The Boomer Blogger
You’re Not Done. You’re Just Getting Started.
I’ve spent more than forty years in sales, marketing, customer service, operations, management, training, and web development. Forty years of working with people, solving problems, making decisions, adapting to change, and occasionally wondering who came up with some of the ridiculous rules we were expected to follow.
I’ve seen businesses succeed. I’ve watched others stumble over problems they created themselves. I’ve worked long hours, managed competing priorities, and learned that common sense isn’t nearly as common as the name suggests. And after all those years, you’d think I’d be ready to put my feet up.
Not quite.
I’m Don Dixon
The Boomer Blogger
And I have a few things left to do.
Forty Years on the JOB
I spent much of my working life doing what millions of Americans do. Get up. Go to work. Earn a paycheck. Pay the bills. Repeat. I call it the JOB.
Just Over Broke.
Now, that’s not to say I didn’t enjoy my work or learn something valuable along the way. Quite the opposite. Those decades gave me an education no classroom could have provided. I learned how to read people, recognize opportunities, solve problems, and understand what makes a business work.
I also learned that being good at your job doesn’t necessarily translate into financial independence. You can spend a lifetime making yourself valuable to somebody else’s business and still reach retirement wondering whether you’ve saved enough. That’s a pretty uncomfortable realization.
Especially when you discover that the traditional retirement playbook doesn’t work quite as well as advertised.
At 61, I Started Building Something of My Own
I didn’t arrive in the online business world as a fresh-faced twenty-something with unlimited time and a laptop covered in stickers. I came with decades of experience, plenty of opinions, and a healthy suspicion of anyone promising easy money. I began taking blogging seriously at 61. In May 2022, I joined Wealthy Affiliate and started learning how to build an online business around the knowledge and experience I’d accumulated.
I made myself a commitment.
Not to get rich overnight. Not to chase every shiny opportunity that crossed my screen. To learn the business, do the work, and keep getting better. In September 2023, I put that commitment in writing. I’ve kept showing up ever since. Have I conquered the internet and retired to a private island?
Hardly.
But I’ve built websites, written books, developed products, explored new technologies, and learned more about digital business than I could have imagined when I started. And I haven’t stopped.
Money Follows Mastery
That’s not a promise that everyone who works hard will make a fortune. It’s my reminder that understanding what you’re doing matters more than chasing the next shortcut.
Then Came the Age of AI
In May 2023, I began seriously exploring artificial intelligence. And I quickly realized this wasn’t just another piece of software. For the first time, an individual with experience, judgment, and ideas could tackle projects that previously demanded an entire team or resources beyond their reach.
Writing. Research. Design. Programming. Video production. Business development.
The possibilities were expanding faster than most people could keep up with. But I also noticed something troubling. People were beginning to treat AI as a replacement for thinking rather than a tool for doing more with what they already knew.
That’s backward.
Forty years of experience doesn’t become worthless because a machine can generate an answer in four seconds.
Knowing which questions to ask, recognizing when an answer doesn’t make sense, understanding human behavior, and making sound decisions still matter. Maybe more than ever. AI can help me organize information, explore possibilities, develop ideas, and accelerate production.
But it doesn’t get to decide what I believe.
It doesn’t get to define who I am. And it certainly doesn’t get to tell me I’m finished. My philosophy is simple.
Use AI for leverage. Keep your hands on the steering wheel.
So What Am I Building?
Quite a bit, as it turns out.
Boomer Blogger is the home for my ideas, observations, experiments, and occasional disagreements with the way the world works. But it’s also the connection point for several projects that have grown out of my experience and interests.
Setting Points is where I concentrate on helping people turn their knowledge and experience into a potential online business. It’s the home of my Amazing Niche Master process, which begins with finding a Starting Niche worth pursuing. Because choosing a business shouldn’t begin with somebody handing you a list of supposedly profitable topics.
It should begin with you.
AlchemMyst is where I explore AI Manipulations, the Death of Shadow Work as a modern-day “What’s Wrong With Me” tool. Shadow Work was built in 1916, long before a computer ever started manipulating anyone. It has no way to account for that. The Sovereign War does.
Web3 Rescued explores digital identity, ownership, verification, and the question of who should control our lives online. Who do you trust with your identity? You or your government?
Belonging Day takes things in another direction entirely. It’s an initiative to encourage people to celebrate their local communities, participate in the places they call home, and reconnect with the people around them. The first celebration is planned for August 14, 2027.
And yes, there are more ideas on the drawing board. Some will work. Some will need rethinking. A few may turn out to be spectacular learning experiences.
That’s part of building.
I’m not interested in pretending every experiment is a success. I’m interested in discovering what works, understanding why, and sharing what I learn.
Why Boomer Blogger?
Because I don’t believe our usefulness has an expiration date. Somewhere along the way, society developed this peculiar idea that getting older means gradually becoming less relevant. Your best years are behind you. Technology has passed you by. The opportunities belong to somebody younger.
Nonsense.
Experience is not obsolete. But experience alone isn’t enough, either. The world has changed. The tools have changed. The way businesses operate, people communicate, and opportunities develop has changed.
- We can complain about it.
- We can ignore it.
- Or we can figure out how to use what we know in a world that operates differently.
I prefer the third option.
That doesn’t mean abandoning everything we learned over the past forty years. It means combining that experience with the ability to learn something new. And occasionally laughing at the absurdity of the whole process. Because if you can’t find something funny about being a Boomer trying to keep pace with artificial intelligence, social media algorithms, and software updates that move the buttons every other Tuesday, you’re missing some excellent material.
You Do You
This might be the most important thing I’ve learned. There’s no shortage of people willing to tell you what you should do. What business to start. What software to use. What to believe. Where to invest your time. How to live your life. I’ve got advice and opinions, too.
Plenty of them.
But I don’t believe everyone needs to follow the same path. Your experience is different from mine. Your circumstances are different. Your interests, abilities, responsibilities, and ambitions are your own.
You Do You.
My job here isn’t to tell you who to become. It’s to share what I’ve learned, challenge a few assumptions, introduce opportunities worth examining, and maybe help you see possibilities you hadn’t considered. What you do with those possibilities is your decision. As it should be.
Where Do We Go From Here?
I don’t have a crystal ball. I don’t know exactly what the next decade will look like, and I’m suspicious of anyone who claims they do. But I do know this. The Age of AI is changing the relationship between experience, work, income, creativity, and personal independence. Some of those changes will create opportunities. Others will present challenges we haven’t fully understood yet. And sitting around waiting for somebody else to figure everything out doesn’t strike me as a particularly good plan.
That’s why I’m here.
Still learning. Still experimenting. Still creating. Still questioning things that don’t make sense. And sharing the journey with people who know they’re not finished either. Explore the articles. Challenge an opinion. Follow a project that interests you. Find a direction worth pursuing. You don’t have to agree with everything I say. I’d be disappointed if you did.
You’re Not Done. You’re Just Getting Started.
— Don Dixon, The Boomer Blogger
And if you feel a little unarmed for what’s coming next?
Let’s fix that.