<story><title>A Forty Year Career</title><url>https://lethain.com/forty-year-career/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>gumby</author><text>&amp;gt; There is, however, a simple formula for checking if what you’re doing is sustainable: how long does it take on a vacation or weekend until you stop feeling anxious, and how anxious do you start feeling when you think about returning to work on Monday? If work anxiety is a constant companion, then change your situation even if it feels like a step back in the short-term: your success depends on sustained impact, not spikes.&lt;p&gt;Amen!</text></comment>
<story><title>A Forty Year Career</title><url>https://lethain.com/forty-year-career/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>ChuckMcM</author><text>I found a lot I could resonate with in that post. My father was in the Air Force and retired at 40 after 20 years in the service. It seemed to me like he had a great deal, a retirement check to cover expenses and time to do what he wanted to do[1]. I wanted to do something like that as well so I resolved to retire at 40 :-). But what I was missing was the understanding of skills that would be useful while &amp;quot;retired.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;Thinking about that only came later and so I have spent time (and money) on creating space for lots of exploratory activity. The result is a fairly complete lab where I can work on things and learn new stuff. The goal being a space that is fun and engaging to work in until I die[2]. It wasn&amp;#x27;t what I expected I would be working toward when I was a kid.&lt;p&gt;[1] I later learned that money was pretty tight during that period but as a kid I didn&amp;#x27;t have any visibility into that.&lt;p&gt;[2] EDIT: It goes without saying that the lab has a low cost to operate so it isn&amp;#x27;t a drain on my funds over time. My wife commented &amp;quot;You&amp;#x27;re life&amp;#x27;s work is to build a fun play room eh?&amp;quot; Which isn&amp;#x27;t too far from the truth :-)</text></comment>