Books read is a vanity metric, a signal for intellect, but a weak one. 

What you really want is freedom. Retirement = freedom from your money problems. There are 3 ways:

The biggest mistake in learning is memorization. When living life you want to have a deep understanding of what you're doing and why you're doing it and how it works, from first-principles.

Contracts are very powerful. We humans make contracts with others but we do make contracts with ourselves. Desire is a contract you make with yourself to be unhappy until you get what you want.

You have one life. We tend to define people by a few narrow identities, but humans are broader then that. 

… the idea of the state providing a monthly pay-check to all citizens, is seen as the panacea for work displacement caused by automation. But it’s a non-solution to a non-problem.

People want freedom. But if someone has to tell you when to show up at work, how to behave, then you are not a free person. It's how things have been in the industrial age. 

… is

It's all going on in your head. Whatever you think you believe will very much shape your reality. The world reflects your own feelings back at you.

The question of meaning of life is more interesting that the answer. The answer basically is "because". 

We used to think that our effort correlates linearly with our outcomes. The more effort we put in the greater the results. But now e live in an infinite leverage world, where your actions can be multiplied a thousand fold. By technology, good thought, good writing, writing code, etc.

…and Happiness is Peace in motion.

All people want to be rich, healthy (which in modern times means being fit) and happy. Most people focus on being rich alone. But you don't want to be rich and live a life that is high-strung high-stress where you leave emotional wreckage behind you and your family.

1. When you get people to vote themselves money, that is a slippery slope into socialism, and that one has its issues for those that paid attention to history.
2. If I give you money, I made you a second-class dependent citizen. That makes them feel miserable.
3. UBI is...

People who talk about Artificial Intelligence (AI) automating programming have never written serious code. The AI performance is blown out of proportion, it won't achieve general level in our lifetime.