There are so many nice lectures on AI, Machine learning etc., by Stanford, MIT etc., Have anyone took a break from work ,went home just to study these ? I am thinking about taking a break.How does it feel to be not earning that time ?
Ask HN: Have you taken 6 months to 1 year break to do self study?
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Re: Ask HN: Have you taken 6 months to 1 year break to do self study?
#2> How does it feel to be not earning that time ?
You are earning during this study time, you are earning through a long term investment in yourself.
Re: Ask HN: Have you taken 6 months to 1 year break to do self study?
#3Not in years; supporting family and loving it!
Re: Ask HN: Have you taken 6 months to 1 year break to do self study?
#4Good question. I've done this a couple of times. Self-study can be incredibly useful. Being able to do it within the "distraction" of a full time job can also be extremely rewarding.
I have a very conservative financial point of view in that if I got fired tomorrow I would want to be fine for the next year without working.
This has in the past allowed me to work on my own stuff a couple of times without much worry (although in Australia, lack of health insurance isn't the issue it is in the US).
It's very easy to get distracted and not finish things (at least for me) without the external pressure of someone pushing you to finish. YMMV.
As far as "not earning" goes, these periods of self-improvement are pretty much directly responsible for me getting the great job I have now (at Google) so I'd say it was a worthwhile investment.
Pick something you want to learn. Don't be directionless and say "self-improvement" is your goal. As long as you can reasonably afford to do it.
Re: Ask HN: Have you taken 6 months to 1 year break to do self study?
#5I don't think you'd need to quit or take off for a year, many people have full time jobs and go to school at the same time. You should be able to take these classes at your leisure while maintaining a paycheck. Or you can just quit and focus fully on this for a year.
Re: Ask HN: Have you taken 6 months to 1 year break to do self study?
#6I'm currently doing self education beside my full time job. Did not take time off for self study, but I'd like to if I get chance.
Re: Ask HN: Have you taken 6 months to 1 year break to do self study?
#7How do future employers look at this time of unemployment?
Re: Ask HN: Have you taken 6 months to 1 year break to do self study?
#8Totally worth it. Write open source code, it just might turn out to be the foundation of a career.
Re: Ask HN: Have you taken 6 months to 1 year break to do self study?
#9i took 3 months off at the end of 2010 because my partner was on sabattical in the states and i wanted to travel with her (and can't work their due to visa issues). it was great not working (or more exactly, being able to choose what i did), but i don't think i learnt much more than i would have in, say, 6-9 months of doing stuff on an evening and at weekends. the biggest win was that it brought us closer together (another bonus, more particular to my case, was that living in the usa gave me access to new egg, amazon and adlibris, so i read a pile and built a new machine - mini-itx based - that came back as hand luggage) .
financially i didn't have any worries - i had a pile of savings, a job to return to, and my partner earns enough for us to survive on anyway. one thing i would suggest is talking to your employer about it - while they may be unhappy to have you take time off, it is also likely in their interest to take you back afterwards (assuming you're a decent programmer, which i would guess is the case if you care about learning) (although a year ago the economy was heading down, so it made more sense to give me a break then).
Re: Ask HN: Have you taken 6 months to 1 year break to do self study?
#10It would probably helpful to have a very clear goal with what you want to accomplish. And some way to force yourself to actually sit down and put in the hours. For me, it would be too tempting to have coffee dates all the time, or refresh hacker news every minute.