Division of labour, an idea popularised by Adam Smith in the “Wealth of Nations”, has done for us humans when it comes to knowing how to live. Most of us have to be cogs in one large production line, whether we are factory or government workers. It might have made us more “productive” but has made us less happy, at the same time as we are generally wealthier and more healthy. Unfortunately, more money and better health cannot take the place of happy satisfaction in work. Studies have consistently shown that, even as real income has risen since the Second World War, the graph of life satisfaction has remained flat in the Western world ever since.

Thus we have to have something to live for. Nietzshe said, “He who has a “why” to live can bear almost any “how”. Throughout life, and especially facing retirement, you have to have a reason to look forward and find something you enjoy outside work, even if it takes time to find that something. Increasingly, it becomes difficult to find it in one’s job, and TV doesn’t cut it. Speaking personally, I found it in writing music, about which I knew absolutely nothing when I started, and which one can only do provided you have no notion about making money at it. This is not an option for most people but, like Van Gogh, who only sold one painting in his life and had about four careers, eventually you will get there and your rich descendants will adore the memory of you!