On Tue, 09 Jun 2015 18:42:31 +0100, Orchid Win7 v1 wrote:

> On 08/06/2015 08:52 AM, scott wrote:
>>> ...except it's not true. I'm 35 years old. I'm nearly at the end of my
>>> career.
>>
>> Yes because everyone retires by 40.
> 
> I don't know about "retire", but "stop being taken seriously", sure. (I
> guess it depends where you work.)

Here we go - your limited experience is showing.

I'm 45 this year.  I'm actually taken very seriously by my coworkers - 
many of them are your age or younger.

>>> When I look at a pretty girl, I suddenly realise she's ten if not
>>> twenty years younger than me.
>>
>> You never know, she might be interested in older men :-) I mean the one
>> 10 years younger, 20 years younger is not a very smart idea.
> 
> There's a girl I fancy who's a mere 5 years younger than me. But she's
> convinced I'm "way too old for her".
> 
> Then again, on previous form, that's probably just a polite way of
> saying "I have way better taste than that"...

There you go again, assuming you know what's in peoples' minds.  You do 
know what "assume" means, don't you?

>> Judging by what I saw/see of my parents, the best years of your life
>> start the day you retire. They have less "free" time than I do, and
>> they don't have a job to go to!
> 
> My mum, having recently retired, became incredibly depressed. Being an
> extremely obnoxious woman, she has no friends, no social life of any
> description. Now she doesn't work in a busy office, she never sees any
> other humans. At one point, she just lay in bed for two weeks. By
> herself.
> 
> If I have one mission in life, it is to *never* become like my mother!
> (This sounds trivial, but isn't.)

It's a good mission.  My mother is 80 next year (2016).  She's extremely 
busy and active - health problems, yes - but a true demonstration that 
you can do whatever you want if you put your mind to it.

She was raised in rural farmland with an abusive alcoholic father and a 
mother who had her own problems to deal with.  She was raised being told 
she was stupid and would never amount to anything.

She owns her own business (still doesn't charge enough for her work - but 
she's learning - at 79 years old - how to properly value her time and 
make a fair wage for the very specialized work she does).

>>> Still, at least I have 23,000 rep on StackOverflow, eh? :-|
>>
>> Looking back then, what else would you have rather have done with the
>> time you spent on there?
> 
> I have absolutely no idea what I actually want out of life.
> 
> Then again, doesn't everybody feel like that sometimes?

I feel like that every day, Andy.  My new boss asked me what my thinking 
was for my "career path" last week.  My career path....let's see, it's 
been kinda 'where the wind blows me'.  I haven't really had a plan - 
hell, when we moved from Utah to Washington, we took on a flat with a 
$3,000/month rent and *I had no full-time job* (I was a contract 
technical writer).

Pretty big risk.  We sold our house - got much less than we wanted for it 
(but that's pretty normal), and I found work when I got out here.  Oh, 
and my employer is based in Colorado, and there's an office in Vancouver 
(4 hours north of me *in a different country* - yes, it's Canada, but I 
still have to have a passport to visit the office).  I'm the only 
employee in the state.

But it's working out pretty well at the moment.  We'll probably move 
again next year (or later this year, possibly - if we can work out 
getting out of our lease early without too steep a penalty).

So don't feel like you're the only one who doesn't know what you want out 
of life.  I think most people are like that and just generally make it up 
as they go along.  You're *normal* in that respect - and probably many 
others.

Jim
-- 
"I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and 
besides, the pig likes it." - George Bernard Shaw

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