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from the stayin-alive-stayin-alive-♩♪♫♩♪♫ dept.
Peter T. Kilborn writes in The New York Times about the generation of the baby boomer programmers, engineers, and technical people who are now leaving the bosses, bureaucracies, commutes and time clocks of their workaday careers to tackle something consuming and new, whether for material reward or none at all. “Retirement gives them the opportunity to flex their experience,” says Dr. William Winn speaking of a postchildhood, postfamily-rearing, “third age” of “productive aging” and “positive aging.” Nancy K. Schlossberg calls men and women who exploit the skills of their old jobs “continuers" and those who take up something new “adventurers.” Continuers and adventurers make up the vigorous end of Dr. Schlossberg’s retirement spectrum, opposite those she calls “retreaters” who disengage from life and “spectators” who just watch.
For example, 75-year-old Seth R. Goldstein, with four degrees in mechanical and electrical engineering from MIT and retired for thirteen years, still calls himself an engineer. But where he was previously a biomedical engineer with the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda with 12 patents, he now makes kinetic sculptures in his basement workshop that lack any commercial or functional utility. But his work, some of which is on display at the Visionary Arts Museum in Baltimore, has purpose. Goldstein is pushing the envelope of engineering and hoping to stir the imaginations of young engineers to push their own envelopes. For example "Why Knot?” a sculpture Goldstein constructed, uses 10 electric motors to drive 10 mechanisms to construct a four-in-hand knot on a necktie that it wraps around its own neck. Grasping, pulling, aligning and winding the lengths of the tie, Mr. Knot can detect the occasional misstep or tear, untie the knot and get it right. Unlike Rube Goldberg’s whimsical contraptions, Mr. Goldstein’s is no mere cartoon. It works, if only for Mr. Knot.
According to Kilborn, people like Goldstein don't fit the traditional definition of retirement, which according to Webster's Dictionary means the "withdrawal from one's position or occupation or from active working life." Retirement implies that you're just leaving something; it doesn't reflect that you're going to something," says Schlossberg. "But it is really a career change. You are leaving something that has been your primary involvement, and you are moving to something else."
(Score: 5, Insightful) by SuperCharlie on Sunday February 22 2015, @05:12PM
The word "retire" is such an evil thing to say to someone or to be. Think about it out of comtext. To retire something is to take it out of use and technically discard it. I am 52 and I have no plans of being discarded. Maybe my usefulness will find other venues, but do not call me retired, it is insulting. I think we all need a purpose, no matter what age. We need something to get up for, something to achieve, and I think "retire" is a corporate psychological, subliminal message that we are promised as a land of milk and honey that is nothing more than a discarded death sentence. Up to my final hour, I will create, I will find wonder, I will figure out and experiment and I will achieve. I will not be "retired".
(Score: 2) by ah.clem on Sunday February 22 2015, @07:44PM
+1 - Colleagues equate "retirement" with being "kicked to the curb" and that is how it feels until you get it figured out. Captain Dunsel, as Kirk was referred to. It can be a tough transition if it happens suddenly and you have no plan. I achieved my financial goal around the same time I developed some serious health issues, so I took an early retirement from IT. It was frightening to go from productive human to "the old guy". So I started working on my plan. Although I still have some restrictions, I am indulging my passion for astronomy, physics, electronics, music and travel. I even incorporate them at times; for example, I have an opportunity to go to Australia and Tasmania and will be taking observing gear with me. I will be in the high desert for a few weeks this summer doing astrophotography. I have been designing a 20" Cass and look forward to seeing it built, as well as a GEM mount with a GOTO system I have designed and will build. I study, write and perform music much more frequently than I had while working and I am able to travel 100's of miles to listen to a favorite symphony or opera without having to worry about being back "Monday morning". I am volunteering some time to the development of an educational website due to launch early next year. I may or may not take on consulting, but I have no desire to go back into a high-stress environment. Right now, my life is very good, and when my wife decides she would like to stop her career full-time, it will be even better. I honestly feel quite fortunate, but we both worked very hard and sacrificed a lot to make it happen - there is no free lunch.