An issue I always have with early retirement is whether it is morally acceptable. When retiring early from a skilled profession you are depriving society of a big contribution you could have given, that was also expected and invested in by society. Utilising a power dynamic by having more money and knowledge to capitalise on other people exacerbates this issue.

How are you dealing with this? Are you of the mindset that you do not owe anything to society? That it is completely fair, as you earned that money and there is a perfect market that trades all aspects in a meritocratic fashion (e.g., delayed consumption should be gratified this hard)? Or that you were not just lucky to have the talents to earn so much money?

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Did you think about if the decentralised applications will have an impact as high as you are currently providing for society? I would be really careful when evaluating if something does have an impact. If your decentralised platform never has any realistic chance to be adopted by mainstream the impact might be really low. Even for lemmy the impact might not be enough, as it might be too complicated for a normal person.

Making video games and helping small business by investing also seem like they have a low benefit for society and are more to be psychologically fulfilling for the early retiree.

[–] sugar_in_your_tea 4 points 1 year ago

My goal isn't to maximize my beneficial impact on society, it's to not be a burden on society while pursuing things that interest me. The decentralized platform interests me, and it's not going to cause harm.

I could do a lot more, but I don't feel obligated to. Once I'm FI, I'll spend some of my time giving back, and all of my time will be spent on things that interest me.