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Comment by badpun | Hacker News Reader

> Until you reach a point where you find your innate creativity you thought you had lost in your teenage years shining in, driving you. That might require a massive lifestyle change.

I'm 42, don't have to work any more really and haven't been for some time now, and the innate creativity is not calling me at all. Perhaps I was always a bit dull, lol.

Anyway, people should be seriously prepared for the possibility that their dreams of pursuing projects "once have the time" were just an escape fantasy to help cope with suckiness of work. Lots of people who retire early return back to their previous line of work, because they can't really find meaning in anything, and structured and organized work within some company at least gives a little bit of it. The lesson from that is - don't burn your bridges.

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You're not dull. Creativity is a loaded word. To me creativity is a state of play.

Have you ever played as a child? Chance are you did. Are you able to do stuff you enjoy without anyone forcing you to? That's creativity.

My creativity is computer science related. For others it's painting, poetry, dancing or being a top fragger at Counter Strike. Just find out what is fun for you and maximize it. That's innate, and we don't lose it with age, we lose it because we become too busy to deal with bollocks imposed upon us.

And why should you maximise play? Because it's the point where drive, focus, fun and personal accomplishment are maximised. That's what I aim for.

Your words about play, creativity and fun, and the maximization thereof, bring to mind a gem of an essay from Bob Black that I first encountered back in the days when 640K was enough for anyone. Dinosaur days. It's called "The Abolition of Work" and I've always assumed that most nerds like me had probably read it but maybe not. It made a big, and lasting impression on me, and I suspect that many here who feel drawn to this HN thread will find the Black piece to have some thought-provoking ideas in it.

"No one should ever work. Work is the source of nearly all the misery in the world. Almost any evil you'd care to name comes from working or from living in a world designed for work. In order to stop suffering, we have to stop working. That doesn’t mean we have to stop doing things. It does mean creating a new way of life based on play; in other words, a ludic revolution."

https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/bob-black-the-abolit...

Thanks for the recommendation, especially these days that I'm really deep into Anarchist literature :)

Also Brian Eno, urging people not to get a job: https://youtu.be/d-53tzx69fM

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