I’m getting kinda old and I’m still in the heart of the furnace, helping keep AWS on the air, watching the savings expand as the shares vest. Some days I really don’t feel like going to work. Some days I feel criminally lucky - I get well-paid to write software that affects huge numbers of lives, and occasionally nudge the Internet’s steering wheel. One half of me wants to step away, the other tells me that’s crazy talk, what would I find to do that’s as compelling as what I’m doing? I have no shortage of amusements, some of them - like sitting in libraries and editing obscure Wikipedia entries - very nearly free.
So I probably wouldn’t be bored. My Dad retired very poorly, hadn’t figured out what next and so didn’t do much at all, then the dementia was on him in his early seventies. Color me baffled. On Sun, Jan 22, 2017 at 9:19 PM, Gautam John <[email protected]> wrote: > I took a year and a half sabbatical to be a stay at home parent. While > I'd hesitate to call it slowness (heck, anyone with a toddler can > never be slow - put that doooowwwwnnn.... *runs*) what it did allow me > was re-evaluate the things that I want to maximise for and, more > importantly, truly understand the intrinsic value of these things. It > was otherwise very abstract - to spend time at home, to cook on a > daily basis, to get some exercise etc. So yeah, when I did go back to > work I did choose to find something that offered balance between the > things I found new value in. That said, it is a luxury I am fortunate > to have and did not involve as much sacrifice. I do not know how I > would react to such a decision had it involved a greater than 40% hit > on finances. > > -- - Tim Bray (If you’d like to send me a private message, see https://keybase.io/timbray)
