As a parent, this is a situation I encounter routinely.  My wife and I have a standing policy that we don't talk to the younger kids about big plans until perhaps a week beforehand (big being anything between visiting Grandma to a international trip).  If we even mention that we're considering a big event/trip of some sort, it immediately enters their minds as an assurance, not information.  My gut feel is that this held true for our kids until about age 11, at which point we could state, "We're thinking about X this summer" and it would not longer be received as "If we do not do X in the next 1-2 weeks I have license to complain about it anytime I'm reminded of X forever and ever".

Complex Systems

1. I like that I finish each episode feeling like I understand the world a little better, that it's generally free of argument (i.e. not in a debate format), and the episodes are rarely longer than an hour.
2. Guest speakers tend to be folks who have gone through the process of building something (software, hardware, author, etc)
3. Podcast run by Patrick McKenzie, who has established considerable credibility via the blog Bits About Money (at least with me)
4. Would recommend to folks interested in learning about the incentives and processes involved in infrastructure projects of all forms and fashions, who are comfortable with idioms of technical conversations, but who still broadly want to be entertained.

I appreciate that this post states clearly what I've certainly thought of in a foggier sense.  The oft-repeated platitude quoted by OP is quite black-and-white in how it frames the tension between economic activity and social activity, but it fails to capture a sentiment that I (anecdotally) encounter fairly regularly - people who would rather work long into the sunset of their lives because of the meaning they derive from it.

The value of meaningful work for the person doing it, aside from its economic value, doesn't get its fair consideration in this .