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A Caltech Nobel laureate celebrates his 100th birthday, then gets back to work

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Re: A Caltech Nobel laureate celebrates his 100th birthday, then gets back to work

#181
post #66
post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fair enough. Einstein definitely pre-dates what I'm talking about, so if he's included, then this guy definitely is.

To be fair, I recall him criticising the capitalist system too for not rewarding the scientists properly. He is not a simple person.

As if the only possible reward is money?

Re: A Caltech Nobel laureate celebrates his 100th birthday, then gets back to work

#182
post #128
post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, but the popular image is the kind you see in the moving picture "About Schmidt"

We stopped calling them moving pictures in 1910. They're motion pictures now.

…and since 1915, we’ve been calling them movies. [1]

[1] https://pictureshowman.com/when-did-the-term-movie-replace-m...

Re: A Caltech Nobel laureate celebrates his 100th birthday, then gets back to work

#183
My mother recently retired. She was working since 16. Nobody does that anymore most enter the workforce at 25 now.

Anyway she spent 40 years working as a psychiatric nurse and later as a therapist and got tired of the sex abuse stories and all the other horrors our lovely society produces to make people go insane so I don't blame her for retiring. Some people have real jobs.

Re: A Caltech Nobel laureate celebrates his 100th birthday, then gets back to work

#184
post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Almost every person I know has the same goal about learning all these new hobbies. What happens instead is people do what they are passionate about and if you never learning X all your life you probably won't start at 65.

Depends on what X is. Ski jumping? Probably not. Workshop stuff (CNC, 3D printing, etc) probably yes.

If a person is doing at least a little bit of that in the small amounts of spare time they already have, then yes. Otherwise, I don't think so.

Re: A Caltech Nobel laureate celebrates his 100th birthday, then gets back to work

#185

I feel like one of the secrets to living longer is to have a reason to get up every day, a purpose to fulfill in life. And this guy certainly has one.

Not necessarily. I have grandparents who just sat there for 40 years after retirement not doing anything.

Re: A Caltech Nobel laureate celebrates his 100th birthday, then gets back to work

#186

How does one keep going so long with the same passion, energy and excitement? Is it because of working in academia? Corporate life with its politics has exhausted me and sucked all the passion out of work. My cognitive abilities are declining due to the constant pressure to show (fake) impact and tout my own horn to move up.

You don’t need to do any of that when you’re on top, either as an entrepreneur or head scientist with tenure.

By definiton, there's very few people on top. Way fewer than people attempting to climb there.

Re: A Caltech Nobel laureate celebrates his 100th birthday, then gets back to work

#187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

100% yes. I usually think of / describe that aspect of UBI (theoretically) as "the job all other jobs have to compete with." Like - there's a floor on how shitty a job can be, if no job is a valid alternative.

That isn't how welfare works. You're actually presenting the "welfare queen" argument even if you're saying it's good, but it was bad because it wasn't true. Welfare is good because people like being employed and supporting them gives them more time and resources to find a better job. It increases employment because of this. (this is search/matching theory.) Conversely, the kind of non-working people who are poorest…

Do you think that full employment is necessary in today's society? Note I did not use the word economy. I wonder if people who have "welfare queen" adjacent perspectives believe that people would not be happy in a situation where we have a smaller economy and a society where the average person isn't forced to compromise their values or submit themselves to abuse just to afford rent and food.

Re: A Caltech Nobel laureate celebrates his 100th birthday, then gets back to work

#189
Good for him! I hope to be working until I no longer can't. What's really the killer is the 5 days a week 8 hour grind. My work gives me quite flexible working hours and days - sometimes I work a lot, sometimes it's quite chill. If I was stuck in an office with the same routine year in and out, probably I would hate work.

Re: A Caltech Nobel laureate celebrates his 100th birthday, then gets back to work

#190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Tomorrow is my 65th birthday. Congrats! > the day after tomorrow, I am pitching my 3rd startup to investors. I'm still pretty active (58) but there is no way I'm going to do another run, I'm happy tinkering with stuff, spending time with kids and working on average 3 to 4 months per year. I always saw money as a means to an end, just another tool in the toolbox. I don't need more of it so that part of the drive is…

This situation/attitude is exactly the thing that great people end up in. As I've mentioned previously I have known a lot of people that developed enough wealth over time to "retire."[1] And by retire I mean choose to work on what they wanted to work on, and not work if they didn't want to. I once explained as "being a consultant with infinite days of paid vacation." Some folks like Jacques and the GP author are "old…

> I proposed a member-benefit type company arrangement that would address this need

Funny, I did this too (the Modular Company is actually named for the idea). Some people are actually running their company along a loose version of it and are moderately successful, it's not exactly the Mondragon Corporation but they're still alive and ticking over well after 16 years in business.

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