“Work is much more fun than fun.” Noel Coward
My nerd friends do nerdy things outside of work. We calculate, we build, we think and plan and do.
My writer friends read.
Quentin Tarantino LOVES movies more than anything in the world.
Ted Williams was retired for decades and would still talk hitting.
My advisor for my Masters in Engineering was forcibly retired at 90 when they changed the locks, and I can see him standing there index finger raised “but wait I have an idea!” as I had seen a thousand times or more.
Picasso was still painting even later in life than that.
When what you do for compensation is the most pleasurable thing in the world to you and is not dependent upon physically declining skills, retirement is not an option because what you do for work truly is your life and the moment you stop “working” you stop living and start dying.