Hacker News Reader

Comment by teaearlgraycold | Hacker News Reader

I 100% understand the appeal of freedom from external pressures that retirement offers. But at the same time all the (many) people I know that retired early mostly just goof off and struggle to complete any of their many projects. And don’t get me wrong, I love goofing off. Been doing plenty of it. But given my inevitable death I have to appreciate a little external pressure forcing me to do good work.

View on HN

> But at the same time all the (many) people I know that retired early mostly just goof off and struggle to complete any of their many projects.

I retired early and ended up going back to work part time. I didn't complete many of my projects, but that's not why I went back. Most of my projects were things I wanted to play with, not things I expected to finish.

Working part time is nice because of external pressure, but really, the most of the pressure is cause I'll feel bad if I disappoint the people that are letting me work with them.

I don't feel bad if I don't get my personal projects done, because nobody is going to use them anyway.

I have picked up a project that helps out a nonprofit and it’s making a nice financial impact. And then there are artistic projects that I hope positively impact others.

Are you a dev? What does part time look like?

Yes, I write software. The company is 100% remote with an annual team meetup and an annual company meetup, but I only go to the team one.

4 days a week, online at 9-10 am, offline 2-3 pm most days. Sometimes I'm working a sticky problem and stay online later. Or if I start a deploy in late afternoon, I'll stick around to finish it, etc.

Still on group chats, may or may not mute them on my day off.

What corporations even offer “good” work any more? In the sense of not making the world a net shittier place.

I don’t know what your values are but I’m sure you can find some company that is at least morally neutral in its mission. However you might have to accept lower pay.

But to clarify I meant “work you can be proud of” when I said “good”.

If I were fortunate enough to be in that position, I think I’d partner up with a buddy to build something cool (that is unlikely to be a big moneymaker) and rely on each other for that pressure.

> and struggle to complete any of their many projects

Hmm.. I don't struggle, I enjoy it. The goal isn't to start glossy product production. It's to learn how to do it. As soon as it's obvious project is usually shelved. Except for the 'main line' projects which together can result in something significant.

After early retirement, it took be a solid 3 years to undo the mentality of needing to work. Now, I ride my bike with my wife as we fight her MS. I show up for her and myself.

Idk external pressure is mostly forcing me to participate in the corporate hellscape - would love to leave this and goof off as a goat farmer somewhere.

Let’s face it - most businesses don’t produce anything meaningful and just exist to realise the infinite growth fallacy of capitalism

I'm going to raise cattle.

What is the infinite growth fallacy? Are you familiar with the concept of dividends?

The infinite growth fallacy is the belief that industrial economies can expand exponentially forever (rising GDP, consumption, and population) on a planet with finite resources.

What do dividends have to do with it?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com