Someone else's best-laid plans

[flexagon]

Really interesting lunch conversation today with a Zillianaire who's been there for a few years. I knew (though it's not widely known) that he actually came out of an early retirement to take this job, and for weeks we'd been planning to have lunch so that he could talk to me about early retirement and the pitfalls he encountered there. In the

Comments

[nahele_101]

It's nice that you have that option to even consider early retirement. Sounds like it wasn't exactly what he thought it would be. I think in your case if/when you decide to pull up stakes, that you'll be quite busy in all your extra activities.

[flexagon]

I can't do it YET, it's more like six years out at the earliest. It is nice though. My reading definitely tells me that a person needs plans, and an idea of what the day will look like, and hopefully is already cultivating whatever hobbies and interests are intended to provide meaning and the sense of being productive.

My only outside activity right now is acro / fitness, and that might indeed go a long way toward that for me.

[melebeth]

The work/identity thing is so engrained in me, I can't imagine not working. God, I'm my mom!

[flexagon]

Me too... but every time I look at the cats I'm reminded that there's another way. A very foreign, intriguing way indeed.

[verdanthe]

my early retirement plan is more like a transition to a second (more risky, less lucrative) career, but it keeps getting pushed farther out anyway.

[flexagon]

my early retirement plan is more like a transition to a second (more risky, less lucrative) career

From what I've been reading, this approach is a psychologically easier and less risky one.

[drwex]

This is also my plan, such as it is. But I have kids and college tuition bills to deal with first.

[drwex]

is "Zillian" actually a thing or a code name? Web searching it didn't turn up anything obvious.

[flexagon]

"Zillian" is a code name. There is, however, a very famous corporation whose name is also a misspelling of a large number. It has a colorful logo. You probably used it while trying to figure out what "Zillian" is.

[drwex]

Oh. No, I don't use that - I use Duckduckgo because anonymous and because of The Medical Incident.

In short, back in the day when I used some other search engine a friend came over to my house to talk about a medical condition they were concerned about. We did some Web searching from my home PC.

The next day, DURING A LIVE PROJECTED DEMO AT WORK, said search engine helpfully popped up those medical terms as suggested completions for my searches.

I changed search engines about 30 seconds after that demo ended.