ongoing by Tim Bray · Retiring?

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I’m not young and I can afford to stop working. I’m wondering if I should.

Reasons to retire ·

1. Some mornings, I feel like sleeping in.

2. And then, when I get up, I’d like to spend two or three hours on Feedly and The Economist, just reading what’s going on in the world.

3. I’d like to spend more summer time at my cabin.

4. When I’m engaged in work I bring a whole lot of intensity; not significantly less than a few decades ago, I think. But at the end of the day, man, I’m so tired. Some days I can hardly scare up evening conversation with the family.

5. Progressive friends, people whose opinions I respect, give me shit about working for Amazon. I claim that the problem is capitalism, flaccid labor laws, and lame antitrust enforcement, not any particular company; maybe I’m right.

6. I want to write a truly great Twitter client for Android Auto, to keep me informed as I cruise down the road.

7. I want to start working full-time on AR now so that I’ll have something cool running when the hardware becomes plausible. I have a couple of fabulous app ideas; nothing that would make any money, but I’m OK with that.

Reasons to keep working ·

1. I get to write software that filters and routes a million messages a second.

2. I’m in a position where it’s really hard for people not to listen to my opinions about technology. I’d become amazingly uninteresting about fifteen seconds after retiring.

3. I like computers, and so it makes sense to work for (what I assume must be) the world’s largest provider of computers to people and businesses who use them.

4. I get a chance to move the needle, a little, on the way people use computers.

5. The people at work are interesting and nice; basically none of them get on my nerves.

6. I learn things all the time about how to think about how to use computers.

7. The Vancouver tech scene needs an anchor tenant and it’s cool to be helping build one.

8. The money’s good.

When my Dad retired, he really hadn’t made any plans for what he was going to do with his time, so he didn’t do much, and that was bad; he went downhill really fast. I don’t have plans enough just yet to hit that Eject button.

By Tim Bray

I am an employee of Amazon.com, but the opinions expressed here are my own, and no other party necessarily agrees with them.

A full disclosure of my professional interests is on the author page.

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