I feel this in my very bones right now. As I've written, my academic department has been eliminated at my university and I'm losing my job as a full tenured professor after this semester, at the age of 60, after three decades of doing nothing else.

In my case, it's not so much that I feel that I won't have an identity without my job. It's the wide open spaces of possibility without much specific direction that paralyze me a bit. I'm not sure in which direction to walk.

One thing is certain: I can't stay where I am. So loss aversion and the status quo don't have much to say.

Great piece, and all best to you.