Back to writing again, because lo and behold, I found some time!
So I've decided to take an extended break from traditional employment after a year and a half. I just need some time to reflect and work on projects that actually interest me. I've been struggling to maintain interest in my traditional field of network engineering, despite reaching the pinnacle in terms of credentials. It just doesn't energize me any more. Perhaps I need to drive a final dagger into that career-- the trading time for dollars. Perhaps I need to disengage the rat race. My field is becoming more and more software-defined, meaning that it is rapidly getting automated. This means I have to become an expert in a whole slew of new skills in order to stay relevant. I'm just not sure it is possible. The nascent digital economy is what energizes me, not automating networks. Could I force myself to redefine skills that took me 20 years to build? I have my doubts. If I do happen to accept another traditional job in the future, it will have to be in a company or field I am passionate about. As I grow older, I become much worse at faking it.
Traditional jobs are strange constructs. People voluntarily subjugate themselves. They subject themselves to all sorts of requirements and restrictions. In the present day, even medical ones! The term 'wage slave' really is appropriate within this context. Trading time for dollars, getting stuck in a pattern, and having to ask permission to deviate from that pattern. You are a tiny part of a machine meant to generate wealth for someone else. This is an arrangement you must settle for, because the sky is not the limit in terms of your potential success if you work for someone else.
This arrangement is fine for a lot of people, because they have been programmed their entire life to believe this is the only approach to life. It's not by the way, and the digital economy will prove that out. I feel fortunate that I am an early adopter. If you are stuck in that traditional job pattern, try viewing that job as an incubator. Build businesses and passive income streams with the intent of eliminating that job, because your time is infinitely more valuable than what your company is paying you.