Work has been rough lately.
The last few weeks brought that familiar rush of last-minute drama you see in big-company software delivery. After one more tense Sunday night, I started wondering whether I should really walk away from the cube early — or if I should explore other paths besides full retirement.
Near the end of a project, when a customer says, “This isn’t what I wanted,” teamwork can evaporate overnight. Emotions run high. As a leader, I find myself defending my team more than I should — they’re just doing their jobs. Acting as a mediator is stressful; I can feel my blood pressure spike on those conference calls. Then I tell myself it’s okay to want to retire early. Is leaving the rat race the right choice, or does a meaningful career give life purpose?
After my wife went to bed one night, I watched Jiro Dreams of Sushi on Netflix. It left me with a strange idea: maybe I should never retire.
Jiro, an 85-year-old sushi chef in Tokyo, has spent seven decades getting his craft as close to perfect as he can. He believes in falling in love with your work, dedicating your life to mastering a skill, and never complaining about your job. For him, repeated practice and tiny improvements equal mastery and meaning. He still works long hours, because the craft defines him. If he stopped, he says he’d be “bored to death.”
The film made me question whether early retirement is an easy escape. Am I giving up if I leave? Could I, as Jiro did, keep refining my craft — in my case, project management — and find purpose in that?
I don’t have the answers yet. I’m hoping clarity comes in the next three years, when I’ll be eligible to walk away.
Jiro didn’t start out loving his job. He struggled for years. Persistence and resilience brought him from hardship to high reward. And after decades of work, there are small, quiet rewards that make it worthwhile. If you want a Blue Zones-type example of longevity tied to purposeful work, look to him.
Then there’s Denmark. The Danes are often cited as some of the happiest people on earth, and early retirement isn’t part of their mindset. They get lots of time off and many social benefits, yet they still work — sometimes into their 60s. One reason is jobs have become less physically demanding, making continued work easier. Another is simple logistics: most Danes live close to work and bike everywhere, avoiding long commutes and the stress that comes with them.
My situation is a bit Danish. My time off each year is similar to theirs, and my commute is only 10 miles — I bike about a third of it. I work around 43–45 hours a week, and I try to be efficient while I’m there. Unlike the Danes, my lunch is usually at my desk, but I still have very little to complain about. Compared with the monster projects that made my life miserable years ago, current stressful days feel manageable.
This is where much of the FIRE community ends up. Many early retirees travel and enjoy their freedom but then build blogs, side businesses, or part-time gigs to stay busy and cover expenses. That’s SemiFIRE: trading the cubicle grind for work you care about. Some people prefer SeasonalFIRE — working part of the year and enjoying the rest. It’s still work, though, and that’s okay. Retirement doesn’t have to mean never working again; it can mean working on your terms.
Take Troy Aikman: he retired from the NFL and started broadcasting soon after. That looks a lot like SemiFIRE. It’s a trade, not an end. At the end of the day, many of us are just shifting from one kind of job to another and calling it retirement.
I know the chorus of complaints: “I want to travel the world!” “I want freedom!” “Commutes are killing us and the planet!” I hear you. I miss travel too, and I’d love a quiet lakeside Tuesday. The U.S. work culture needs improvement. But perhaps if we balanced work with life and the environment better, early retirement wouldn’t feel like the only solution.
Look at Jiro again: he rides the train, doesn’t spend hours in traffic, and has found purpose in perfecting his craft and passing it on. The Blue Zones show similar patterns — active, purposeful elders still contributing in their communities. You’ll even find 90-something professionals still working because their work matters to them. They’re not all miserable; many have reconciled work and meaning and are grateful for what they can provide.
Early retirement is often seen as the ultimate goal — you worked hard, saved up, and now you’re free. It’s a valid dream. But once the basics are covered, many people still want connection, challenge, and purpose. A career can supply those things.
As I approach a point where I could step away, my thoughts swing back and forth. Sometimes I’m ready to quit — I’ve already quiet-quit in places. Other times, a day of camaraderie makes me think a career can be rewarding.
Maybe I’d manage rental properties part-time, keeping busy with maintenance projects. Maybe it would be mostly passive with occasional work. I still plan to keep the early retirement goal, but I’ll keep Jiro’s example in mind. He calls work “honorable.” Whether that view would translate the same if his job were different, I don’t know. All I know is I’m craving good sushi.
An earlier Lifehacker post raised many of these questions well. Work doesn’t always suck. But it gets much harder if you’re incompetent, difficult to work with, or crumble under pressure. Even so, cubicle life beats begging or doing nothing all day. Still, there are times when anyone reaches a breaking point — long workdays, bad commutes, and bosses who don’t get it.
After 23 years of work, I’ve learned what makes a working life tolerable. Purpose, reasonable hours, short commutes, and work that fits who you are go a long way. Whether I end up fully retired, SemiFIRE, or working into my later years like Jiro, I want whatever I choose to add meaning — not just free time.