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The Retirement Lie Will Ruin Your Life Retirement, as we imagine it, is a modern myth. A 30-year vacation sold after World War II to make the grind of work seem worth it. But it carries a hidden poison: the belief that work is something to escape rather than something to be fulfilled by. We are told to endure our 30s and 40s so we can finally live in our 60s. It is the TGIF mindset stretched across a lifetime. If Friday is salvation, then Monday through Thursday, and by extension our working years, are a form of suffering to be endured. Every project becomes a transaction. Every morning becomes a countdown to freedom. That vision of life leads nowhere good. When you finally “make it,” what is left? Endless leisure sounds like paradise until you realize it starves the soul. Humans are not built for permanent rest. We are built for creation, cultivation, and meaningful contribution. Look at those who have changed the world. They did not work to retire; they worked because the work itself mattered. They were driven by curiosity, craft, and impact, not escape. That impulse is not rare genius. It is the human default when purpose and effort align. The tragedy of retirement culture is not that people stop working. It is that they spend decades believing work is something to run from. They hate their jobs, resent responsibility, and dream of quitting until quitting finally arrives and meaning disappears with it. The answer is not to grind yourself into the grave. It is to never stop engaging productively with the world. True fulfillment comes when we see work not as punishment but as participation in something greater. Retirement should be a shift in pace, not a surrender of purpose. Some will push back at this idea. They believe that once they reach the goal, they will be the exception. They think the emptiness will not touch them. But look around. The older generation right now is among the most unhappy groups you will ever meet. Now you know why. If your life strategy is built around escaping productivity, you have already lost. The goal is not to retire. The goal is to find work worth doing until you can no longer do it. Stop planning your escape. Start planning your contribution. Life begins the moment you stop running from work and start building something that matters. Now build.

Replies (4)

100%! My almost 80 year old father is in the office, almost daily. Has numerous side projects, serves on boards, etc. Doesn’t out of any need, but because he wants to, is thrilled to have the health to, as well as a long ingrained belief that ‘if you lay down, they’ll throw dirt on you’. I’m never planning to stop doing, even if the form and intensity of what I do changes. Bitcoin sure accelerates the process and increases the opportunities.
Just need to flush the old tech of investing in a 401K index fund. That's garbage. Accepting age 67 as "full retirement". That's garbage. Stop brining horse and buggies to the Interstate Highway. Buy Bitcoin. DO NOT accept anything les that 15% CAGR (compounded annual growth rate) . Spend less than you make. Do not stay at a job more than 4 years. Avoid credit cards, borrow instead against your own assets. Do not rack up college debt. So many new ways of doing things in the digital age. We're kinda not caught up to the implications of the digital age.
I can’t stop thinking about this note. Between my wife and I’s parents, 3/4 of them are obsessed with retiring so they “can do nothing”. They want to drink, gamble, play golf, and binge Netflix/sportsball. Or otherwise just not do much of anything. And listen, I get it. Life is exhausting. Raising a family is beyond exhausting. But shunning all responsibility means giving up your actual life. There’s nothing quite as empowering as being relied upon. That’s the number one thing I’ve taken from becoming a father. When I “retire”, I plan to stay engaged in my family, helping with grandkids, and doing fun projects with no profit pressure. Don’t be the person who retires to nothing. View quoted note →