My father-in-law retired at 75. He was writing firmware for chip stepper systems. He still reads Science and some chemical engineering stuff.<p>I met a guy on his 60th birthday who was considering starting another start-up.<p>I'm fifty. I did some back-to-back 100 hour weeks last year, and definitely felt it a lot more than I did when I was 30. But I work smarter and I know more tricks. My .emacs file is full of hardfought wisdom (mostly knowing what to throw out, frankly).<p>I think I have some good years left :-)
What are with some of these comments? This is not a story about a man who lost his 401k value.<p>This is about seeing the end of the road and realizing the greatest things you've done you can never do again. Here's a man who is considered by some the greatest american writer (words of my freshman year english prof), who felt like he would "never achieve what he was capable of"(paraphrase).<p>See:<p><a href="http://www.jayebee.com/creations/incompleteness/incompleteness_8_rondanini_pieta.htm" rel="nofollow">http://www.jayebee.com/creations/incompleteness/incompletene...</a><p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86x-u-tz0MA" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86x-u-tz0MA</a>
There are so many comments in this thread which seem to be in response to an article different than what I read, that I'm wondering if the link changed.<p>Why isn't anybody commenting about the surprise ending to this article? Spolier: People thought Hemmingway was crazy for thinking the FBI was after him, but after he died it turned out they really were building a case on him.
Tangential: a favorite quote.<p>"The first panacea for a mismanaged nation is inflation of the currency; the second is war. Both bring a temporary prosperity; both bring a permanent ruin. But both are the refuge of political and economic opportunists." -Hemingway<p>Hemingway was a known harsh critic of the state. Sure you have freedom of speech and expression, but they have the freedom to keep an eye on you.
Being pursued by the feds didn't make it any easier but his family history had multiple case of depression followed by suicide. Four different generations of Hemingway's family had suicides. Hemingway's father killed himself and it continues through Hemingway's granddaughter, the late actress Margaux.
Now why is it that we want the NSA and FBI (Hi there, Rights-abridging Feds!) to snoop on all our email, commentary and network transmissions?<p>Sure, J. Edgar Hoover was a special case. Or was he?
Wow, it's like he was in his own Twilight Zone episode. You think the FBI is watching you and everyone tells you they aren't. In that situation I think I'd believe the people around me and think that I was crazy.<p>Even though it was unfinished, Moveable Feast is one of my favorite books of all time. Definitely worth reading if you haven't yet.
Not sure why my original title was changed. I didn't change it... I think someone's been monitoring me, taking notes, judging me...<p>Really though, I love Hemingway and the end of his career when he realized could not retire, could never retire, that struck a nerve with me. What will I do in my 50s and 60? Will I still be able to practice my craft? At what level?<p>Home this clears up some confusion.
My personal feeling is that if the feds hadn't been following him, he would have latched onto something else to be paranoid about. He was depressed and developed paranoia. It's very unlikely that they were the cause of the depression or contributed to a faster downfall.<p>Anecdotally, I had a close family member go through what sounds like very much what Hemingway was going through, although it was the builders out to get them, not the feds. They would seem them trailing them everywhere, every tradesman, every building site, every van was a tail set up for them and them alone.<p>The “Why would two auditors be working in the middle of the night? Of course it’s my account.” echos the things that they would say. It was extremely distressing for them and us.<p>It recently happened again, this time the paranoia prominently featured the egyptians. They had recently given a talk on the history of the egyptians. That's all it took.<p>Luckily for us we lived in an age where they have a pill which made it all go away in less than 2 weeks.
A man haunted by more than the feds (another editorial from this weekend; Chicago Tribune):<p><a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/ct-oped-0701-hemingway-20110701,0,2325960.story" rel="nofollow">http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/ct-oped-0701-hemi...</a>
The book that's referenced in the article is "The Dangerous Summer." It's not one of Hemingway's best works, but it's certainly worth the read if you like his style & can get the book from the library.<p>(I have a single copy that I'll send (for free) via media-mail to whomever wants it, provided it's in the U.S. Just shoot me an email at my user name @gmail.com.)
The OP doesn't even mention that Hemingway was a one-time KGB spy: <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/jul/09/hemingway-failed-kgb-spy" rel="nofollow">http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/jul/09/hemingway-failed...</a>
Bear in mind that this is an age of change. If you are young, then your life course will not look like that of your parents and grandparents.<p><a href="http://www.fightaging.org/archives/2004/06/the-transformation-of-retirement.php" rel="nofollow">http://www.fightaging.org/archives/2004/06/the-transformatio...</a><p>Retirement is for the frail and the exceedingly [wealthy+lazy]. There is the probability that you will never be the latter, and if you're young now there's a good chance that you won't be the former either - at least not on the timescale you're thinking of.<p>So planning well for the future requires considerably more thought than just looking at what everyone did during the previous generation or two.
Most people who've chosen either career retire without falling into paranoia. As for others demanding continued output, I'm not seeing that at all. For example, my employer is offering people over 50 early retirement incentives.
Have pensions made us stupid? You retire by having enough savings to live the rest of your life, then using them wisely.<p>Part of working for yourself is figuring out things like budgets and savings for retirement.