Remember when I told the story of how I got started in the tech industry? In it, I said that
I started my career as a software developer at precisely 10am, on Monday October 6th, 1997, somewhere in the city of Olivos, just north of Buenos Aires, Argentina. The moment was Unix Epoch 876142800. I had recently celebrated my 24th birthday.
Well, guess what:
October 6th, 1997 plus 10,000 days = February 21st, 2025!
So yeah, today I’ve been working in the tech industry for exactly 10'000 days. It’s hard to believe that so much time has passed.
However, and slightly more spooky: a few days ago I realized that…
October 1st, 2038 minus 5'000 days = January 22nd, 2025.
That day in 2038 will be the day when, according to (current) Swiss law, I should be entitled to full retirement benefits1. Which means that my professional career will have lasted for slightly more than 15'000 days, or said otherwise, that I’m almost exactly two thirds, or 66% of the way in.
Or out, depending on how you look at it.
Of course, I’m sure they will raise the retirement age before that (they’ve recently done that for women, by the way), so I’m not really holding my breath. The Swiss retirement system is in shambles, but that’s material for another article. ↩︎