I think there might be a component here of people able to reasonably achieve FIRE level wealth are already predisposed towards functioning well in the work place, and therefore maybe not so well suited for a life outside of that institution.

When I say I have projects I know I'll never do, I'm talking about the kinds of things that range from "will probably take several years" to "might not be completable in the lifetime I have remaining". Even if each of those things takes an eighth of the time I think they will, I still easily have enough to fill up the rest of my life even if I never do anything purely for the enjoyment of it.

> It’s not that simple.

It is. I took about 18 months off a few years ago. It was great until I ran out of money.

My main motivator was a very big project (converting a bus to live in) that took a lot of time but after that was done I still did lots of other projects, played video games, and traveled.

In some ways I missed contributing my skills to a team but, other than needing money, I wasn't strongly motivated to go back to work.

I dunno, I am in the GP camp. I find even the most wasteful pastimes enjoyable, like videogames; recently, I noticed I don't enjoy them as much (compared to e.g. college days or even when I had more relaxing jobs) and after some reflection, realized it's because I have a nagging feeling in the back of my head that I could be spending time better, like working, or training, or reading, or cleaning, or whatever. I.e. I definitely don't find these stale even after 25 years, it's just that I have a tech job, a wife and hobbies, so I don't have time.

And e.g. in college/HS, my results were pretty mediocre (ok, I still got mostly As, but just barely ;)) because I used my "genetic privilege" and built-up "capital" from SOME hard work, I guess, to do the minimum for an A/B, then maximized the time to pursue my own projects or just goof off. I could have probably been a straight-A student but it just never motivated me. In a twisted way in college, it actually helped me professionally, I spent so much time goofing off I realized I have enough time to have a job at the same time :)

I understand not everyone is like that (my wife instantly gets antsy and/or sad without some purpose or if she has a lot of free time), but I'm pretty sure I could fill a few decades at least with each of the things I want to do more, ranging from outdoors to cooking to playing ironman roguelikes to coding... with all of them I could fill centuries if I had the cashflow ;)