Yes. Yes. Yes … That seems to be the way these days. A resume of “I worked 2 years in xxxxx business and I’ve just finished reading yyyyy” Seems to be the new norm 
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this may be politically incorrect to suggest but it would be interested to know the spread of age / experience of the regular MPUers here. I myself is 67 and retired but I think I am still young at heart 
. I still like to learn at least one new thing everyday and this is my main reason to be in this forum.
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Consider starting an anonymous poll with age bracket selections. This might give us a sense of the demographics and will probably encourage more people to respond.
I’ll be 73 in 10 days. I also taught (part time) electrical engineering courses for 25 years with grey hair the entire time.
So David’s grey hairs are of no concern to me.
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I turn 65 later this year. I’m still working as a consultant in my own 4 person firm, and am a former software designer (who started out on punch cards). I’m still able to teach my younger colleagues a thing or two about software design. 
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Poll is alive here
First time building a poll on a forum so apology for any mistakes or incorrect formate
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Thanks Gang!
I did get a few emails (just a few) after the announcement something akin to, “You are no longer a lawyer so all your advice will be rubbish.” When I was younger that may have bothered me. I’ve been around long enough to just shrug and delete those notes.
alas … gray hair. 
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LOL, I used to hunt people down and argue until our faces turn blue. With the experience and the enhancement of EQ (together with the improving shades of grey of the hair), I would just take a deep breath and try to look from their perspectives or just laugh that off
I don’t think your advice will be rubbish (it certainly hasn’t been in the past!) but I am concerned that your viewpoint and analysis will change. When you have evaluated and recommended (or not) products in the past it has been based on you attempting to use them for productive, income-producing work. If you use your time to play with new apps I’m afraid you won’t be finding the warts. Please use your added time for quality rather than quantity!
FYI I discovered you through Paperless before even knowing about Mac Power Users. The information in that book certainly was the result of experience with building productive scanning workflows and not just from playing around with evaluation units for a couple weeks.
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I spent around 20 years in management before I started working full time in I.T. And my experience as a production supervisor, distribution center manager, etc. helped me guide my users in selecting the systems they needed to do their job.
David has been running a business to “pay for his shoes” for several years. Nothing is changing except the business and the amount of time he can devote to it. I don’t think we have any reason to worry.
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I’m curious why you don’t think what David will be doing in his MacSparky business isn’t “productive, income-producing work.”
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I’m not answering for @tomalmy , but I find that many sources of information come from within the bubble. What I mean by this, is that the authors are either writers or podcasters by profession, so the content is biased in that direction (Jason Snell talks about this and I believe he is rather good at providing a broader viewpoint, but there’s no getting away from some bias; people do, and should, present what they are interested in). It also seems that just like for most people, these authors’ friends are also predominantly within the bubble.
David’s ‘other life’ brought in some natural variation to that and I reckon this has been one of the things that helps his excellent rhetoric stand apart from the crowd. It’s not just that, obviously! This isn’t going to disappear overnight and maybe it never will; I hope to continue seeing a diverse selection of guests on MPU to help provide the breadth.
Whatever happens with that though, David’s comments and views are always going to be valuable as he both thinks carefully about what to say (the podcasts are well prepped) and he cares about presentation (the podcasts are suitably concise and structured). MPU is my long-form podcast of choice, and if I only listened to one, this would be it.
On a separate note, can I put into words my appreciation for all the people who took the time to congratulate David? My normal position is to say little or nothing as I believe not much needs to be said, and David certainly doesn’t need my endorsement! But, on reflection, I realise that by not saying anything positive I am allowing the few negative comments to seem bigger. One negative comment requires many positive comments to balance it (unless the skin is truly very thick).
So, well done David, I think it’s a great move for you.
I followed my heart (not my bank manager) when I moved from engineering to teaching many years ago and I couldn’t be happier with my decision. Follow your heart and don’t overload yourself.
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What I’m hearing here is that we need David to dye his hair college-kid-brown for videos in which he’s threatening our wallets. 
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Jamie Zawinski, whose delightful blog I recently rediscovered, addresses this point in a post I read just this morning:
Scroll down to the section header “ON BLOCKING.”
I am forever advising people, “Why hit Reply when the Block button is right there?”
But the struggle is real. I feel it too, especially these last few days. There are so many people who are wrong on the internet. So many! You don’t owe them your time. Block with righteous glee.
It helps if you think of the “Block” button as the “Go **** Yourself” button.
Jamie does not use asterisks, however.
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You summed up my concerns better than I did!
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haha. Years ago I wrote a script that sent a one-line reply. “I’m sorry. I don’t argue with the Internet”, and then moved the sender into the SaneBox Black Hole. I stopped sending the message though. It felt kind of childish in hindsight.
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I’d rather have gray hair than no hair.
I’m an outlier here as I’m retired and really have no need for much of what’s discussed.
But I do receive enough nuggets to make following MPU worthwhile. As “retired” seniors my husband and I run a small business renovating houses. Never thought we’d be doing this at this time of our life but enjoying it very much.
I’m a 79 year old woman who bought a Mac 7 years ago after a lifetime of using PCs. I’m so glad I did and listening to MPU has helped tremendously along the way.
Congratulations David. You made a fine decision.
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@MacSparky Congratulations! I realize it took a lot of time and thought to come to this point: as it should. It’s a big decision. I hope it all goes well for you moving forward. I’m certainly going to keep listening and relish your insights and suggestions.
After my laugh-it-off comment to you earlier, I got to thinking about a Robert A. Heinlein line about how many great ideas and how much great work has been lost to the world because of belittlers.
This is why more and more I am becoming cautious about leaving negative reviews. Bad service at a restaurant? I’m not the restaurant police – let somebody else warn the world.