See, I'm a total math nerd--investing is like catnip to me. I recognize that this makes me an outlier, particularly among women. 3 of our 4 kids prefer passive investing--we're fine with it. My DH is less math-nerdy than I am, but he has particular stocks that he likes (some are sentimental favorites, inherited from his folks--luckily, my IL's were big on blue-chip stocks).
We're also outliers due to the pensions. Ironically, the time we need more money isn't in retirement, but right now. We have 3 kids in college in some form (one full-time, one part-time, one doing dual enrollment), with very little financial aid. Even the "aid" that the full-time student gets is for her to live on campus, which we endorse anyway, but it ends up costing us more versus her living at home. So, we're actually withdrawing a monthly stipend from DH's IRAs now (he's 60), because we can use the money now. We still have more than enough to fund a comfortable retirement. Plus, the "kid problem" should resolve itself in 5 years or so. We're also concerned about the tax hit when we have to take RMDs in our own right (right now, DH just has RMDs from inherited IRAs).
Like I said, we're in kind of a weird situation, one that never seems to get talked about in retirement articles. I think it's fortunate that we're interested and involved in our investing, because we can't just take some guru's word on what's best in our case.