Well I guess I have to be the one to say it. This is just my opinions based on my experience thus far. I'm retired and I disagree with every sentence that starts with "You loose". I do not miss a single thing from the corporate world or the cities they reside in. I never wanted a tribe. Tribes are the reason the country is divided. People can benefit from communities and my community is my neighborhood and nearby town. My mastery can be practiced without a corporation. Status? I had to deal with a company full of strong personalities that wanted to undo everything I did so they could have their own sense of accomplishment. I don't miss that at all. My identity was never tied to a company. I was always trying to replace myself. Progress? This is starting to sound like a psychological disorder they are trying to cope with or perhaps they are a workaholic like Elon. Retirement means progress completed. Move onto other things, hobbies, new friends. Stimulation? I get that from the local people, the internet, the wilderness and so much more. There is a lot more to life than corporations.
Structure changes, yes. Plan for that change and make your life what you want it to be. For me it is taking care of hundreds of deer in the winter and other critters the rest of the year. I feel entirely fulfilled. If anything I may have over-extended myself. I found a good sense of community near a small town. I am happier than I have ever been. I don't know how to help the person that wrote this article but I think they do need help.
Edit: For people that need the continuous engagement and activities are are entire cities that are based around retirement. [1] It's definitely not my thing but for those that always need something to do or people to interact with it's an option.
I'm retired and I disagree with every sentence that starts with "You loose".
Yeah, I made it halfway through the article before I decided that I should have quit with the first paragraph. Sure, if retirement to you means sitting on the front porch, you’re going to have a bad time of it (or maybe not; you do you). It also means all you did was work, which doesn’t prepare you for retirement. Yeesh, get a hobby, go volunteer.
I didn’t retire because I didn’t like to work. I retired because work got in the way of other things I wanted to do. Not a single sentence that I read in TFA applies to me. Not a word of it. If it applies to you, I’ll be so bold as to suggest making a few changes in life.
I think a lot of the anxiety i get is that our industry is still young enough (it existed for a while but the huge boost in number of people working came in the 90s-10s and most of those people haven’t yet reached retirement age) that I don’t actually know a lot of people who retired. I’m 43 and know a few people in my profession in their 50s and a handful in their 60s.
I know nobody older in my profession (when I started 20 years ago the oldest people at work were maybe 20 years older than me at the time). I occasionally chat online with my first boss from early on in my career - I estimate he is in his mid to late 50s and still works as a programmer. My brother in law is 60 and is probably the oldest working programmer I know.
I literally cant think of anyone I worked with who retired while I was working with them- I think this lack of familiarity makes it seem scarier than it should be.
I think all of this article is true, but I suspect that the vast bulk of people entering retirement each year have few if any of these things beyond perhaps the sense of identity.
It's very true that retirement means losing many of the fun perks associated with a high-flying career, but you have to have those perks in the first place.
Even here on HN, many of us are living fairly ordinary lives, perhaps working on cool technology, but I think even in our fairly exclusive club, not all that many of us have PAs and frequent high-class work travel, even at the apex of our careers.
For those who have all those things and lose them it can be very profound. For a lot of people in that position they spend almost all of their time working in some sense or other, and retirement ends all that. I think that's why people in super successful careers often end up doing advisory work or ending up on boards, so they can keep some of the perks with less of the commitment.
One thing that this misses is that in many fields, career retirement chooses you before you choose it. This is often true in development as ageism catches up with you. At some point, you keep doing interviews and nobody says "yes."
Then, even though you have enough money for retirement (or even if you don't), you are answering these questions simultaneously with handling rejection.
I accept the likelihood that I will have been unemployed for some considerable span by the time I die, but I can't imagine choosing to retire, on purpose. My mind would eat itself, if it had to cope with so much idleness!
Genetically and environmentally some people need a job for identity and some don't. There are benefits and drawbacks to everything. If you are in the former category keep working indefinitely. Know yourself.
You will most definitely end up in a bad situation if your life is 100% about work. So don't fall into that trap! While working, focus on creating a life outside of work and stop defining yourself as a job title. You are not your work!
Well I guess I have to be the one to say it. This is just my opinions based on my experience thus far. I'm retired and I disagree with every sentence that starts with "You loose". I do not miss a single thing from the corporate world or the cities they reside in. I never wanted a tribe. Tribes are the reason the country is divided. People can benefit from communities and my community is my neighborhood and nearby town. My mastery can be practiced without a corporation. Status? I had to deal with a company full of strong personalities that wanted to undo everything I did so they could have their own sense of accomplishment. I don't miss that at all. My identity was never tied to a company. I was always trying to replace myself. Progress? This is starting to sound like a psychological disorder they are trying to cope with or perhaps they are a workaholic like Elon. Retirement means progress completed. Move onto other things, hobbies, new friends. Stimulation? I get that from the local people, the internet, the wilderness and so much more. There is a lot more to life than corporations.
Structure changes, yes. Plan for that change and make your life what you want it to be. For me it is taking care of hundreds of deer in the winter and other critters the rest of the year. I feel entirely fulfilled. If anything I may have over-extended myself. I found a good sense of community near a small town. I am happier than I have ever been. I don't know how to help the person that wrote this article but I think they do need help.
Edit: For people that need the continuous engagement and activities are are entire cities that are based around retirement. [1] It's definitely not my thing but for those that always need something to do or people to interact with it's an option.
[1] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BX4i8qprP2I [video][44 mins]
I'm retired and I disagree with every sentence that starts with "You loose".
Yeah, I made it halfway through the article before I decided that I should have quit with the first paragraph. Sure, if retirement to you means sitting on the front porch, you’re going to have a bad time of it (or maybe not; you do you). It also means all you did was work, which doesn’t prepare you for retirement. Yeesh, get a hobby, go volunteer.
I didn’t retire because I didn’t like to work. I retired because work got in the way of other things I wanted to do. Not a single sentence that I read in TFA applies to me. Not a word of it. If it applies to you, I’ll be so bold as to suggest making a few changes in life.
I think a lot of the anxiety i get is that our industry is still young enough (it existed for a while but the huge boost in number of people working came in the 90s-10s and most of those people haven’t yet reached retirement age) that I don’t actually know a lot of people who retired. I’m 43 and know a few people in my profession in their 50s and a handful in their 60s.
I know nobody older in my profession (when I started 20 years ago the oldest people at work were maybe 20 years older than me at the time). I occasionally chat online with my first boss from early on in my career - I estimate he is in his mid to late 50s and still works as a programmer. My brother in law is 60 and is probably the oldest working programmer I know.
I literally cant think of anyone I worked with who retired while I was working with them- I think this lack of familiarity makes it seem scarier than it should be.
I think all of this article is true, but I suspect that the vast bulk of people entering retirement each year have few if any of these things beyond perhaps the sense of identity.
It's very true that retirement means losing many of the fun perks associated with a high-flying career, but you have to have those perks in the first place.
Even here on HN, many of us are living fairly ordinary lives, perhaps working on cool technology, but I think even in our fairly exclusive club, not all that many of us have PAs and frequent high-class work travel, even at the apex of our careers.
For those who have all those things and lose them it can be very profound. For a lot of people in that position they spend almost all of their time working in some sense or other, and retirement ends all that. I think that's why people in super successful careers often end up doing advisory work or ending up on boards, so they can keep some of the perks with less of the commitment.
One thing that this misses is that in many fields, career retirement chooses you before you choose it. This is often true in development as ageism catches up with you. At some point, you keep doing interviews and nobody says "yes."
Then, even though you have enough money for retirement (or even if you don't), you are answering these questions simultaneously with handling rejection.
I accept the likelihood that I will have been unemployed for some considerable span by the time I die, but I can't imagine choosing to retire, on purpose. My mind would eat itself, if it had to cope with so much idleness!
Genetically and environmentally some people need a job for identity and some don't. There are benefits and drawbacks to everything. If you are in the former category keep working indefinitely. Know yourself.
Retiring was the best ever decision for my mental health.
What a depressing article.
Don't retire and sit staring at the ceiling.
Get hobbies. Make friends. Volunteer. Do those projects you never finished (or started!) because you were too busy working.
Develop an identity beyond your internalised capitalism. You are more valuable than your 9-5 seat warming.
Yes, these things will slow down. That's the point of retirement. Just don't let them stop.
You will most definitely end up in a bad situation if your life is 100% about work. So don't fall into that trap! While working, focus on creating a life outside of work and stop defining yourself as a job title. You are not your work!
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