I think all of this article is true, but I suspect that the vast bulk of people entering retirement each year have few if any of these things beyond perhaps the sense of identity.

It's very true that retirement means losing many of the fun perks associated with a high-flying career, but you have to have those perks in the first place.

Even here on HN, many of us are living fairly ordinary lives, perhaps working on cool technology, but I think even in our fairly exclusive club, not all that many of us have PAs and frequent high-class work travel, even at the apex of our careers.

For those who have all those things and lose them it can be very profound. For a lot of people in that position they spend almost all of their time working in some sense or other, and retirement ends all that. I think that's why people in super successful careers often end up doing advisory work or ending up on boards, so they can keep some of the perks with less of the commitment.