2023

Nope. Been retired since 2009.

Saw a random reddit comment pitching the idea that bad, painful, and/or dreary memories, once it's largely past, tends to get grayed out in our minds and can oftentimes become much more fragmented and difficult to recall. Might just be a fancy way to say "shit happens, sometimes your brain will try to forget." Personally, some part of me feels like 5- to 8-ish whole epochs have come and gone since 2020. The tectonic shift seems to start buckling around 2016- an old "normal" had come and gone in that year. Simultaneously, mind's been fuzzy on recalling certain details since 2020. Maybe a little sensory overload, so my brain pared back a bit.

I was reading about how your mind tracks time more in events than actual time. But yeah it does seem to get faster every year.

Yes, with the omnipresence of digital communications and that surge in remote work, the line between company time and personal time ( already blurred) has been erased. Obliterated. This is a very depressing new reality for many. I love what I do. Profit from my practice goes directly into my pocket, losses come directly out of it. As invested as I am, I still need time to unplug, recharge, sharpen the saw. My last few vacations have all included considerable amounts of working remotely due to staffing or competence shortfalls. It is all still better than my last W-2 position. I dreaded Mondays and was truly unable to enjoy all the money I was making. Fuck working for "the Street."

When I noticed that timed seemed to be rushing by faster and faster, it occurred to me that each year is a smaller percentage of your whole life, which I think compresses time or at least the perception of it. When you’re 10 years old, one year is ten percent of your life experience, but when you’re 50 it’s only two percent. The older you get, the lower that percentage goes. 2020 just put the whole notion of time compression on steroids and altered all of our perceptions. I agree with Muddy’s comment about time being tracked more by events than actual calendar dates, but I also think we track time to some extent by routine, and when routine is materially altered, like it was in 2020, and everything has to reset. For me, retiring a couple years after 2020 blew up my routine again, and I’m still trying to find the reset point!

At my youth I am able to retire with the same standard of living even if I wasn’t working. Problem being is with more free time I might destroy myself, so I’ll have to figure out a new identity with what I do with my time. It’s a scary thought to make the change, but will jump soon transitioning to starting my own business where I can work when I want, with whom I want. The points Shailyn described are exactly why, due to the working culture expected of everyone from corporate world. The younger generation is changing those expectations, and the old school folks are having a coronary over the generational divide. Work smarter, not harder. Corporate won’t care if you die tomorrow. They’ll replace you in two weeks.

Yes - been grinding at work since the summer and expect to do so for a few more months. It’s made me start thinking seriously about retirement, but I’d rather have more money than free time, not the opposite.

The younger generations view of work is to mooch off older people. Work today, poker tonight, skiing loon tomorrow, then Arthur's for steaks. My life is the same, except for the tragedy of the New England Patriots.