How can you not be romantic about programming? (2020)

Re:How can you not be romantic about programming? (2020) by syndacks on Saturday February 20, 2021 @04:54PM (#26208341)

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?

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Re:How can you not be romantic about programming? (2020) by WalterBright on Saturday February 20, 2021 @05:19PM (#26208519)

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.

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Re:How can you not be romantic about programming? (2020) by ClumsyPilot on Sunday February 21, 2021 @03:05PM (#26216618)

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....

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Re:How can you not be romantic about programming? (2020) by rufus_foreman on Saturday February 20, 2021 @06:28PM (#26209104)

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.

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Re:How can you not be romantic about programming? (2020) by Grustaf on Saturday February 20, 2021 @07:51PM (#26209732)

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.

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Re:How can you not be romantic about programming? (2020) by WalterBright on Saturday February 20, 2021 @11:13PM (#26210731)

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.)

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Re:How can you not be romantic about programming? (2020) by Grustaf on Sunday February 21, 2021 @11:28AM (#26214703)

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

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Re:How can you not be romantic about programming? (2020) by rufus_foreman on Saturday February 20, 2021 @09:01PM (#26210151)

"You could"

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

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

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