Evergreen link: https://www.amazon.com/Bullshit-Jobs-Theory-David-Graeber/dp...
The hell with this. Society nows recognizes Early Retirment as a status to aspire to. People look up to joung retirees, and this provides a pretty big identity.
The FI movement now put a name and label on it, so the belonging part of meaning is covered.
(!a -> !b) =/=> (a -> b)
I think for me personally a 4-6h workday on 4 days per week would be optimal. It's enjoyable to actually work together with a team on a product and provide a service which people want to use.
Such part time jobs can be very fulfilling if money is not an issue.
Open source might be the right avenue for this type of freedom. Work on something important like Matrix or something
not in my experience. there are often people around that only do 25-35hours per week... at least in the places I've worked at 'till now.
> Open source might be the right avenue for this type of freedom
with open source, you're always an outside contributor. That might be enough for some - but I doubt that my motivation could keep up long term in that setting.
Being a productive member of society is meaningful. I'm from Scandinavia and a lot of our identity is tied up with our careers. Being without a job or any structural social purpose is asking for depression.
GWF Hegel wrote about suffering from indeterminacy. In short, autonomy is inherently social, so ways of life that are merely abstract (i.e. that society does not recognize in terms of existing mores) are void of satisfaction. Satisfaction is only real and concrete through reciprocal recognition. So the "I can do anything" type of freedom is only mere freedom (Willkür), which drains the individual of intersubjectively verifiable self-determination. I.e. you're determining yourself, but no one can recognize it without coercion, and you're unable to recognize it in social reality only in your mind. (And conversely, over-determinacy is slavery.
So even if you don't need to work for money, you might need a job to be able to find meaning in your life. We are a social species that survive on collective efforts.
Personally, if I had won lots of money I would strive to live on as if I didn't.