Hopefully reviving this thread, as it tends to get lost from time to time.
On FIRE-ing young and feeling rudderless,
@ChpBstrd says:
"Great job financially!
I think a lot of us want to exit the workforce because it so often lacks intellectual stimulation and because the status symbols one gets along the way are so meaningless. Unfortunately, we live in a society where pairing work and its cousin consumerism are considered The Only Way to accomplish great things. Thus the 60-hour-week corporate director with his 4,000sf McMansion and luxury SUV feels quite accomplished for simply doing what s/he has been told to do by everyone else. Next thing you know they're drinking every night to get their brain to stop protesting the shallowness of it all. Deep down they know their work doesn't matter, their fancy objects will end up a layer in a landfill, and they will end up just as dead as the panhandlers they pity.
I sincerely doubt that you encountered many people in Silicon Valley who spent their days reading classical literature, raising their own food, making art out of fallen leaves, talking philosophy with friends, stargazing, or deep-diving into a series of topics with no monetary incentive. These aren't "achievements" in the way most people see it. An "achievement" is something that awes other people because they can't do it. It's not enough to enjoy a walk in the woods; one must win the cross-country race! It's not enough to have a home; the home needs to be bigger than most people can afford! It's not enough to experience the joy of teaching oneself an easy tune on the piano on a lazy afternoon; one must be able to play several pieces from famous composers!
The illusion of achievement affects all things. Some of us extend our parents' approval of good grades into a lifelong quest to impress others. I have no other explanation for Rolex watches, giant houses, or Cadillac SUVs or the people who sacrifice everything to obtain them.
Now that you don't have to work every day, it's time to consider peeling back the layers of values that you accumulated by default or from other people.
What would be important in a world where there were no promotions, nowhere you couldn't decide to be, no worries about other people judging you for wasting time or talent, no fake signposts saying "satisfaction this way!"? You've basically left your old planet and found yourself on an alien world where all your assumptions are invalid.
Maybe soon you'll see that the old values around "achievement" you worked so hard to pursue were not actually goals; they were restrictions. You had been herded onto a well-worn but narrow path so quickly that you never became aware of other possibilities. Your FI status allows you to stop for a minute and look around, but the blinders are still on. Is it OK to say "I'm going to spend the rest of my life fucking off" or is it wrong to waste the talent and resources that other people need? Is it OK to define achievement as a subjective thing, rather than as something recognized by others? MMM decided his idea of a good time was carpentry - a job typically done by people with a high school education. Is he an "underachiever", and should anyone care what they are labeled? Outside of the high-cost areas where only careerists can afford to live, there is a whole world of people pursing different values - some self-defined, and others just as herd-mentality as the careerists. And of course, many people spend their whole lives shopping for a way to be meaningful.
In the end, it is adult humans who define what it means to be meaningful, and who define what it is that is worth working hard or suffering for, whether they are defining it for themselves or as a way to influence others. The deep mindfuck is realizing that you're as qualified as any other human to be a value-definer. Even deeper is when you realize how effortlessly and unconsciously you've accepted the value set you've been handed.
The actionable advice in this situation is to write down the things you think you value right now at a very high level, and then begin relentlessly criticizing them. You need to put your assumptions on trial, to see what survives and what doesn't. Pick apart "achievement". Look at how vague terms like "goodness" and "beneficial" are. How is "meaningfulness" defined for an ape living for a very short time on a floating speck of dust in a universe with at least billions of galaxies? Teach yourself to ask questions at a higher level than practicality or corporate strategy. Unless you decide to simply do what you're told in some new way, the question of meaning is beyond the practical analysis that got you this far."
Here's the
original thread
