It's just struck me that this particular industry could mean the end of retirement as we know it.

If you take any other industry, whether it's banking or truck driving, when you hit 65 you are done. You're obviously old, and there's a prejudice against old people in the workplace. You can't work the hours a 25 year old can work anymore. You can't lift the stuff a 25 year old can etc. However, your mind is probably almost as sharp as it was, and you have reams of experience that you just can't get other than through 45 years of beatings.

But, on the Internet, nobody knows you're a squirrel[*].

You can be 65, and set up a micro-ISV with a nifty little web page and hawk your wares and still make money and contribute something to the world, and run with the 25 year-olds. Nobody will treat you any different. This is a fantastic thing! You can be an active entrepreneur right up till you kick off, if you want! Not only that, you'll have more time to devote to your mISV so it should kick ass.

You may say that life's not about work, and neither is retirement. But it's a proven fact that people who are active in retirement life longer and healthier lives than those who aren't. You can put as much time as you want into your mISV, and you'll get out of it exactly what you put into it.

I think I'm actually looking forward to getting older! Time to start throwing around some mISV ideas...

 

 

 

[*] It's actually  "Nobody knows you're a dog", but that's got a bit of a negative connotation, so I changed it. :)