One of the best articles you have written. I now understand the 5 steps into retirement. I wonder between 3 and 4 almost every day. Thanks for the article.
Love the term The After Work. Hubby and I retired early but always have a project. First we started a little Amazon business selling stainless steel water bottles and it turned into a global venture paying for some serious travel before we closed it down. Now I have morphed into a writer and I am so grateful for Substack and all the people I am connecting with thanks to Notes. Who knows what else is around the corner?
How to become a new you, that's the question, but to find the answer one must what? Write a memoir? See a therapist? Stare at your navel? Practice loving better? Become courageous and vulnerable? Volunteer at a community for people with intellectual disabilities? Study love, spirituality, creativity, community, stewardship & integrity? Don, please tell us . . . .
For me, the greatest transitional shock has been the most recent: the rise of artificial intelligence, or AI. I was trained to think through issues and consider possible and probable outcomes. Not so with AI. For example, it can’t think past the fact that if an insurance claim is denied then appeal rather than closure is the next step. But AI isn’t programmed for next steps. Its algorithms are process driven with little, if any, ability to reason. For example: I spent 40 minutes on the phone with a computer that kept asking me to put in a patient’s number to check a claim that AI said was denied. I finally got a human being who reprocessed the claim. Next there was my national bank that has a computer designed to take calls about fraud on credit cards. I finally had to get in the car and drive to a branch of the bank, circa 1980s to clarify what the computer wasn’t programmed to understand. Quoth Yul Brenner, “et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.”
Lastly, to make us all smile, this iPhone has inserted the wrong word now 10 times as I write this. But can the iPhone count?
I find myself thinking of how traditional cultures revere elders, and how impossible it is to feel irrelevant when your wisdom is valued, your stories command attention, and your counsel is sought. Despite all the sinister forces that seek to drive a wedge between the generations, and to monetize the results, young people still instinctively get the need for the wisdom of age. That's why older people who find roles that keep them relevant can really benefit everyone.
One of the best articles you have written. I now understand the 5 steps into retirement. I wonder between 3 and 4 almost every day. Thanks for the article.
Love the term The After Work. Hubby and I retired early but always have a project. First we started a little Amazon business selling stainless steel water bottles and it turned into a global venture paying for some serious travel before we closed it down. Now I have morphed into a writer and I am so grateful for Substack and all the people I am connecting with thanks to Notes. Who knows what else is around the corner?
How to become a new you, that's the question, but to find the answer one must what? Write a memoir? See a therapist? Stare at your navel? Practice loving better? Become courageous and vulnerable? Volunteer at a community for people with intellectual disabilities? Study love, spirituality, creativity, community, stewardship & integrity? Don, please tell us . . . .
For me, the greatest transitional shock has been the most recent: the rise of artificial intelligence, or AI. I was trained to think through issues and consider possible and probable outcomes. Not so with AI. For example, it can’t think past the fact that if an insurance claim is denied then appeal rather than closure is the next step. But AI isn’t programmed for next steps. Its algorithms are process driven with little, if any, ability to reason. For example: I spent 40 minutes on the phone with a computer that kept asking me to put in a patient’s number to check a claim that AI said was denied. I finally got a human being who reprocessed the claim. Next there was my national bank that has a computer designed to take calls about fraud on credit cards. I finally had to get in the car and drive to a branch of the bank, circa 1980s to clarify what the computer wasn’t programmed to understand. Quoth Yul Brenner, “et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.”
Lastly, to make us all smile, this iPhone has inserted the wrong word now 10 times as I write this. But can the iPhone count?
Patti
I find myself thinking of how traditional cultures revere elders, and how impossible it is to feel irrelevant when your wisdom is valued, your stories command attention, and your counsel is sought. Despite all the sinister forces that seek to drive a wedge between the generations, and to monetize the results, young people still instinctively get the need for the wisdom of age. That's why older people who find roles that keep them relevant can really benefit everyone.
I think it's deliberate, part of a movement to take the gender out of pronouns. I reluctantly use it to refer to a person who is gender fluid.