I think the same thing. The concept of retiring early has never made sense to me - but I enjoy writing software, and building things, and learning things, etc. Financial independence does make sense to me, but only in-so-much that I want to be able to generally provide for my family, and have enough slight cushion to be able to take drastic creative risks and not have to starve to do so.
I don't mind if I'm working when I'm 70/80 (as long as I'm physically capable to) - I do mind if I'm slogging 60hr weeks, doing things I'm not interested in, at those ages however.
I'm "retired," but that's mostly because I ran into a bunch of the types of folks that have been adding to the comments on this story, and gave up on looking for work.
I won't go, where I'm not wanted.
Best damn thing that ever happened to me. I "retired" at 55, and have been more productive, in the last five years, than I probably was, in the previous 20. It's amazing what happens when you don't have clueless, jargon-addled middle managers, interfering with the projects, and destroying work productivity.
The coroner is gonna need to rub "YTЯƎWϘ" off my cheek.
There is a huge difference between "working because you need money" and "working because you want money/something to do/achieve a higher calling", to the point that it's not really fair to compare the two. The latter is better for society as whole, in my opinion.
And the tragic thing is that we could probably achieve a society where that second mode of work is available to everyone, with enough capital investment. Many jobs that people work out of necessity could be automated completely, with today's technology (forget any bleeding-edge AI stuff, I'm talking Robotics 101). Jobs that remain could be made immeasurably less unpleasant. It would just take a restucturing of society around minimizing human suffering, rather than maximizing the wealth that can be accrued by a ruling class.
I don't mind if I'm working when I'm 70/80 (as long as I'm physically capable to) - I do mind if I'm slogging 60hr weeks, doing things I'm not interested in, at those ages however.