussing retirement matters in general in this thread is obnoxious. It's about speculating on Paul's specific choices or preferences. That is obnoxious.
    - jamiek88 9y ago
      In your opinion. It's not like there is some societal taboo being broken here. The trade off between obsessive, 90 hour work weeks that make a CEO, and living for four fucking years afterwards is a discussion worth having. Was it worth it? Do the family think it was worth it?

mc32 9y ago

That presumes that he didn't enjoy and didnt find satisfaction in going to work and contributing to computing. There are many retirees who enjoy their emeritus status so they can continue "work".

ksec 9y ago

That is if working literally means; working. Steve Jobs died soon after he retired. And working at (nearly) the same company / dreams his entire adult life. Or more like he was forced to retire due to his health. But Apple Park. As if He wasn't gonna let death get in the way of his Dream. From reading books and listening to his talks he gave on life, I am sure he didn't regret it one bit. “I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.” - Steve Jobs.

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
SmellTheGlove 9y ago
> “I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.” - Steve Jobs. I agree with the sentiment, but it's also very easy for someone as financially secure as Jobs to make that call.
valuearb 9y ago
Jobs didn't retire, he was dying of cancer and passed on the CEO role to Tim Cook 2 months before he died.

tabeth 9y ago

99.99% of people on this site will die and their employers won't care at all (whether they should or not is another story). I'd say if he worked hard and long enough to get recognition he was probably pretty happy with what he did and/or the outcome of his efforts.

gigatexal 9y ago
Sure. Depends though where you work: at my firm, a publicly traded healthcare services company, when the last person passed away it was a big deal and everyone knew about it.
craftyguy 9y ago
> 99.99% of people on this site will die I'd say that it's probably closer to 100% of us will die.
- schrodinger 9y ago
  Yes, but the conditional included “and the company won’t care”

geoffreyhale 9y ago

In our 20s, we tend to value newness/variety more highly. Decades later, we tend to value impact/legacy more highly.

noobermin 9y ago
And if anything, he has solidified that to a greater degree than most people in SV burning through start-ups and VC money will anyway.

pcunite 9y ago

66 is way too young! Know your place in this life, so that ultimately you are ready at any age. youarehere.place

exacube 9y ago
Couldn't have guessed from this comment/URL that it would be about finding/accepting jesus.

nkkollaw 9y ago

I would say that that happens most of the times. Our society is based on work, that's why you should try to get a good one.

noobermin 9y ago

Some people work on a farm for all their lives. Some people stay at home with their kids and don't work. Some people tend to a monastery and meditate all their days. And on and on and on. Different things fulfill different people.

WalterBright 9y ago

I enjoy my work and plan on working until I am no longer able to.

rayiner 9y ago

The companies where people spent their careers aren’t like the ones today where everyone job hops. You grew with the company, and often, the company supported your growth because it was expected that it would grow its talent in house. And you didn’t give up 100% of your life to the company in a continuous sprint trying to get to the big exit. My dad worked for the same company for 25 years. He helped it grow and benefited from that growth by moving up internally, and he had enough time left over to raise a family. When he left at 60 to consult and start his own company, it’s not like he’d spent the previous 25 years in a sprint with nothing to show for it.

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]

40acres 9y ago

26 year old Intel employee here. Totally get where you're coming from but would like to mention that Intel is a gigantic company. I know 20+ year vets who have had 3-4 different careers here. From the comments floating around in our internal network it seems like Paul had a pretty dynamic career. My biggest concern is folks dying soon after retirement. It's pretty scary to envision working for 40+ years and not be able to enjoy retirement.

narendraj9 9y ago

Retirement is not the only time one lives a life.

jononor 9y ago

Don't plan to live your life when you retire. You will spend the majority of your life working, so better make sure you find something you enjoy. Live today.

Scarblac 9y ago

As a cynical 43 year old: that wouldn't happen to me, age of retiring in my country is 67 and rising...

valuearb 9y ago

I retired when I was 40 years old. It sucked. I'm much happier now that I went back to work.

hbhakhra 9y ago
Sounds like an interesting story. Have you written about it anywhere or would you care to elaborate here?
- valuearb 9y ago
  not that interesting, invested $400k, ran it up over a million while living off it, got squeezed by high expenses (two 15 year mortgages and $200k in therapy bills for autistic daughter) right when market crashed, made a couple hundred thousand playing poker, realized that sucked, started app business, first app took off well but teetered out, now i work for the man.