Retire Early

To paraphrase something I heard long ago, "Ask yourself what you'd do if you could retire. Ask yourself why you aren't doing it right now. Then do it." -- SunirShah

'Cause Work is not the Golden Rule! --BowWowWow

I retired after I graduated from my undergrad. My father got angry at me because he wanted to retire. Said I should get a job. Now, how unfair is that, man? -- SunirShah

I second Sunir. I find it effective, not even just about retirement.

I was in IBM Research, striving like any good researcher, to become an IBM Fellow, with a 5-year free period to research anything I might want. I finally realized that to get there, I had to do research of such a high quality, that it had to on something I really really wanted. Reversing that argument, I decided, "why don't I just pretend I'm an IBM Fellow, and start a research project on something I just want?!" Not surprisingly, I got such a project and had a lot of fun and did cool research for 4 years. Even an IBM Fellow only gets an additional year beyond that.

Repeat for "what would I do if I were retired / rich / ...?" How about just pretending that I am retired, and start doing that now? So that's what I'm doing. Can't particularly see that "retiring" will give me anything better. etc for other activities. --AlistairCockburn

Perhaps StartNow? is a better name for this concept.

"why aren't you doing it right now"? Perhaps it requires more commitment or more flexibility in schedule than a 40 hour workweek allows. WhyDoYouPermitThisToBeDoneToYou discusses working long hours to get "fun" tasks and avoid "boring" tasks; when you retire, (almost) all tasks are fun. The only problem is one still has to prioritize; there is still too much fun stuff to do. You may also find that connection to the internet is not so important, if you are spending your time away from a desk, doing things that truly interest you.

"What you do to get somewhere becomes who you are once you arrive." - Anonymous

Life is short. Regret is long. Follow your heart before it gets poisoned against you. --DonOlson

"You can never completely stop being who you once were. Therefore be now who you want to be in the future." -- LarryWall (approximately)

"You are what you eat"

See http://www.unamerican.com/ for more in this vein.

If I could do anything I want just now, I'd hang out with bright people, telling them about XP, teaching them, and learning from them. Oh, wait - that is what I'm doing. --RonJeffries