QuoteHe's a foot taller and I think breathing the thinner air up there addled his brain.

I definitely have a different perspective.

Part of the reason I am so healthy is because the work I am doing gives me a bit of a work out.  It is nice to be twice as strong as I would be without the job.  Paradoxically the best thing a person can do to maintain mental acuity up is exercise.  The benefit of good blood flow is more important than working crossword puzzles and stuff like that.

We all know it takes more than exercise to be smart.  But smart people exercise. Steven Hawking might have been an exception to this rule.  But maybe not.  His brilliance was shown before his motor neurone disease developed.  I don't know his story well enough to say if he did significant work later in life.

QuoteI would have no trouble finding shit to do with myself, and I can live on just SS no problemo.

I also have no trouble finding things to do.  There are not enough hours in the day to do what I want.  I absolutely am not working 'for something to do'.  But I have experienced periods of unemployment.  I learned it is hard to keep your own steam up without outside stimulation on a long term basis.  Left to our own devices we get lazy and slow down. 

This summer I was scheduled for too many hours, and I let my employer know.  I was told they want to keep me, and will schedule me for fewer hours.  Whatever I want.  Things worked out.

My situation is like a student with a part time job.  If someone goes to school and works part time they will have better grades than someone without a job provided the part time job is less than 20 hours a week.  More than that 20 hours a week and the job gets in the way.

Everybody's situation is different.  The number of hours will be different for different people.  Some schooling is more demanding.  But the idea is, a bit of structure gives back more than it takes away, provided the structure does not overwhelm.