I glad it worked out for the author but so far it hasn't worked out for me. It's been 5 years which wasn't my plan. I thought it would be 6 months until I figured out what I want to do. Things that happened.<p>Travelled: found it mostly extremely lonely to travel alone. Got sick of seeing the same things (this place's contemporary art museum, that place's famous church). Of course I saw some amazing things but I now think I agree with some happiness researcher who claims travel is best in short < 1 week bursts every few months.<p>Worked on personal projects. I do get some feeling of accomplishment but mostly I just feel lonely and isolated. At good jobs I had the camaraderie of close co-workers who became close friends and we really collaborated. I tried hanging out at cafes and coffee shops and that's better than staying home but not all that less isolating. The random people that show up are not people I talk to or become close to.<p>I don't feel "free" at all. I'm sure it's partly in my mind. I might also be age differences. I'm older and need to think about retirement I realize I can't just make any random decision because there isn't time to correct. I tell myself I don't feel free because I don't have enough money to never work again. I do have to do something that earns significant income (enough to retire in 10-12 years). If I did have enough to retire maybe I'd still not feel free like not having enough to do X where X is whatever (fund that project, whatever...) though maybe I'd feel free to do things and never worry about income (volunteer for various things?). Now I don't volunteer because that's not going to help me earn money to retire. I'm not sure I'd volunteer or not.<p>I'm pretty much completely lost at this point. No idea what I want to do anymore. I waste my days reading HN and browsing the net and working on personal projects that have no future prospects and answering questions on SO. I go to a meet up or 2 a week and that's about it.
Once you finally break free of the office/corporate mentality, suddenly the world opens up. The possibilities are so vast (but not all possibilities mean income).<p>Breaking free from the golden handcuffs (or in my case, aluminum handcuffs), you start to realize that high income and lots of stuff really doesn't matter as much as experiences. And then you might even consider doing work that doesn't leverage your brain and career experience. That's actually freeing, because it means you're allowed to go do a manual labor job for a week if you want to. You stop comparing effective hourly rates (which usually suck you back into a corporate or consulting world).<p>I envy the people who are born into entrepreneurial families. They may or may not go to college, but they usually do not start with the idea of "I go learn X in school so I can get a high paying job doing X". Instead, they seem more likely to seize opportunities with an expectation of success rather than a pessimistic view of cost/benefit. They will surely have more thin times, but they also have much greater chance of both hitting it big (selling a company) as well as actually filling their years with interesting experiences.
Kudos to Michael for keeping busy with projects.<p>I quit my job 6 months ago. Gave myself 6 months to see if I would descend into complacent procrastination, and if so - I'd find another job.
Having no job, but enough saving to rely on, has been a blessing. I've learned so many things from creative writing to deep learning, wrote a lot of personal essays, biked for 500miles, and did some side projects. Having one unsuccessful attempt at a startup convinced me that this is a much preferable route to getting back to salaried employment. The learning is a lot more, and there is a higher potential for payoff.
The hardest thing is just finding routine. Freedom via constraints is a great thing. Once I started to plan out my entire day (and then week), my productivity skyrocketed.
I liked reading this blog post and found it interesting as this is something I'm looking to do eventually.<p>Also, is it only me that have such a boring life? or normal people don't have that issue to have too many emails/notifications to respond to? How many people contact you, seriously?<p>But I have a mini-rant about all those blog-posts with subjects such as "Why I decided to quit Google", or "Why I'm leaving for a startup after being a boss at Facebook for X years".<p>Those blog post usually always reiterate that the "Smartest people in the world" work at those companies and that it is the "Best job in the world". Sometimes a little bit less arrogance and namedropping would be a good thing.
Knew I recognized this guy from the greenPi post he made. I'm a sucker for posts about raspberry pi task automation.<p>If anything he is extremely good at getting some buzz around things he is working on and deriving value from having worked at Google.
This guy seems to have a lot of freedom to experiment. I am considering doing the same, but knuckle down on a single idea, born from identifying a real problem people are willing to pay for (enough to make a living).
I'm so happy for you and glad you've made the choice to go indie. I usually find it difficult to prioritize amongst all the inspiring things!