FOBI

You probably know the acronym FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) (on news, bargains, etc). Today I found the term for a concept that's been fermenting in my head: Fear of Becoming Irrelevant (FOBI) . My original search term was Fear of Loss of Relevance (FOLOR), but FOBI is more memorable and also generates more results from a search.

Anybody can have FOBI at any time, but it probably is more likely to be associated with a life change, such as retirement. It probably explains a lot of activity on forums where people, who were experts when they were working, try hard to maintain their status with long dissertations.

Suggestions for dealing with FOBI are numerous and varied. What works depends on the individual. For me the course taken by the author of the article linked to sounds good to me; just do what you feel is valuable, live in the moment and let go of the outcome.