James Pearl Thinks Blogging is Dead

Cole said:
Small company with actual great culture.
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The merged company is 62 people. And the culture is objectively better than it was before we merged. It's just that really, I don't want to work - at all - anymore. And I don't know if I have a role here long-term. So it's a matter of there being a lot of uncertainty in, well, everything. That likely has a lot to do with my wanting to just vacation all the time for the rest of my life.

This too shall pass.
 
Norm said:
The merged company is 62 people. And the culture is objectively better than it was before we merged. It's just that really, I don't want to work - at all - anymore. And I don't know if I have a role here long-term. So it's a matter of there being a lot of uncertainty in, well, everything. That likely has a lot to do with my wanting to just vacation all the time for the rest of my life.

This too shall pass.
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I get it, I'm a long way from even thinking about retirement. The only thing I don't like about my job is lack of PTO
 
Norm said:
Even though we'll be working, there are a lot of good years to live before we get there. And who knows, the market and inflation might translate to all of us working until we're 75 anyway. You can't put too much stock into that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. At least not yet.
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And therein lies the struggle. There’s no time like the present. But on the other hand, we still need to make sacrifices today to plan for a future that’s not a guarantee.

F it, go ride bikes!
 
Norm said:
The merged company is 62 people. And the culture is objectively better than it was before we merged. It's just that really, I don't want to work - at all - anymore. And I don't know if I have a role here long-term. So it's a matter of there being a lot of uncertainty in, well, everything. That likely has a lot to do with my wanting to just vacation all the time for the rest of my life.

This too shall pass.
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Get outta my head! After the first two sentences this sounds like my daily inner battle.
 
Big Sky

Enough of this real life, future planning bullshit. Time to spend time doing what we've been discussing all week.

Today we made the journey to Montana, and current situation is that the people in the pictures below are all in an AirBnb in Big Sky. We all flew separately then met up at the airport around 1pm MST. After waiting a bit for the ski stuff to come out, we made our way to a local coffee roaster for beans, then the supermarket for food, then we drove to Big Sky and unloaded all our stuff.

After the sun went down, we went to the resort and did the Enchanted Forest, which is a lit walking path at the top of 1 of the ski lifts. It was something different to do, and we all enjoyed it. This is what we're all really talking about here. Hanging out with friends, going places, doing things.

This is why we work, am I right?

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Your water color reminds me of Maroon Bells.
I have a photo hanging in the house.

Gotta ask yourself - is it the employer, the job, the field you are in?
Work sucks if there isn't a group "into" delivering...something.
3am email from someone who had a brilliant idea - or drawing on a pizza box (this probably doesn't happen anymore?)

Hard to change when the $$ is flowing in (and flowing out)

I imagine retirement will included visiting places in pictures.

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@Todd Powell Photography
 
Patrick said:
Gotta ask yourself - is it the employer, the job, the field you are in?
Work sucks if there isn't a group "into" delivering...something.
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Let's put it all this way. See the picture above? I just want to do that more than I want to work. Like...forever.

I don't hate work. It will just never give me the same enjoyment as the above. I am just openly wishing I could call it now, and do this stuff forever.

At a certain point in life you realize that the work you do, no matter how important, just isn't moving the needle much. Maybe if I was a leading cancer researcher I might feel differently. But I'm not. So I'd rather bike, ski, and travel as a faux career with the remaining days I have left on earth.

Since that is not possible, I'll keep on doing what I mostly enjoy, planning for the day when I don't need to.
 
Norm said:
Let's put it all this way. See the picture above? I just want to do that more than I want to work. Like...forever.

I don't hate work. It will just never give me the same enjoyment as the above. I am just openly wishing I could call it now, and do this stuff forever.

At a certain point in life you realize that the work you do, no matter how important, just isn't moving the needle much. Maybe if I was a leading cancer researcher I might feel differently. But I'm not. So I'd rather bike, ski, and travel as a faux career with the remaining days I have left on earth.

Since that is not possible, I'll keep on doing what I mostly enjoy, planning for the day when I don't need to.
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I have to live vicariously through your fun, it seems like things could be a lot worse. Work will be over at some point, but got now it seems like you are doing things right. Enjoy it.
 
Patrick said:
Gotta ask yourself - is it the employer, the job, the field you are in?
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so this question hit home for me.

i used to love all the behind the scenes stuff... got into it in college with the magazine and newspaper... took it with me into the "field"

loved the pressure, the deadlines... rushing to get stuff off to the presses kind of thing... in the back of my head, there was always a Woodward and Bernstein, late breaking news, clickity clack of the type writers, reporters smoking and drinking in the newsroom kind of image in my head... even if everything we actually did was on the computer and sending off a pdf.

but now... it's work. it's money. it's someone hidden in the shadows making decisions and pushing us to do more more more without actually listening to us... and i don't even get to see a print copy anymore.

so it's all of the question options plus me. it's not the same. but the money is good (which is a rarity in the field) and i don't want to start from zero soooooooo

i will sit here and make widgets in pdf form.


EDIT: Also... feel free to take any responses for me over to my blog (if you can find it) so i don't take over norm's space
 
Norm said:
At a certain point in life you realize that the work you do, no matter how important, just isn't moving the needle much. Maybe if I was a leading cancer researcher I might feel differently.
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This is very true, especially when I got laid off for the first time in my career in 2019 from a company I was at for almost 20 years, and didn't work for a year, my whole context changed a lot when I finally went back to work.

Since 2020 I am on my 3rd job (by my own choice) because I could no longer work in a job and "just deal with it". I'm at this "new" job about 1.5 years and its going even better than I expected from a work/life balance perspective. I quit the previous job I got before this one after 13 months because I realized how badly it was affecting my mental health and well being. I finally had the epiphone that everyone around me was in " thats good enough" mode and I was the only one who was awake 24 x 7 while things were burning and it's because the others were actually smarter than me and LET me drive the bus every time there was a critical issue. I was the only one trying to improve things and move the needle. No chance to be successful or have the work be fulfilling. Of course it was also cutting into my ride time ;-)

Now, instead of living to work, I work to live. I give my 100% at work, but also make sure I give myself 100% of what I need to make sure it stays balanced. I hope I can stay at this current place for a long time because not only do I like the work, but I like what the company does for people (p.s. I work in IT in the Pharma industry and this role is in the business area that helps people treat and cure cancer).
 
I definitely felt this. 25 years of helping people, making a small, sometimes measurable, difference in people's lives. Sometimes doing the shit no one else wanted to do. Working nights, holidays, weekends, storms, disasters, deaths, major crimes, constantly training, learning, and adapting to new laws and procedures.

And then, you get spit out the other end and some new kid who knows nothing is doing my job, driving my car, and writing the reports.

You realize you were just a small cog in a very big, slowly moving wheel of the criminal justice system. It does pretty much the same with or without you.

But the pension checks are good.
 
Bigly

This place is awesome. I really like this resort. Basically everything about it is excellent. I've gone skiing 85 times in my skiing career, and the 3 biggest days I have ever had in terms of mileage were the last 3 days. It's just easy to reel off lots of great miles. We stayed until close every day.

Today is the last day. We head back to reality tomorrow. This was a great trip.

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Carson said:
It does pretty much the same with or without you.
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Yup. This goes for pretty much every job out there. Wrapping your arms around that is a big step in accepting what & where you are in this stuff. I think.

And that's ok. I never wrapped myself around the axle of work. I think most people I know don't do that. I would say that most people here, and most of my friends & family, couldn't really explain what I even do. Shit, even I have a hard time explaining it sometimes. That probably says something.
 
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