Being able to retire at the middle of the career sounds like the opposite of that.
1. A lot of people who focus on their financial ability to retire early get so obsessed about the feelings of financial security that comes from that level of income that they are unable to give it up even when they probably could retire.
The parent commenter says, "total freedom to do whatever I want" but there is no level of wealth that gives you "total freedom". No matter what, there is always a potential calamity of sufficient power to knock you down. But the more you lock yourself into the mindset of "I just need to have enough money to prepare for anything" the less you are able to gain the resilience needed to actually be happy now.
2. I think you're equating "money" with "somewhere to go". It's certainly true that wealth gives you options. But if the goal is to ultimately feel satisfied with your life, then having many things you can afford to buy none of which make you happy can put you exactly in the position where you have "nowhere to go".
The time you spend focusing on earning money is time not spent figuring out what choices are actually deeply rewarding to you. And knowing the answer to the latter is critical if you want to know where to go.
Focusing on money is just another mimetic trap (though one with very nice side effects). There are a lot of dudes in our demographic hitting their thirties and realizing in despair that they are financially comfortable and yet their life feels utterly empty and meaningless.
The best metric I know to avoid this trap is that the things I spend my time on should scratch at least one of:
1. Be relaxing, enjoyable, or personally rewarding. It should help me recharge and unwind to prepare for the rest of this list.
2. Gain or improve a useful skill that I can then apply to the last item on this list.
3. Benefit other people.
In other words, be healthy so that I can be effective so that I can be helpful. When I stay centered on this (without obsessing about it), I'm generally happy with how I spend my time.
> Twitter is the most awful social-pressure tool ever created.
Twitter, perhaps to a larger degree than any other social network, is whatever you make it into. Yes, if you follow a bunch of hustle-culture drones (or people who retweet that), your feed will make you miserable. Follow different people and you'll get a totally different Twitter. My feed is generally nourishing, supportive, and rewarding, though it takes fairly frequent gardening to keep it such.