I feel like there is wisdom in "Make hay while the sun shines." When you're young and unencumbered by responsibility and family, when your cognitive abilities are at their peak, when your energy is endless, when your body is strong and healthy, when your knees work, and your fingers can type without arthritis: that's the optimal time to work and earn. Min-max that salary and stay healthy. Due to compounding interest, a dollar made in your 20's is far, far more valuable than a dollar made in your 60's. Every morsel you make and save early means your retirement comes earlier. There will never be a more efficient time to earn those days of leisure that will come later if you stay healthy.<p>Take that vacation to Bali when you're young, and you are wasting your prime, strongest days that could be making you financially secure and/or independent. Go windsurfing for a year in Ibiza after college, and you're adding 5 years to your working life--retiring at 62 instead of 57. It didn't sound like much time when I was young, but today, as I turn elderly, I'm counting down the years until I can finally retire, and kicking myself for goofing around when I was younger. If I could do it all again, I'd have tried harder to get into big tech early, I'd have taken comp and 401(k)s and advancement more seriously. I'd have played fewer video games, traveled less, and relaxed on the beach less.<p>Life isn't short--it's LONG, and you have a brief moment in that life to maximize your preparation for the rest of it. Use it wisely.
Pithy, but true.<p>It's only half the story, though. Moderation and balance are the real key. Overwork is not good in the long term. But underwork can also be a problem, even when employers let it slide.<p>Starting in my 30s, my friends who operated in the extremes of overwork or underwork started to diverge from everyone else. Overworked people were burnt out and had few friends and social connections left. Underworking people were often first to be laid off and slowly fell behind in their skills relative to everyone they were competing against for jobs.<p>Most of them found balance and got back on track, but I know a few holdouts who went all-in on the vagabond life of traveling the world and having fun, as well as a few who have just disappeared into their work and have basically lost social skills at this point.<p>Balance and moderation aren't really that difficult when you make them a priority. Especially in this job market where employers aren't squeezing employees as hard because everyone has so many alternate opportunities.
Reminds me of one of my favorite poems (which expressed a similar idea far more eloquently imo)<p>Telephone Booth (number 905 1/2)
BY PEDRO PIETRI
woke up this morning
feeling excellent,
picked up the telephone
dialed the number of
my equal opportunity employer
to inform him I will not
be into work today
Are you feeling sick?
the boss asked me
No Sir I replied:
I am feeling too good
to report to work today,
if I feel sick tomorrow
I will come in early
People look at me like I’m insane when I tell them I’m packing up and taking a year off.<p>I’ve f’in had enough. And that’s me, the wife and our two kids- not quite school age. No I haven’t FIREd. No I’m probably passing up a raise and a promo (or maybe not). Super linear growth requires super linear decision making. You either follow the sheeple or decide enough is enough and make some drastic change. Im not getting these years back and for the life of me can’t understand those who say, I’m gonna work till I’m 55 and then I’m done.<p>Anyways HN fam- I’m already done.<p>Here’s to 2022<p>See y’all in Penang.
“The memories of a man in his old age are the deeds of a man in his prime”<p>Make those deeds count. Start that company. Take that year off to travel. Do the big memorable things, not the long tedious slog<p>You’ll still feel young when others are retiring
I am 59 and one of my best pleasures is to program and learn, sometimes I would prefer to develop an useful program than to surf in Ibiza, the more you know the more you enjoy learning,
This feels like a common theme for videos, blogs, etc of the whole "I wasted my 20s or 30s".<p>You’ve probably heard the old analogy that there is an imbalance of our time, money, and energy depending on what stage we are in throughout our lives. If you haven’t, it’s the idea that when we’re young, we have no money. When we’re middle-aged, we have no time. And when we’re elderly, we have no energy.<p>Work will always follow Parkinson's Law which is an old adage that work will expand to fill the time allotted. If you do not choose to take control over your time, your work can take over your life.<p>Our time is precious. It’s the one resource we cannot replenish, yet we treat it like disposable income or energy.<p>Rather we should say No to more things(especially work related). It’s the single word that will give you time, money, and energy. No gives you more autonomy and allows you to consistently follow through with your routine or spur of the moment activities. This simple word is the difference between seeing your outcomes and reaching your goals yet nobody does it. Yes lives on as a commitment. No is a decision.
It's all well and good to say this, and even act it out occasionally, but if I approach life in general with that mindset then who will provide a secure environment for my daughter?
Following my creative desires has taken me out of my corporate engineering job and through waves of wonder and waves of and disaster (including financial, for awhile), and now after all of that, to a project I'm perfectly suited for and deeply passionate about, with some of the smartest people I've ever met.<p>The thing about sayings like this - they're not just a thing you do, they're a practice you develop and a flow that you become more skillful at adhering to. I've been through hell and back following what's felt true to my creative instincts, and as brutal as it's been, along the way I've by necessity internalized what meaningful work means to me and what freedoms I'm (not) willing to sacrifice.<p>It can be a brutal path, but (at least in my experience) every level you become more skillful at it and the flexibility and sense of trust in yourself translate in powerful ways to creative and professional potency. If you intentionally hone them in that direction.<p>My 2c, at least. It's a worthwhile journey.
One way to look at it is through the eyes of a Regret Minimization Framework. Which path leads to the fewest or least serious regrets later in life.<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regret_%28decision_theory%29" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regret_%28decision_theory%29</a><p><a href="https://fourweekmba.com/regret-minimization-framework/" rel="nofollow">https://fourweekmba.com/regret-minimization-framework/</a><p><a href="https://hn.algolia.com/?q=regret+minimization+framework" rel="nofollow">https://hn.algolia.com/?q=regret+minimization+framework</a>
Warren Buffett is known for keeping his calendar open so he can keep his own time: “I better be careful with it. There is no way I will be able to buy more.”
I'm already doing that, the main issue is then getting back on people's schedule. I somehow end up going to sleep at 6am if I follow my mood...
>The calendar belongs to everyone else. Their schedule isn’t your schedule unless it helps you get where you’re going.<p>I guess this works if you are self-employed and or live alone
Friendly reminder that being able to pack up and take a sabbatical year off is still privilege. If you can't just get up and leave to enjoy your good days, don't blame yourself. Most people can't.
> The calendar belongs to everyone else. Their schedule isn’t your schedule unless it helps you get where you’re going.<p>Therefore, wage labor should be abolished.<p>“Communism is free time and nothing else!” - jehu (<a href="https://therealmovement.wordpress.com/" rel="nofollow">https://therealmovement.wordpress.com/</a>)
Seth Godin is one of those "thought leaders" who has no real life experience besides selling "thoughts". He has the world of time selling his books and has been wrong on most of his predictions.