I was lucky enough to stop working in 2019 at age 49. I decided I would rather volunteer for charities that work on poverty, using my second set of technical skills (bicycle repair). I wish I had more opportunities, but it's been a lot more fun than "working". To start, I set a target of delivering more value than the amount of money I was donating to poverty-related charities while I was getting paychecks. Secondary goal is to train others to replace my volunteer labor after I am gone.
I decided that I must live my life on my terms
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Re: I decided that I must live my life on my terms
#62Eh.. In the end it's one of those "chop wood, carry water" situations. Big emotions are only useful for a while.
Melancholy but I appreciate the angle, there are certainly portions of life that for me would have benefitted from this mentality.
Re: I decided that I must live my life on my terms
#63I wrote this back when I was 18, in response to the question “what kind of life do you want to live?” but I always come back to it. Something about it still resonates with me. “What kind of life do you want to live?” “A life full of color. I couldnt bear to have a boring life: I want my days to be full of joy and pain and laughter and success and failure and broken hearts and love. To be honest I don’t care where I e…
Surely you didn't have to pay the rent and insurances back then.
Re: I decided that I must live my life on my terms
#64The ultimate value is creating possibility in the world.
Possible futures branch out from us like trees. It is the purpose of our lives to nurture the forest that includes our selves and other living systems
Re: I decided that I must live my life on my terms
#65Good! For me it is working on stuff, that others seem too think is too hard, that make a difference. The last few years it is about improved food production systems. Tight nutrient loops with better food, in every aspect, as the end result. It seems to be working too.
Please tell. I'm also interested, in the grand-scheme intellectual side, but also in the practical side, particularly where it's applicable to smallholders in 'developing' nations.
Re: I decided that I must live my life on my terms
#66To become one with God, through his commandments, mostly by loving, clothing, and feeding my neighbor. However, my performance is woefully inadequate. Luckily, my God is a loving God, and has me on a PIP, so hopefully we see some good progress with the time I have left.
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Such an insipid argument. If we entertain the idea of a Creator and try to make logical sense of the world I think we'd find pretty quickly that it isn't as simple as "make suffering impossible". What does that mean? What are the constraints? A few solutions in no particular order:
Don't create the world in the first place, attractive only to nihilists.
Make cruelty on the part of humans impossible, easy to do without free will or choice, now we're all p-zombies with no internal life just forever going through the motions of existence.
Make man immortal, static and unchanging. Might as well be an action figure on a shelf still sealed in the box.
The world isn't perfect, neither is man but at least there is a world and we do exist and we have a choice as to how we treat each other. Everything that happens here is of our own doing, that is both terrifying and inspiring. Just don't try to use your own failings and that of man in general as a criticism of the concept of a God, the responsibility for our actions will always lie with us.
Re: I decided that I must live my life on my terms
#67My terms of living are to become a craftsman at what I do, use that skill to improve the mess that the internet is today, and then to teach others. We will see if I end up burning out before I reach the end, but as I get older I become better at managing my life and sticking to my principles.
Re: I decided that I must live my life on my terms
#68I find it very curious that the phrase "None of this matters!" can be simultaneously depressing and liberating, depending on who is reading. Understanding can't just be transmitted through words, and requires introspection. Congratulations on your epiphany! I optimize life for happiness. I try shape my life to enjoy the process like you said: good work-life balance, doing something that challenges me just enough on a…
I once told my brother, who was suffering from anxiety, that "No one cares about you when you're out in public". I meant it in the liberating way I had come to know it, which is that no one is paying you the negative attention you think they are, because we're all pretty similar so we all blend in with the crowds. But my parents saw it as an insult. Different perspectives I suppose.
Re: I decided that I must live my life on my terms
#69To become one with God, through his commandments, mostly by loving, clothing, and feeding my neighbor. However, my performance is woefully inadequate. Luckily, my God is a loving God, and has me on a PIP, so hopefully we see some good progress with the time I have left.
A Pain In the Posterior?
Performance Improvement Plan.
Re: I decided that I must live my life on my terms
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Many companies were openly hostile and insulting; right out of the starting gate, and I found that I inevitably ran into at least one person, in subsequent interviews, that started the bullying. I'm not particularly old (30s) and I am noticing that maybe not the people, but the workplaces are becoming hostile and condescending. Perhaps software divas have earned us the kickback, but it's been enlightening in that i…
What kind of biking do you do?
Just mountain biking, the downhill flavor has a lot of room for progression and skill building. Being outdoors at the same time, it's really hard not to love it.