What You Will Lose When You Retire – By Dan Haylett

Well I guess I have to be the one to say it. This is just my opinions based on my experience thus far. I'm retired and I disagree with every sentence that starts with "You loose". I do not miss a single thing from the corporate world or the cities they reside in. I never wanted a tribe. Tribes are the reason the country is divided. People can benefit from communities and my community is my neighborhood and nearby town. My mastery can be practiced without a corporation. Status? I had to deal with a company full of strong personalities that wanted to undo everything I did so they could have their own sense of accomplishment. I don't miss that at all. My identity was never tied to a company. I was always trying to replace myself. Progress? This is starting to sound like a psychological disorder they are trying to cope with or perhaps they are a workaholic like Elon. Retirement means progress completed. Move onto other things, hobbies, new friends. Stimulation? I get that from the local people, the internet, the wilderness and so much more. There is a lot more to life than corporations.

Structure changes, yes. Plan for that change and make your life what you want it to be. For me it is taking care of hundreds of deer in the winter and other critters the rest of the year. I feel entirely fulfilled. If anything I may have over-extended myself. I found a good sense of community near a small town. I am happier than I have ever been. I don't know how to help the person that wrote this article but I think they do need help.

Edit: For people that need the continuous engagement and activities are are entire cities that are based around retirement. [1] It's definitely not my thing but for those that always need something to do or people to interact with it's an option.

[1] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BX4i8qprP2I [video][44 mins]

I think all of this article is true, but I suspect that the vast bulk of people entering retirement each year have few if any of these things beyond perhaps the sense of identity.

It's very true that retirement means losing many of the fun perks associated with a high-flying career, but you have to have those perks in the first place.

Even here on HN, many of us are living fairly ordinary lives, perhaps working on cool technology, but I think even in our fairly exclusive club, not all that many of us have PAs and frequent high-class work travel, even at the apex of our careers.

For those who have all those things and lose them it can be very profound. For a lot of people in that position they spend almost all of their time working in some sense or other, and retirement ends all that. I think that's why people in super successful careers often end up doing advisory work or ending up on boards, so they can keep some of the perks with less of the commitment.

Genetically and environmentally some people need a job for identity and some don't. There are benefits and drawbacks to everything. If you are in the former category keep working indefinitely. Know yourself.

I accept the likelihood that I will have been unemployed for some considerable span by the time I die, but I can't imagine choosing to retire, on purpose. My mind would eat itself if it had to cope with so much idleness.

One thing that this misses is that in many fields, career retirement chooses you before you choose it. This is often true in development as ageism catches up with you. At some point, you keep doing interviews and nobody says "yes."

Then, even though you have enough money for retirement (or even if you don't), you are answering these questions simultaneously with handling rejection.