I had two months of severance recently, and most people I told about it said "man, I'd go crazy with nothing to do" but I pretty much didn't stop doing things the entire two months.

I made progress on most of the books I was reading. I did a lot of coding. I read research papers. I ended up driving up the ohio river with a friend who was applying for jobs at the lock and dams. I never got bored and I always had something to do.

It appears that some people just aren't very good at that. I don't exert some special force of will, so I can't really act superior. I just naturally want to read and learn about a lot of random stuff. I wonder if it's impulsive, driving curiosity that keeps some people active well into old age. I have plans to "retire" some day, but when I say "retire" I mostly mean "to stop being dependent on a specific income stream while I continue to do a lot of stuff"