[Amasuriel]

People often seem to equate retirement, as in you no longer need to do things you don’t want to do just for money, to assume that those people are going to sit around all day.

People need purpose, no doubt. And while I’m sure there are people who imagine retirement as sitting on a beech with a drink all day, for lots of people FIRE just means being able to pursue the things you want without expectation that they will be lucrative.

[sandspar]

I've found that early retirement tends to be bad for people who have the combination of "high need for achievement" and also akrasia (the condition of being occasionally weak willed). If you are someone who has a mismatch between "how much I want to achieve" and "how much I can force myself to do annoying things", then early retirement probably isn't for you. If you want to achieve a lot, and can force yourself to do annoying things, then you'll probably be fine in retirement. I know an ex Army guy who still wakes up at the same time as he did while he was in command at his base - he does fine in retirement. What ends up happening for lots of people is that they still want to be competent, but without the external goad of work and deadlines, they're unable to force themselves to do hard things.