Retiring skills

A post concerning our life skills and what happens to them when we stop working

We spend a lifetime building skills, then we retire them.

In a fast moving life, workplace skills can quickly date. One moment you are ahead of the curve, the next minute you are out of time. This is particularly the case for those with technical skills (like lawyers) where we problem solve with rules, and when we are reaching the end of working life, we worry that we have little new or relevant to contribute.

But beneath our obvious, and maybe dated career skills, lies something else – a host of life skills, borne of experience, trial, error, making choices, taking chances, learning by mistakes. And it is these about which I write, for it is they that I believe we undervalue.

The 2013 film from Burning Man shot by Jan Beddegenoodts featured retired media professor Charlie Warner, aged 81, from New York City, now defined by saying, “If you can dream it, you can do it. But you have to be able to dream it first”.

At 2.31 time elapsed, Charlie recounts the contribution, or gift, he made during his visit to Burning Man. Whilst purporting to offer ‘career advice’, Charlie was really offering significant life insight based on eight decades of living experience. “No one said, what is this old guy doing trying to give career advice to people”. “People came up and said, ‘yes, how can you help me?’”.

Burning Man, not the real world, ‘and Charlie Warner seems a pretty exceptional person’. But many of us have unusual life skills, and some have altogether unique ones.

As we approach retirement, shouldn’t we be examining how to deploy the experience that we have, and in so doing enriching future generations rather than simply burdening them?

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How big is your footprint?

A post about down-sizing from a conventional home to a tiny one

Readers of my blog will be familiar with my fascination with tiny houses. This blog is about them, and our need to embrace a different, smaller approach to living.

I live in a three storey end-of-terrace Edwardian home adapted to suit my current needs, but certainly not environmentally appropriate. The ground floor comprises entrance porch, large hallway, kitchen, utility room, downstairs shower room, cinema, study, sculpture gallery, workshop and garage; at the first floor, bedroom and ensuite house bathroom, dance studio and large south-facing sitting room; and above is an apartment with bedroom, ensuite bathroom and a further sitting room. A total of sixteen separate spaces – occupied by two people when no Airbnb guests are staying.

Such older homes were built to be heated by coal fires, condensation being overcome by opening doors and windows whilst children were sent out to play. Double and triple glazing make heating bills manageable, but now we simply turn up the central heating thermostat.

As we age smaller homes make a lot of sense. With materials such as laminated polystyrene, styrofoam and polyisocyanurate insulation, they are not the ‘caravans of yesteryear’. Tiny houses can be smart as well as accessible. A relatively low investment is temporary, the unit portable, and saleable when late-life requirements change. Significantly, they can be located close to family with minimal planning restrictions where the development is within the curtilage of a home, providing security as we age.

Humanity’s need for homes increases; and with this requirement hectares of greenbelt for transport and new estates (in England alone – 5,700 hectares lost between April 2017-18). The shape of our towns and villages changes beyond recognition. World-wide, cities sprawl with continuous density beyond horizons.

Some predict that world population – 6.1 billion in 2000, currently 7.7 billion – will reach 11 billion by the end of the century. In Buenos Aires, the population has increased by 10m since 1950. That requires a lot of new homes, and loss of natural habitat. More concerning is the need for resources to feed, clothe, employ, sustain, entertain and equip such a world population.

In New Zealand, tiny houses (35-80 sqm) that are built on a trailer are classified as vehicles and not buildings. That is not to say that they avoid planning laws; but the rules provide more flexibility than the British Schedule 1 Caravan Sites and Control of Development Act 1960.

Now is the time to review both the law and practice in relation to tiny homes. Rather than simply regarding them as tolerated within the curtilage of a home, should we not be creating new communities, especially for an aging population, based on homes that have minimal footprint and environmental impact?

Whilst an advert may appear at the foot, this blog is neither monetarised, nor endorsing any product