I was, and in many ways still am. And to the degree that I focused on being able to retire early, it was so that I could work on software projects of my choice

I was, and in many ways still am. And to the degree that I focused on being able to retire early, it was so that I could work on software projects of my choice. In my case, various forms of adversity struck, and early retirement is no longer possible. And even if it were, my desire to blast away on open source projects has waned considerably. Plan ahead for the possibility that your preferences might be rather different in twenty years.