This! People need to get a life. I wouldn't have any trouble keeping myself busy after retirement. I do not have nearly enough time for the things I really WANT to do beside work.
I am saving up to retire early. If I mention this to friends, most look at me with big eyes and ask “But what will you spend your day on then!?” in a sceptical tone.
I imagine they think I want to drink beers and play golf all day every day, or something like that.
I’m a bit heart broken, that so many of my friends cannot imagine being masters of their own time, without thinking it would be bad for them and/or unproductive.
Yes, I have experienced exactly the same with friends and find it bizarre - essentially having total freedom seems to scare some people.
Is it because we have been told what to do our whole life and so the thought of having to determine our own destiny each day is too much for some?
Well, my friends immediately assume I want some luxurious self-indulgent perpetual vacation/holiday-thing.
They seem relieved when I explain it’s more of the perpetual weekend I’m aiming for: sleeping till I wake, reading, cooking, hanging with friends and family, coding on my FOSS projects etc.
I think it's also a uniquely American thing. We are so defined by our work and our careers here. It's kind of sad, in my opinion, but that's the reality.
I think that's the one silver lining of the pandemic's lockdowns; some people were at home again for extended periods of time, finding themselves with a lot more free time and in a place that wasn't just for eating and sleeping.
I also have think that's a substantial reason behind the RTO push: some people found their lives empty without the office social environment, even after two years, and enough of them had the power to change it.
Yea I've noticed this is the singular difference between those that enjoy early retirement and are successful doing it and those that aren't. Many ambitious people end up wrapping their entire identity up with work and feel completely lost with that gone. It's why so many successful founders throw themselves into new startups right after an exit, despite having way more than enough to retire. Personally, I've taken some time off since selling my startup and I've been so busy learning new things and building new hobbies that I can't imagine going back! Maybe I will one day, but it will likely involve something I've learned from during this time
Why? Why can work noy be your retirement plan as well? I have benefitted a lot from professors who have kept teaching (voluntarily) till physically possible.
Putting all your eggs in one basket is one big reason.
As a developer if, let's say, AI does make my profession no longer a viable option monetarily, what would happen if my entire identity is tied to it?
You cannot fully control your career no matter what. Many external factors can affect it and you deeply if that's your identity.
What if you can't even teach after retiring because nobody else cares about it?
For me it's about risk/reward and unfortunately in our current system the fact that all my efforts reward someone else disproportionately more completely taints it.
This is a great idea but I'm not sure it will work out.
Numbers are touched up all the time, both in politics (e.g. few governments will admit to lowering the employment rate, if things are not working, usually a new way of counting the unemployed is introduced) and in large companies (managers who report "everything's fine" up the chain until it's too late).
Applied to your idea, donors will have to come up with KPIs to meet. Whatever the situation, the KPIs will magically look good. And if there are no KPIs, nobody will dare take the job.
In my experience, politicians find new ways to massage the numbers but the civil service keeps collecting the old ones. But, I live in quite a democratic country:
> "Interns get a lot of experience," says Ahmad Fawzi, head of the UN's information service in Geneva. "First-hand knowledge about how the international system works: it's invaluable for them, and they have fun."
(while not paying your interns) to Article 23 of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights:
> (3) Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.
Not to mention that unpaid internships decrease economic equality and social mobility by automatically disqualifying those who can not afford to work without pay.
Apparently the said that a resolution was passed forbidding them from paying interns. Clearly they should not take on interns in that situation but they continued to take unpaid ones alas.
