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

I think it's the only choice because entropy exists. "Everyone should be retired" doesn't work when you need sewage workers, or even sewage robot maintenance workers.

That said, you don't have to work 120 hours a week just because you're employed, and hours worked has also been trending down over time.

> the average person isn't forced to compromise their values or submit themselves to abuse just to afford rent and food.

This is what happens without full employment; full employment means you don't have to do this because it's hard to hire new people (they're all already employed) so it's easy to change jobs.

I am sort of blown away by the response to my post. I feel like I need to respond. But the posts from so many people are so amazing. I have "retired" a couple of times, but I keep coming back because, this is fun.

The thing I want to do, it has to do with a new technology that would revolutionize LEOS technology, at least, that's what I think. And, I have some models that support that. Who cares? Millions of people who can't afford a decent internet connection, or one at all. If I say more, I could spoil it.

But what if we could do both. Turn a small reasonable profit and provide connectivity, well, everywhere. And decently. That's my dream. It's OK to laugh. I do too. But heck. What else am I supposed to do. Why not take a shot with a kooky idea. So here I go, fingers crossed and all that.

> record keeping system of "points" related to work product of members, and an annual distribution of profits proportioned strictly on a point basis.

This is hilarious :) It is so close. I called them 'stakes' but otherwise it is pretty much the exact same thing. I wonder how many other implementations of this idea there are out there.

The company that is running using this idea is 'Infocaster', a project company in Arnhem, NL. One of the founders put his own spin on it with a whole pile of automated administration but he's - as far as I know - yet to farm it out beyond that one company. He also wrote a book about it.

Good ideas are good ideas :-). Infocaster wins though for releasing a product, so far I haven't done that.

Everyone I've talked to about it (and that has been quite a few people) have all nodded their heads and said "Wow, that is a really good idea, let me know when you kick it off!" But at the same time there is a chicken/egg problem of initial runway to initial payout. I've looked at a couple of lean ways to kick this off but so far none have come to fruition.

Haven't written on this, but can give you the important details of my form of consulting:

1) I tend to work at medium to large companies (Stubhub, Atlassian...) from anywhere from 7 months to 1.5 years. The reason being, as mentioned, that it's tough to do two things at the highest level at the same time. So I prefer to completely commit to one thing at a time - seems like for you, you have a lot of longterm clients that are constantly hitting you up for work. Guessing you're going to have to say no to new projects once you're ready to focus more on your interests.

2) So, when I'm working on a consulting job, it is my primary focus, and they get the best of me. And, I try to do at least 7 months of work, so that I do a substantial amount of work for them and they feel good about it - also, if you do too short a period, it will make it harder to get another job later on.

3) Although, it's important that while working at a consulting job, to keep up and improve your skills at whatever your outside interest is. Because if you don't, wow, you can really lose your skills and when your switch back to your interest, will need a ton of time to refreshing yourself. For me as a musician, this means would spend an hour a day practicing before work, specifically "sight-singing" as it is one of the most important skills for composition. In fact, would actually not just maintain the skill, but got a better at it over the course the consulting job.

4) When you have enough money and finish your consulting job, quit and switch back to your main interest. Will typically need to spend some time getting back up to speed. Sometimes this can take one month, other times (if you did a really long consulting job or you find a new skill you want to learn as is often the case for me) it can take a few months.

5) Now, fully focus on your main interest. You need to treat it just like regular work because it requires a ton of discipline, because it is so easy to get distracted and not do anything (I say this as I write this comment to you as a distraction from practicing:) For me, need a weekly work schedule (work mon - friday) and a daily routine to keep on track.

6) And just a suggestion about any outside interest. Work on smaller projects rather than trying to shoot for the moon. Because everything is takes a lot more work to do it at the highest level. Yeah, if I aim to create a music composition that I think will take a couple month, it often takes 3 or 4 times that, especially if I'm trying out a lot of stuff that I've never done before. I'd rather create something small that is really good than work on something large that I'll never finish.

7) And at least in my opinion, using this method, the quality of my compositions is quite high (at least to my standards) as they are my primary focus for months at a time.

8) Oh, and live cheaply. I used to live in SF, but moved way outside the city to save money (saved like 40% on rent, which went from $1350 to $700 - living with roommates in both situations).

Hope this helps!