Sergey Brin's Unretirement

Post by CooCooCaCha » Wed, Jan 07, 2026, 5:14 PM UTC

largbae wrote: post #287

From observing my parents and other elders, it isn't "work" in the job sense that we all need. It is feeling needed by others. This can be accomplished by being an active grandparent, charity(active volunteering not just allocating money), open-source contribution, mentoring. It can be something other than a job. It just can't be done alone. We are social creatures and need to be needed by each other. Luckily there a…

Post by aaronrobinson » Wed, Jan 07, 2026, 5:26 PM UTC

largbae wrote: post #287

From observing my parents and other elders, it isn't "work" in the job sense that we all need. It is feeling needed by others. This can be accomplished by being an active grandparent, charity(active volunteering not just allocating money), open-source contribution, mentoring. It can be something other than a job. It just can't be done alone. We are social creatures and need to be needed by each other. Luckily there a…

Post by exographicskip » Wed, Jan 07, 2026, 5:29 PM UTC

VikingCoder wrote: post #363

pzo wrote: post #344

> Adherents of the popular financial independence, retire early (FIRE) movement scrimp and sacrifice to retire early. Only for many of them to discover their dream of post-work life does not match reality. I think the more important goal in FIRE is the 'FI' part - financial independence. Something that allows you to retire early - not necessary that you have to use this privilage. Something that allows you to next da…

FIYNTBOM Financial Independence, You're Not The Boss Of Me. Once you're financially independent, at a level that you're comfortable with, you don't have to put up with crappy bosses. If you're Sergey Brin, you kind of don't really have a boss, do you? If you "retire" into working at a hardware store, or volunteering at the Humane Society, or just shifting into a lower-stress job... Well, that's the dream, isn't it? I…

Post by scotty79 » Wed, Jan 07, 2026, 5:32 PM UTC

scotty79 wrote: post #183

cuttothechase wrote: post #47

Sergey's challenge looks like is not in retiring early or with non-work. We had a high performing co-worker who was scared witless after a lay-off episode and this was not because he was worried about lacking money or loss of prestige., but because he could not come to terms with the simple fact of facing the 9 am on a Monday morning with absolutely no expectations. It freaked so much to not feel the hustle and the a…

[flagged]

Post by xfalcox » Wed, Jan 07, 2026, 5:49 PM UTC

weinzierl wrote: post #202

marcus_holmes wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I took a career break and was weirded out by the question of "how do I introduce myself?". So used to saying "Hi, I'm Marcus, I'm IT Director of " that suddenly having nothing to say there was strange. When people asked "what do you do?" I had no good answer, and that felt like I had no good identity. I guess for Sergey Brin it's a little different, he will always be "Founder of Google" even if he leaves Google. But…

> So used to saying "Hi, I'm Marcus, I'm IT Director of " [..] Risking a stereotype. In my experience from traveling the world it's a tell-tale sign for being from a culture heavily influenced by the Protestant work ethic. Introduce yourself like that in Spain, Italy, or Brazil and you'll get strange looks. On the flip side, I've found that people who do not define themselves through their work primarily often do so…