I just shared my plan to retire on LinkedIn. It's getting real, I guess. This is what I said there. I'll say more later, I'm sure.

It's time to relax.

It's getting close enough to start sharing the news, I guess. At the end of April, I'm "taking my glove and going home," as we used to say after a good round of baseball at the park.

I'm turning in my company badge and am going to retire.

It's been a long road since starting with my first real software job in 1988. Computers and software never stopped advancing, and it doesn't seem to be slowing down yet. While there are plenty of exciting things afoot at my company and in the software and computer industry, I'm stepping out and letting others tap the keys and take over leading teams. Yes, just as AI is getting easy, gaining common footing, and getting used in very creative ways. And as we've settled in to ubiquitous compute and networking around much of the world. And as equipment powerful enough to run space stations fit in our pockets and on our wrists. As the big nerd I am, it seems like a great time to get into the business instead of getting out of it.

But, I set out long ago hoping to retire young enough to enjoy it. The wife and I agreed to give retirement priority, and we were fortunate to be able to do the necessary things along the way. We've hit our retirement goals, so after some consideration and much double-checking, we're going to dive in. We're going to focus more on self and family, and less on working for others. I can't imagine a future without tinkering, so I'll stay on all the things; I'll just stay on them for my purposes, I suppose.

I've met hundreds of incredible people on my journey. Thousands of other great people, too...heh. I've been kind of passive about it, even though I'm connected to a lot of them here on LinkedIn. I hope to be even better at connecting in the future, with my anticipated bevy of free time, maybe even in person.

Please don't hesitate to reach out for any kind of conversation! Except for jobs...I think I'm done with that, so it would have to be a pretty fantastic opportunity to lure me back in. Maybe if it was something in space again, although probably only if I got to actually go into space.