Welcome @U04P8GVNT0S! I'm finding Clojure and its awesome community a great place to get my geek on in my post-work chapter!

Hi Eric! 41 years is incredibly impressive. Any lessons to impart for those of us who have less than half that under our belt?

) Always learn something new. Especially outside areas that you are most familiar with. 2) Never forget those that mentored you and who were the best ones. Try to become the next generation's mentor and emulate your best mentors 3) Remember that you work to live, not the other way around. After your death you will not be remembered for how great a runtime framework you created. (it will probably be mostly obsolete by then, anyway). 4) You will slowly become the "expert" that most of the team looks to. Don't let that go to your head as there is always someone smarter than you. Always be humble. 5) Look at where you live and decide if it is worth how hard you have to work to live there. There are many nice simple areas to live which have a much lower cost of living. As software engineers we no have great opportunities to work remote or hybrid. If you are commuting 2 hours a day, it is time to find something simpler. It will also give you more time to care for and spend with your family. 6) Don't be ashamed if you find yourself surrounded by "giants" and feel like a total idiot. Remember, that they probably felt like idiots themselves at times in their careers. I found that most experts will be glad to impart knowledge if you show the fortitude to learn to the best of your abilities. 7) RTFM

Thanks! That's a lot of great advice. > Look at where you live and decide if it is worth how hard you have to work to live there. There are many > nice simple areas to live which have a much lower cost of living. As software engineers we no have great > opportunities to work remote or hybrid. I'm a huge fan of this one -- my strategy is to live pretty cheaply in a beautiful place in the Appalachian mountains and work remotely; planning to try my hardest to never go back to an office 😁

That's super cool, Eric. Recreational programming's where it's at.