New career path at middle age

Question

I know and often newly encounter many 35-50yo Americans with broken career paths and some level of family responsibility. Of those I know well enough to speak for, they are intelligent and diligent but often mired in hopelessness and exhaustion. Despite this, all of them have some time, almost everyday, that is spent on unproductive activity like gaming, drinking, netflix, and so forth.Having asked around, I think 1000-1500 hours could be salvaged for learning each year, but this time is necessarily outside regular business hours and therefore not suited to many common retraining programs.How can this demographic best use 1000-1500 hours, in a year, to attain a new career path?

ThrowawayR2 · Accepted Answer

> "Despite this, all of them have some time, almost everyday, that is spent on unproductive activity like gaming, drinking, netflix, and so forth."They do this to precisely to try to ameliorate the hopelessness and exhaustion and to recover enough mental energy to face another day without going insane. Humans are not robots.

cyberdrunk · Answer

> 1000-1500 hoursThis comes down to 3-4 hours of focused effort, every single day of the year, on top of their work and family responsibilities. Have you actually tried living like this even for 6 months? I doubt it's mentally feasible for most of people.

dyingkneepad · Answer

Not spending 1-2 hours of your day on something fun you choose to do (like netflix, drinking, gaming, etc.) will lead to even more hopelessness and exhaustion and burnout. Do you really think these people have the energy to try to learn or do anything productive at all? What is the point of life if you can't afford to do fun things?I will assume you don't have a family to take care of + a full time job.

adamsea · Answer

See a therapist, volunteer, exercise, journal, or do something to help with one's own mental health and personal growth.
Seems like this issue is why folks choose to spend their time the way they do. It's understandable. But, there's no point in being like "XYZ is the way to go", unless we're talking about someone who is already motivated and already making an effort, but hasn't been able to find something that's right for them.
And I'd bet that's a minority.
Plus of course the answer would depend on individual circumstances.

fuzzfactor · Answer

Just not being on Facebook gives probably more than a 1000 hour advantage, and it's been a number of years.
I think it's good to routinely spend at least 1000 hours yearly sharpening skills at work and off duty.
Seems like it can give you a number of possible new career paths if you so choose.

New career path at middle age

> 1000-1500 hoursThis comes down to 3-4 hours of focused effort, every single day of the year, on top of their work and family responsibilities. Have you actually tried living like this even for 6 months? I doubt it's mentally feasible for most of people.

Just not being on Facebook gives probably more than a 1000 hour advantage, and it's been a number of years.I think it's good to routinely spend at least 1000 hours yearly sharpening skills at work and off duty.Seems like it can give you a number of possible new career paths if you so choose.

> 1000-1500 hours
This comes down to 3-4 hours of focused effort, every single day of the year, on top of their work and family responsibilities. Have you actually tried living like this even for 6 months? I doubt it's mentally feasible for most of people.

Just not being on Facebook gives probably more than a 1000 hour advantage, and it's been a number of years.
I think it's good to routinely spend at least 1000 hours yearly sharpening skills at work and off duty.
Seems like it can give you a number of possible new career paths if you so choose.