Ask HN: Anyone doing some absurd stuff after getting laid off?

I've since found a new perspective that's helped me transform my identity and self-esteem through therapy and journaling about my experience/thoughts. I still have negative thoughts, but I see them as independent things to observe and not part of my core self.

This is your story to write and other people's opinions are just that their opinions which is "none of your business". The layoff is not a reflection of you. You are worth it and things will get better.

Temporarily!

I got divorced about a year and a half ago. I’m 32 - for what it’s worth. In June, I left my job and SF. Put all my stuff in storage and went to the east coast for a month then went to Europe for 3 months. After all that, I committed to getting a six month lease on an apartment in Manhattan. Been here since November.

I haven’t worked at all. Maybe done a total of 20 leetcode problems but I spend way more time reading about layoffs and hiring freezes than interview prep. Mostly have spent my time at the gym, Broadway shows, meeting new people, and watching a lot of content online. I go out social dancing 5x/week and to the gym about the same amount. I’m trying to get better at yoga and getting a v-taper at the weights. I’d go out more but it’s hard to find the dances on some nights. (Sunday’s and Monday’s are particularly slow in nyc)

The absurd part is that I’ve done all of this in hopes of meeting a fantastic woman and seducing her to come to SFBA where I can start a family, build a house in the Santa Cruz mountains, and enjoy the region.

It is quite absurd - mainly cause it has no chance in hell of working but it wasn’t going to work in SF either. We’ll see where I end up moving next - too ugly and too much melanin for Manhattan.

For the cool stuff, I'm thinking of picking a project/skill each week and devoting a full week to that, to see if I enjoy it and can get any mental traction. Becoming more proficient with pure C has been a lot of fun, so I'll definitely push forward on that. I have a couple of Pico-8 projects to work on. There's any number of opaque or classical technologies that I'd like to understand more deeply. I'll enter a game-jam, just to keep myself on a proper schedule with a proper deadline. There are a lot of books I want to read.

At some point though I'll need to collect my thoughts and start looking for the next thing. I have recruiters already knocking on my door, and the company will pay for 6 months of job agency assistance. But to tell the truth, I just can't see myself jumping back into software engineering as a full-time career so I don't yet know how best to utilize these resources. Sorting myself out is a critical goal for the coming months.

"What do I want to be when I grow up?" is almost as difficult to answer at 51 as it was at 18.

So now I'm also settling thoughts on my next lifestyle business kind of project, something I kept in mind, though with those AI improvements these days it might get a new flavor