Originally Posted by
bae
1 - I wasn't discontent - work was quite engaging, I was doing very cool stuff, with very cool people. I was discontented with the *place* I was living, Silicon Valley, as was my wife. We had a young daughter, and our community didn't seem like the ideal place to raise a child, too many people working too hard, and no real community in our neighborhood. We began searching around the country for a small-town/rural sort of environment, with many constraints. I took a sabbatical, and this was about the 5th place we looked at, and I happened to read YMOYL while I was here.
2- The key trigger was the math, and the observation that your life isn't a rehearsal for your "real" life, but that every moment is precious. Also, I'd had a good friend and mentor die just a few years previous, in his 30s - he was a world-class athlete (climbed Himalayan peaks), and a super-genius, and he walked past me at work one day, went into his office, sat down, and died from an aneurysm. I found the idea of reclaiming my life ASAP quite compelling.
3- We initially thought we'd buy a piece of property here, spend a few years building The Perfect House, then check out of Silicon Valley and move up here. Instead, we bought an OK house our first week of looking around, went back to Silicon Valley to pack up, and were back up here about a month later. I continued to telecommute for my company for the first year or two, then dropped back to simply consulting now-and-then. I don't know if I would have survived completely downshifting and quitting fully immediately. Also, while I believed the math, emotionally it was quite scary.
4 - I haven't really regretted anything. I worried I'd tire of this place/community after a short while, or find it unappealing, as almost all incomers here do after 1-2 years, but I've continued to grow fonder of it over time. Intellectually stagnant? Perhaps at times, until I redirected my efforts into other pursuits. I think I'm busier and more engaged than when I was "working" for a living, and have had to master several new disciplines over the years.
5 - my wife/daughter loved the idea. My wife's parents were dubious, and remained so. My mother liked the idea so much she moved here as well about a year after us, "retiring" early to do so. My Dad also, upon hearing my reasoning, retired early and moved with his husband to their dream "retirement" location, where he is busier than when he was working for real as well. Our friends-who-were-merely-acquaintances were/are dubious, and many drifted away. Our real friends seemingly understand, visit frequently, and some have purchased seasonal places here. We provoked a minor wave of early check-out/retirements in Silicon Valley, almost always to some island or mountain top somewhere.
So, YMOYL was a good thing to read at that time in my life.
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