7 ms·
Never Retire
- bthallplz 3y agohttps://archive.is/ei7on https://archive.is/ei7on
- jimberlage 3y agoAlternatively, retire and find a fulfilling volunteer opportunity you're passionate about. Most volunteer places need people during the workweek, and the best fit is college students or retirees. If you need to be super entreprenurial, start the volunteer organization you'd like to see in the world.
- nemomarx 3y agoThe hacker news headline edit makes this a little more menacing tonally.
- paulpauper 3y agofull headline "Why you should never retire. Pleasure cruises, golf and tracing the family tree are not that fulfilling"
- sudden_dystopia 3y agoLess forceful but the real title sounds more like a desperate plea from Klaus Schwab.
- paulpauper 3y agoIt's understandable why the rich, at least, don't want to retire. The returns to status and capital are greater than ever. Zuck made $25 billion today. Who wouldn't want to keep this up for the rest of hir or her life. People in the highest positions of society enjoy prestige and wealth creation of the likes never before seen.
- spencerflem 3y agoI would retire. I don't think I'd ever possibly be able to spend more than single digit millions if I tried. Wanting to hoard hundreds of billions is just baffling.
- paulpauper 3y agoMichael Bloomberg spent $500 million of his own money in only 5 months for his 2020 presidential campaign. It's not that hard if you are not just limited to physical stuff but instead try to buy influence.
- spencerflem 3y agoI'd also rather not be president. Seems like a lot of work
- robocat 3y agoPlenty of counter-examples of rich people that have retired. They pursue other interests or find another outlet for their competitive urges.
- glitchc 3y agoIt was ever thus, and probably not the fastest in history either. For instance, the wealth of the British empire, and by extension that of the Royal Family, grew at a rate far higher than what is presently seen. Earlier empires controlled even greater portions of the total wealth.
- paulpauper 3y agowhich proves my point as monarchs do not retire
- glitchc 3y agoNot disagreeing, only nitpicking on this being the most egregious divide between rich and poor. It's been worse before. Rather, one could argue it's the best its ever been in human history. Progress is slow.
- rootusrootus 3y agoIn my mind, retirement isn't where I just stop working, it's more about being able to stop working any job that I don't like. I'll choose what I want to do, and the moment it becomes something I dread, I'll walk. Maybe I'll have a side business that I love but which doesn't really have to pay the bills. I've never really understood the folks who strive for the day they can just park on the couch and call it good. I'd go stir crazy in a week. Anecdotally, some of the happiest people I know work until the end of their life. They really love what they do, and don't feel the need to stop.
- xur17 3y agoFor me the biggest thing is having more control over my time. I enjoy working with my coworkers, and generally like the challenge, etc of working, but the biggest blocker to me continuing to work long term is being fully control of my time. In my current role, I can work from wherever I want, can step out (some) in the middle of the day, etc, but I'd love the ability to do something like take 2 months off work. Obviously this is difficult in any role where other people rely on you though. All of that said, I look at my current life and job role, and compare it with friends, and I have to same I am honestly pretty spoiled, it could be a ton worse. That said, more freedom is the name of the game for me.
- unshavedyak 3y agoYup. I’ve always said I never want to retire. I just want to change and control what it is I’m working on.
- neilv 3y agoAbsolutely. I trained and live to work, but I spend way too much time getting permission (in one sense or another). And repeat. My ideal "retirement" is to have enough money in the bank that I can actually apply my hard-earned skills to real problems, without the friction of cargo-culting interviewers, dysfunctional organizations, misaligned individuals, BS/evil missions, etc. And early retirement, for me, is partly about getting use out of the skills in which I've invested, before my interests shift horrifically to playing golf, taking cruises, and bingo.
- verandaguy 3y agoThis is an insultingly out-of-touch article. _Lots_ of people dream of retirement, and _lots_ of people retire happy. Not everyone's lucky enough to love their jobs, or have stimulating positions at companies, or work with people they get along with. Lots of people work in customer-facing jobs in industries where customers are rude, entitled, and just generally disrespectful. Many of those people don't have the option to retire because the venn diagram of those jobs, and jobs that pay too little to afford retirement, is pretty close to being a circle. There's also the issue of there only being so many work opportunities, and whether or not it's correct for someone of traditional retirement age to hang on to a job, possibly at the expense of someone new to the workforce having one fewer opportunity. I would give this article a bit easier of a time if it didn't conspicuously dance around the issue of having an aging population combined with (in many countries) social insurance-type systems not geared to support an age pyramid that top-heavy, but lines like this are just... bad. > But can anything truly replace the framework and buzz of being part of the action? Yeah, lots of things. Travel. Hobbies. Going dancing with your partner. Gardening. Hell, using your retirement and pension to kick off a startup of your own. For many people, above all, not being under constant pressure to perform at a certain level. I say all of that as a millennial who both (a) loves my job, and (b) is unlikely to ever be able to afford to (comfortably) retire, barring major shifts in the economy.
- xwiz 3y agoExactly. I have a hard time viewing articles like this as anything other than deliberate propaganda. But maybe it's the case that many people reading the Economist cannot derive joy from anything besides employment. Furthermore, who is this article for? People deciding whether to retire, but who weren't around for Seinfeld?
- zoomablemind 3y ago> ...Furthermore, who is this article for? Well, it's an author's column. Very much reflective.
- hn_throwaway_99 3y agoWhat, you're telling me that you don't want to be like Georgio Armani or Charlie Munger or Warren Buffet or Jerry Seinfeld or a writer for the Economist? /s
- jmclnx 3y agoThis article seems to be referring to people who do not need to work to live. If you can, I say retire and if you have the skills, find an Open Source project to work on, or create you own. That way you control what you want to do as opposed to doing what you are told to do. Articles like this, to me, only proves there is a very large the wealth gap in today's world.
- pyrrhotech 3y ago"Pleasure cruises, golf and tracing the family tree are not that fulfilling" ok boomer, but what about video games? I've long had a suspicion that the relative popularity of the FIRE movement among Millenials and Zoomers is largely due to the fact that they've found a hobby in interactive digital entertainment that's leaps and bounds more addictive, satisfying and fulfilling (at least in a shallow sense) than the hobbies of their elders. I enjoy working and don't plan on ever fully retiring, but certainly plan to leave the 9-5 lifestyle and working for others eventually to be a full time entrepreneur / indie hacker at some point. My first project towards that end is Grizzly Bulls (https://grizzlybulls.com/ https://grizzlybulls.com/), an algorithmic trading platform which is certainly going well enough to support myself full time, but I really enjoy my current FTE work too much to consider it for now.
- malfist 3y agoThis post has a lot of ageist statements. I find it hard to believe that video games are a more fulfilling past time than something creative like woodworking or knitting. I find it hard to believe video games are fulfilling. They're a past time, not an achievement.
- thfuran 3y agoIs knitting an achievement?
- munificent 3y agoYes, it absolutely is. It's much harder than it looks. Even when you are skilled at it, making a significant knitting project is still a very large time commitment. Because of that, creating a knitting project and giving it to someone you care about can be a very deeply meaningful act for both the knitter and the receiver.
- thfuran 3y ago>It's much harder than it looks So is Super meat boy. >Even when you are skilled at it, making a significant knitting project is still a very large time commitment. I don't think I know anyone who plays dota and would consider themselves skilled without having made a very considerable time commitment. >Because of that, creating a knitting project and giving it to someone you care about can be a very deeply meaningful act for both the knitter and the receiver. People can find meaning in just about anything.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- OldGuyInTheClub 3y agoLike I have a choice?
- adamnemecek 3y agoI’m sure this is an unbiased article.
- m3kw9 3y agoIf retirement is just eat drink vacation, TV then yeah don’t do that it won’t fulfill you, you still need hobbies(work). Free or otherwise, don’t just sit there. There are people thinking of living forever, be careful what you wish for as good luck finding enough things to do for even 100k years let alone 1billion
- fullshark 3y agoThe neoliberal paper of record here to tell you to give your life to capital's benefit.
- malfist 3y agoAll the examples are insane too "this billionaire didn't retire, so sacrifice your golden years to them" is essentially all the examples
- Viliam1234 3y ago> Hobbies are all well and good for many. But for the extremely driven, they can feel pointless and even slightly embarrassing. That is because there is depth in being useful. I would assume that an "extremely driven" person is capable of finding a useful hobby, but apparently not.
- thfuran 3y agoHaving a hobby seems pointless and embarrassing? I think by "driven" they meant "money-obsessed".
- endemic 3y agomy hobbies are way more meaningful than boosting corporate profits
- Viliam1234 3y agomaybe it feels different when you own the corporation
- paxys 3y agoThe entire thing is just sad. Entire generations of people whose lives are so intimately defined by the corporate grind that they lose meaning when it is taken away. Imagine having the time, money and health to be with your loved ones, pursue your passions, travel the world, or really set any goal you want for the remaining decades of your life, but feeling empty because there are no meetings on your calendar, no OKRs to hit and no bosses to answer to. I have no doubt that such people exist in great numbers, especially in America, but it's about time we start to treat it not as an aspiration but rather a disease to be treated.
- sk11001 3y ago> be with your loved ones, pursue your passions, travel the world, or really set any goal you want for the remaining decades of your life They are pursuing their passions and setting any goal they want. I don't get why so many people in this thread are dismissive of different views. > feeling empty because there are no meetings on your calendar, no OKRs to hit and no bosses to answer to This isn't the part that people miss when they stop working. You can at least try to argue in good faith.
- coldpie 3y ago> I don't get why so many people in this thread are dismissive of different views. It's probably because the title is a command: "Never Retire." Nah, I think I will, thanks.
- drewcoo 3y agoLabor fought hard for retirement and benefits. That's all slowly unravelling, so now The Economist can boldly proclaim that you shouldn't even want that retirement. Labor also fought hard for shorter work hours and work week. I suppose The Economist would like us to work longer and more days a week so that we can really be "fulfilled," too? Not to trip Godwin's law, but there was a "camp slogan" this reminds me of . . .
- caturopath 3y agoInstead, just don't suck
- lawlessone 3y ago100 years ago people died for 8 hour days and retirements.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- zoomablemind 3y agoI guess, there are at least two kinds of "retire": 1) retire from doing the job that you depend on for living, 2) retire from doing what you find rewarding. Sometimes both of these coincide. Lucky! Sometimes you grow into accepting 1) to become also 2). Well, lucky too! If you also have a choice to enjoy doing this in later years, then you are very much lucky and happy. Otherwise, like lots of people, we keep on our pursuit of happiness. Retirement from a well-paying yet not that rewarding job, just gives us another chance to catch that happiness, perhaps now being able to detach the 1). Living long and remaining active is no less lucky!
- johnea 3y agoF_ck that!
- readthenotes1 3y agoI retired early, and thus I've had some time to think about why I have been able to do so with no discernible purpose and yet still enjoy my days. Where I am now is the realization that I aspire to base my self-esteem on how I treat others and not how they treat me. The vanity, rivalry, and search for power that feels inherent in the work world has no place in my world. I would much rather have the time to spend an hour with my elderly neighbor who is stuck in the hospital than to have the income that would allow me to fly to Tokyo for a Taylor Swift concert, or even just eat at a chic restaurant or drive a new car.
- a_wild_dandan 3y agoYou might skip this article if you reject any of these key assumptions: 1. You "live to work" rather than "work to live." Your personal fulfillment is derived from your utility as a workplace tool. 2. Your job doesn't damage your mental health and finances every need (e.g. food, shelter, utilities, healthcare, savings, furnishings, vehicle, debt repayment, etc). 3. You have sufficient leisure time to satisfy personal desires & obligations (i.e. connecting with your partner/friends, hobbies, caring for family members, chores, parenting, etc). Unfortunately, for myself and everyone I know, these premises are deranged. But if they resonate with you, then work until you die! Live your best life!
- recursivedoubts 3y agoTell that to a roofer.
- 303uru 3y agoNever retire just reeks of out of touch and entitled. A brother of a close friend made it big with an edtech startup and he loves to tell everyone how he'll never retire and you shouldn't either! Work for him looks like this: - Working damn near anywhere on the planet he wants from a rental that costs $20k a month - Having a housekeeper, traveling nanny, nutritionist, chef, fashion consultant, etc... - Having $250M to fall back on at any time - Going to industry events, conferences, etc... and having everyone praise you and dote over you - Being able to just not work anytime you don't want to
- imacomputer 3y agoPretty sure this is clickbait or propaganda or both. It's alarming that someone is pushing this to the mainstream, I'm not sure how to counter a slow creeping push like this.