I Have Retired!

July 5 is my birthday. This one is a bit of a special one: I turn 65 today, meaning I can no longer pretend to be middle aged.

It’s also time to announce something that has been in the work for a number of months: Last week I handed in my virtual badge and resigned from DomainTools. My next gig?

None. I have decided to retire. You can read more about it in the July issue of my 6FPS newsletter. I am intending, of course, to write more about this as I start figuring out what this next chapter of my life will be.

That said, I admit to enjoying going out on my terms and my timing, and riding off into the sunset instead of being carried off on my shield. I really enjoyed my time at Farsight/DomainTools and will miss my regular interactions with those folks a lot, but I’m ready to be able to not have to be at the keyboard every morning at 8:30 AM for standup and to spend most of the rest of the day in meetings or staring at the keyboard trying to figure out how to not split that infinitive. When I first brought up this possibility with my management, they were very supportive (and at times, a bit jealous), and so I’ve got to thank Jeremy and Gary for working with me and letting me try to make this as painless as possible for my replacement. Because of the economy, that backfill hiring got delayed (of course), and maybe they’ll figure out wiht the seat empty they can fill it wiht some other set of skills, but we did talk informally about me coming back on a short term contract to help onboard them. if/when I hear that the job has been posted, I will definitely be sharing it to my network, if you’re a tech writer and editor who’s good with making really nerdy material readable.

What’s Next?

This has been iun some form of planning since the start of the year, so I’ve had plenty of time to ponder what’s next. The short answer is I’m trying to not over-think or over-plan it, very unlike my normal habits. My general goals right now are “more walking”, “more birds”, “more camera”, “less meetings”. The details will work themselves out.

And while I am not looking for a new role (as this started to leak out, I started getting quiet inquiries, and have so far had to tell a couple of people no, I don’t want a contract….), I will admit that if the right thing came along, I’d consider it. What is that right thing? Some nice combination of “remote work”, “part time”, “birds”, “photography”. And one note: if you query me via LinkedIn, you’re disqualified from consideration.

Amusingly enough, the first thing I did this morning was update LinkedIn to note my retirement and note that I’m no longer going to monitor that site, and within five minutes of doing so, someone sent me a message: on LinkedIn. Because of course.

I’ve spent a few days just chilling. I’ve re-organized my office, since I no longer need a desk that supports both a work laptop and monitor and a personal setup. Other than that, I’ve kept it quiet, and that’s been fun.

I do plan on starting to go out once a week or so and find a coffee shop to sit in for a while and write, just to get away from the house more and get used to being around people. I haven’t scheduled any trips, because, well, summer/busy/crowds, but I’m considering what to do and when. I’m going to spend some quality time doing more exploring of this area, with camera in hand, and see what happens.

And beyond that, we’ll see.

But I do plan on getting back here and writing more, now that I’m not spending my days writing for others…. What do you want to hear about?

I do plan on writing about my now-ended career a bit, since so much of it was spent in Silicon Valley as it was becoming Silicon Valley.

But other than that, I’m open to suggestions.