Thanks. It's been three years and I miss it. I'll be pretty happy just to get back to hobbling with a cane.
....I think we both have a long ways to go until retirement. Maybe a career change is in order?
What happened if I may ask?
And yeah you're probably right. I've been wanting to try start my own company of one for a long time, but I'm just too scared to step out of my comfort zone despite life giving me great opportunities to switch and I'm once again staring at one in the face right now.
I have Charcot's. So far we've managed to keep my legs attached but they're in rough shape.
I know it can be scary but sometimes you just have to take the leap. Years ago I moved across the country with just what I could fit in my car and it ended up being the best decision of my life. It could go wrong or it could be the smartest thing you've ever done. You won't know unless you try.
Man that's rough.. It's really hard to appreciate things we take for granted untill it's taken away. I really feel for the blind and people unable to walk. I couldn't imagine having to go thru that myself. It really is things that just happens to other people and not me untill it does. I hope future medicine and science has an ace up in its sleeve to help people like you.
The first step to happiness is to have hope. Think about a lifelong dream of your's, and then form a plan on how to achieve it.
I'm all for hope, but clinical depression is lifelong. There's always going to be ups and extreme downs. Stating that happiness is an end stage that people with clinical depression can reach and maintain isn't realistic.
To retire. I'm not even 40 yet but I dread going to work every morning. I don't even hate my work - I just don't feel like even the relatively good salary I get is enough to compensate for the lost time.
I think I know what you mean. I've hit a phase where time spent at work feels like wasted time, since it's not time I got to spend doing something I wanted to be doing. Which is really contrary to the usual philosophy that time not spent money is wasted.
I've switched jobs gone back to school etc, but no matter what once something becomes a mandatory routine that time feels like a waste. I'm starting to really value and cherish the seconds I actually have control over.
This feeling gets worse when you realize that the time we have is a limited, non-renovating and exhaustible resource. We give this away for money over and over until we run out. Depressing as fuck.
I took 9 months off work (well kinda I did some freelance shit but I mostly got to not work). I did eventually get bored but it took 6 of those 9 months to actually get bored lol. It may have been different if I had enough money to do whatever I wanted but, I had enough to survive.
I had a year long paid leave and that confirmed for me that my sense of meaning is in no way tied to my work.
To me, it just showed me that I can essentially do whatever I want to make myself happy. Work, not work, hobbies, whatever is right for the moment.
Yeah. I don't necessarily even want to retire right now, it's more that hanging axe feeling that I'm never going to be able to, between decreasing purchasing power and increasing age requirements for retirement benefits. Makes it hard to get motivated to work knowing I'm going to have to keep doing it until I'm in my grave.
To be born a woman but since that's not possible it would be that my transition works fast and well.
Socialism and stability. I want to persue my passions without needing to devote half of my waking hours to a job (which all are incredibly mentally draining for me), and without fear of not having my basic needs met, and I want everyone else to have the same opportunity. A job should be supplimental if people choose to work, which many will, as they feel it gives them purpose.
A post-scarcity society and the death of corruption would be cool too.
Yeah it's always strange to me that most people are working class yet most people are so allergic to the idea of socialism, thanks Russia
P r o p a g a n d a
Also the history of centralized control over industry hasn't worked out too well. I'm more of the Richard Wolff philosophy of democracy over the workplace, along with a very strong social safety net, including, but not limited to a UBI that is enough for people to comfortably live on.
If everyone got UBI, no one would eventually be able to live comfortably off it.
Edit: Also, "propaganda" but "the history of centralized control over industry hasn’t worked out too well" LOL
Huummm… thanks Russia? And not the CIA? Why would Russia be responsible for people hating socialism?
Authoritarianism doesn’t really mean much. And according to the US (through the CIA) itself, Stalin-era USSR was more democratic than appeared in western media.
https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP80-00810A006000360009-0.pdf
But in any case, even if that was the case, it wasn’t “authoritarian” after Stalin. Like y’know, most countries after WW2 (not just Italy and Germany btw. Or people forget Churchill and FDR, and the “war economies”? The internment camps, jailing of “political dissidents” etc. etc.).
For the world to be un-fucked -- the ultra-wealthy (and system as a whole) giving a damn about people, the climate, etc. There are many other things I want, but if I could have anything, this would be it.
Live in a country where I can legally marry my boyfriend, have a little nice place and not be bothered by people.
3 things.
Well, it’s +/- the same for all Western Europe I guess. I’m from France and we also witness our then really strong public services getting weaker and weaker. Privatisation and less stated owned, leaning a bit towards the (beware, hot take) fucked up US system.
Regarding immigration, we do have a problem here : people coming to France can’t be welcomed in good conditions. We must either stop or reduce it (right wing answer) or invest way more than we do now to welcome them more decently (left wing answer). But something needs to be done indeed.
Moving on with my life.
I'm near the end of my PhD. I've been at this lab for 5 years, as I joined before beginning my PhD, and I've been at the same university for 11ish years since I started my bachelor's. I deliver my thesis in April if all goes well, and can't wait to see what life has in store for me elsewhere.
I love most of my coworkers, but a few drive me nuts (and everyone else, too, and I tend to be a good mediator so I always end up in a position where I'm the only one who tries to help the troublesome guys). My main supervisor moved to another country a few years ago, and the one that took me in (the only other person with PhD students in the whole lab) hates my project (she has explicitly said so) and can't wait to get me to work on what everyone else is working on. Meanwhile my other supervisor (the one that moved) has recommended that I let go of the few responsibilities I had in this lab (apart from my project), which is a good decision, but has made me feel like I no longer belong here. Since I'm also retracting a bit to work on some papers, I feel increasingly isolated even though I love my coworkers.
Can't wait to finally get this over with and have an actual career in a lab where people don't hate my project, or even an industry job where I can feel like I actually make a difference. I'm also a bit fed up with the conditions in my country and would like to try moving somewhere where nanotech is actually in demand, like the Netherlands or something. Maybe I'll even risk a dramatic move to Asia!
Not the answer I was expecting, but I did come out of a break up recently so whatever life has in store for me I guess
Are you also read as female? Because then your boss might just feel that you steal her show. Academia is highly competitive for women and maybe you can try to mitigate that by finding out what you can do to get on her sunny side.
In my experience if people hate (very strong word!) projects at work, it's usually rather the case that they're unhappy with their own work and project this jealousy onto others.
Usually happens within the same gender, or between people who identify as binary against enbies.
I'm sorry, I am fully male-presenting (and was assigned male at birth - which is relevant as my boss is super conservative and would not tolerate a trans person in her office. The LGBTQ lay low here).
My supervisor, however, IS read as female, and I fully suspect that she is who my boss has a problem with. Especially after she left, as my boss saw this as a personal betrayal of sorts. And since my own project is inexorably linked to my supervisor, I get these reactions by association.
I keep thinking about how retirement is only.... 30 years away. Yup. Only 30 more years then I get a few where I don't have to do the mundane drudgery.
To not have to work another day in my life. Sure I could say to be excessively wealthy but I'm happy with satisfying basic needs and living in my simple home. All I want is to be able to wake up every day without the crushing burden of having to keep a job that keeps the spectre of starvation and homelessness away for another few days.
Came here to say something similar. Currently hating life and fantasizing how I'd quit my job and burn this bridge