well, to give you another perspective: I am still mildly interested in research, publish enough to be well respected and not considered deadwood, but workng week is not more than 40 h. I pursue my interests in arts and music, enjoy doing sports, travel quite a bit, still enjoy the company of my wife after 3o years. Could live on like this forever.
Observations on hitting 40
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Almost 40... I realize what a waste of time academia is, and I am tired of the rat race. I don't have tenure yet, but I am about to move to a place where I should get it pretty quickly. After I get tenure I want to do more meaningful things in life. Spend more time with kids, volunteer, maybe start a little company. We'll see.
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40 wasn't that different than 35.
But mid-40s....
Just can't get excited anymore about publications. I used to think a good CV would help me move up. Now that I know it won't (failed senior search a couple of years ago) it is hard to care. I'm not deadwood yet, but I'm flirting with it at the bar and may try a fling.
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well, to give you another perspective: I am still mildly interested in research, publish enough to be well respected and not considered deadwood, but workng week is not more than 40 h. I pursue my interests in arts and music, enjoy doing sports, travel quite a bit, still enjoy the company of my wife after 3o years. Could live on like this forever.
Accidentally no gooded you
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I wish I could like this 100 times...
Broette going through depressionBros it is so depressing to read your replies ... Could you give some hope to the younger generation ?
- 25yo phd studentRemember, you are an actor in a drama of such sort as the Author
chooses-if short, then in a short one; if long, then in a long one. If it be
his pleasure that you should enact a poor man, or a cripple, or a ruler,
see that you act it well. For this is your business-to act well the given
part, but to choose it belongs to Another. ...Every one of us, slave or
free, has come into this world with innate conceptions as to good and
bad, noble and shameful, becoming and unbecoming, happiness and
unhappiness, fitting and inappropriate. ...If you regard yourself as a
man and as a part of some whole, it is fitting for you now to be sick and
now to make a voyage and run risks, and not to be in want, and on
occasion to die before your time. Why, then, are you vexed? Would you
have someone else be sick ofa fever now, someone else go on a voyage,
someone else die? For it is impossible in such a body as ours, that is, in
this universe that envelopes us, among these fellow creatures of ours,
that such things should not happen, some to one man, some to another.
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43 y.o.
Good things:
- Fully developed social skills: nothing affects my mood too much. I don't hold grudges anymore.
- Finally achieved a very simplified life: I have a great sense of what I care about and what I don´t.
- Hyper productive: work 6 hours a day, 5 days a week and am able to produce a good set of papers each year. I publish that I write because I like them, not for external validation. Immune to seminar participants, referees, and editors.
- Stopped caring about what people think of me.
- Sex with my wife is plentiful and the best we've had in 20 years together
- Love to see my kids grow up into lovely human beings. I was lucky to realize immediately after they were born that my time with them is limited. So I have been always very involved in their lives. I have an amazing relationship with them.
- Have a group of friends that has been weed out of people that gave me unhappiness.
- I've never been healthiest than now.
- I have made peace with all my choices.Bad things:
- Watching my in-laws die and my parents grow old. I'm super close to them and it pains me
- Realizing that time on earth is extremely short
- New things don't surprise me anymore; they don't excite me as they used to. Especially when travelling. I love it but I don't feel that awe that I used to feel when I was in my 20s. The same is true for new food, movies, people, etc.
- It takes me much longer to recover after a long run or an intense lifting session
- Have to pay attention at what I eat/drink in order to stay healthy
- Cannot drink heavily anymore because hangovers are terrible. This means I cannot get drunk, and I liked getting drunk.
- It's hard to learn new things. I'm trying to learn to play the guitar now and it requires much more sustain effort than other things I learned as a young adult. -
Those are the mian things. Think you nailed that.
Hair grows everywhere - backside is like a jungle
Involuntary farting in the morning
A*s itches like crazy
What else bros?Yep, morning gas instead of morning wood is quite a comedown. The hair and itchiness is right on also.