What I Learned from a Stroke at 26: Make Time to Untangle
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Re: What I Learned from a Stroke at 26: Make Time to Untangle
#2I gave way too much to more than one job when I was young. As I transitioned into my 30's I began to think very differently about work. It wasn't my #1 priority anymore. By the time I coasted into my 40's I was just looking for somewhere I could become a number and disappear. A good paying Corporate job or contracting.I like environments where a huge bureaucracy exists to slow things down. Ride it out to retirement. It's working out well for me. Don't have a lot of piss and vinegar left. Like to enjoy my family, my cars, travel, quiet times. I can piddle a whole day away just messing around in the garage and it feels so rewarding. I think it is the Spanish who have a saying....."It's nice to relax after a day of doing nothing".
Re: What I Learned from a Stroke at 26: Make Time to Untangle
#3Good cautionary tale. There was also the case of a 21-year-old Bank of America Merrill Lynch intern who was found dead in a shower at his London flat after working for 72 hours in a row: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2013/nov/22/moritz-erha...
Don't let this be you.
Re: What I Learned from a Stroke at 26: Make Time to Untangle
#4I gave way too much to more than one job when I was young. As I transitioned into my 30's I began to think very differently about work. It wasn't my #1 priority anymore. By the time I coasted into my 40's I was just looking for somewhere I could become a number and disappear. A good paying Corporate job or contracting.I like environments where a huge bureaucracy exists to slow things down. Ride it out to retirement.…
This is what a lot of 25 year olds who say "I can't imagine ever not working, not learning new stuff" don't understand. Of course they can't imagine it. I couldn't either when I was 25. But when you're 50, you can really feel like there are better things to do than work your ass off for someone else's benefit or entertainment.
Re: What I Learned from a Stroke at 26: Make Time to Untangle
#5I spent several years in my mid-twenties working like the author, pretty much non-stop. At the lowest point, I fell into a weird sleep pattern: I'd crash as soon as I got home around 6:00 in the evening, then wake up around midnight and be back at work by 1:00 am.
It took an old friend's suicide to jolt me out of it. I saw a lot of my old buddies at the funeral and started reestablishing those friendships. We played a lot of video games. Xbox Live probably saved my life. The worst thing about overwork is that it becomes difficult to imagine yourself doing anything else when you're in the thick of it, like it doesn't even occur to you that you should be spending your time elsewhere; I wonder if any of you have experienced this. Thankfully, even something as inconsequential as Halo was enough to help me rearrange my priorities.
Re: What I Learned from a Stroke at 26: Make Time to Untangle
#6I gave way too much to more than one job when I was young. As I transitioned into my 30's I began to think very differently about work. It wasn't my #1 priority anymore. By the time I coasted into my 40's I was just looking for somewhere I could become a number and disappear. A good paying Corporate job or contracting.I like environments where a huge bureaucracy exists to slow things down. Ride it out to retirement.…
This is what a lot of 25 year olds who say "I can't imagine ever not working, not learning new stuff" don't understand. Of course they can't imagine it. I couldn't either when I was 25. But when you're 50, you can really feel like there are better things to do than work your ass off for someone else's benefit or entertainment.
There's a wide spectrum between GP's "doing the least I can get away with" and your "slaving for the man".
This week I have to be on holiday, so I'll be working on a project I love and "learning new stuff", for nobody else's benefit or entertainment other than my own.
Re: What I Learned from a Stroke at 26: Make Time to Untangle
#7[deleted]
Re: What I Learned from a Stroke at 26: Make Time to Untangle
#8What the?
"When I was discharged from the hospital late the next day, the cabdriver asked me, “Where do I take you?” I couldn’t remember the name of my street. I handed him the discharge paperwork with my address on it, arrived home and slept for a long while."
How does someone who just had a stroke get discharged from hospital the next day, to a taxi?
Re: What I Learned from a Stroke at 26: Make Time to Untangle
#9What the? "When I was discharged from the hospital late the next day, the cabdriver asked me, “Where do I take you?” I couldn’t remember the name of my street. I handed him the discharge paperwork with my address on it, arrived home and slept for a long while." How does someone who just had a stroke get discharged from hospital the next day, to a taxi?
Not having the life insurance to cover a long term stay?
Re: What I Learned from a Stroke at 26: Make Time to Untangle
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is what a lot of 25 year olds who say "I can't imagine ever not working, not learning new stuff" don't understand. Of course they can't imagine it. I couldn't either when I was 25. But when you're 50, you can really feel like there are better things to do than work your ass off for someone else's benefit or entertainment.
There's a wide spectrum between GP's "doing the least I can get away with" and your "slaving for the man". This week I have to be on holiday, so I'll be working on a project I love and "learning new stuff", for nobody else's benefit or entertainment other than my own.
I think it varies by character. My stepfather only really stopped working when he suffered a pretty serious stroke. Prior to that, even when he wasn't employed, he was still working in his home lab, inventing stuff. (He's an electrical engineer, not a super villain or a crank - he wasn't inventing death rays or anti-gravity, but he holds a couple of patents on inventions that have made other people a few million dollars or so. Plus, during one of his "retirements", he worked on the gas chromatograph on the Phoenix lander.)
On the other hand, I'm more likely to fall into Employee Number Whatsit situation - we have a seven month old kid, and there are definitely days when I wish I could just coast along with my red stapler until she turns 18 and moves out of the house, to say nothing of really putting in time to work on projects and hobbies at home.