Maybe the problem is that you spent it watching TV?

Seriously, I was between jobs for a while and it was the best time I've had in ages. I could (and would) do random projects that struck my fancy all the time, go out, see friends, write, design things... It was much more productive than a job, and I was constantly doing things with the parts of technology that don't suck.

> Seriously, I was between jobs for a while and it was the best time I've had in ages.

I guess that depends on your financial situation. When I've been between jobs it has always stressed me out. I haven't been in a situation where I was worried about making rent or buying food, but I was worried about finding a new job.

That's true, I live in a country where you can live luxuriously on $2k/mo.

Watching TV is a living death. Retirement is what you make of it.

Hey, thanks for sharing this. Mind expanding? I'm curious to hear what you had planned going into retirement and what you seek going back to work. Are you right back to the same as you were right before "retiring"? Knowing how your first round of retirement went, what would you have done differently in the years/decades leading up to it?

What I discovered is that a life without purpose is not a life. The fun is in having worthwhile goals and striving to reach them.

Being passively entertained, bleh. It's also why I have a very limited appetite for "see the world" traveling. I can only look for so long, then I need to be doing something with a purpose.

I've seen what happens when people retire. They suddenly get old and lose their vitality. They become boring people.

My plan is to work until they carry me out in a box.

This guy planted an entire forest by himself, probably did more for the world thank most of us ever will:

https://metro.co.uk/2018/08/08/man-turned-desert-forest-plan....

I tried it.

I figured out I can make a few dollars a minute sitting in front of a computer screen or I can make 0 dollars a minute sitting in front of a computer screen. Those are my two choices.

The choice is pretty clear.

You could also make 0 dollars a minute standing on a surf board, hiking in a national park or reading a book. There are a lot of things in life that are more interesting than computers.

I've done skiing. Go up, shoosh down. Go up, shoosh down. Go up, shoosh down. It doesn't take too long before I'm off to the lodge to go drinking. And I love alpine views as much as anyone.

(When I was a kid, I'd ski until utter exhaustion and could barely walk. But things don't work like that for the adult me.)

If skiing is not your thing, find something else. Almost anything you could possibly do is better than watching TV.

"You could"

But I didn't. I tried. It didn't happen.

I have to face facts, I might just be a worker bee.