
The meaning of life in a world without work - denzil_correa
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/may/08/virtual-reality-religion-robots-sapiens-book?CMP=share_btn_fb
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geophile
I am fortunate enough to have retired at 56. I am 60 now.

My working life was mostly in startups, which is intense and all-consuming,
and honestly, I let my work substitute for many other things in my life. I
have a wonderful family, and I am close to my children, but I don't have a lot
of hobbies. So here I am at 60, bored some of the time. I still enjoy writing
software, so I do that, but it's difficult to stay motivated. There is _so_
much great software available for free that it's not obvious how I can
contribute. (Yes, I suppose I could find an interesting open source project
and contribute.) I am also relearning enough mathematics to make some progress
in understanding machine learning -- after seeing the promise of AI crashing
so many times, it is very cool to see it being fulfilled at last. I am
teaching again, (I started out as an academic).

My wife has suggested that I go back to work. There are two reasons why I
don't. First, I left because working for a company ruins what I enjoy about
writing software. Idiot managers, endless and pointless meetings, rushed
deadlines forcing bad compromises, poor product management. And of course, I
lose the complete freedom I have in doing what I want when I want.

Second, if I am bored and missing a purpose in life at the moment, going back
to work would only hide the problem. Early in my startup career, I would adopt
the founder's idea as my own, and it became my purpose in life. Now, I am more
realistic about founders and their ideas (or maybe I'm not running across any
that I like). No, substituting work goals for personal goals seems like a
mistake. The real problem is finding something to do with my time that is both
absorbing and meaningful to me.

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smb06
I don't think we will ever be in a world without "work". The nature, and
possibly definition, of work will change.

