Introduction

Hello, my name is Robin and I'm about to retire.  I've worked in the tech industry for the last 40 years.  Now that I have announced my impending retirement, all my techie friends are saying "tell us what it looks like from the other side", so I've decided to do just that.  This is going to be the story of what it's like for someone with technical skills, technical interests (and a few not typical of my fellow techies), and a technical outlook on life to retire.

I'm retiring from Google, so retirement means giving up a lot of things others don't think of: free meals at work, fresh fruit and good chocolate never more than 50 feet away, free massages, always knowing what's going on in the tech industry (with very little effort on my part), early access to innovative products, etc.  I think this is going to be the biggest adjustment of my retirement.  At Google we refer to such challenges as "first world problems", and I think most of you reading this are thinking something similar -- would that I had such things to give up!  I know how privileged I am, but that isn't going to make the change any easier.

What everyone asks me is: what do you plan to do with all that free time?  I'm sure I will have no trouble filling the hours with meaningful activities, and that's going to be the topic of some of my first posts.  But you'll have to wait to find out.

Whether you are a Google colleague, a professional friend from other places I have worked or from my volunteer activities, a non-techie friend or neighbor, or a complete stranger who just happened upon this blog, welcome.  I hope I can keep your interest.