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I Spent My Sabbatical Building a Power Meter for Sledgehammers

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Re: I Spent My Sabbatical Building a Power Meter for Sledgehammers

#11

Post by ramon156 »

markus_zhang wrote: post #7
engineer_22 wrote: post #5

I'm 13 years into my career and I haven't taken more than 5 days off in a row. That's usually a family reunion. I think 4-8 weeks to recharge and reset would be helpful. What's the research say?

Wish I could do that too. But sabbatical is usually reserved for the elite engineers in elite firms.

Work culture is so weird. What do you mean, it's reserved for the elites?

In my country you get to build your holiday days, so I could totally take a month off if I don't take any other days off this year. Hell, we even have a website to perfectly time it here so you get the most bang-for-your-days. lmao.

I will never comprehend this Silicon Valley mindset. You can also be a 10x engineer while drinking a martini in the balkans.

Re: I Spent My Sabbatical Building a Power Meter for Sledgehammers

#12

Post by ilikecakeandpie »

engineer_22 wrote: post #5

I'm 13 years into my career and I haven't taken more than 5 days off in a row. That's usually a family reunion. I think 4-8 weeks to recharge and reset would be helpful. What's the research say?

I'm almost 17 years in and there's been a few times where I had more than 10 days off in a row, and I recently had a four week sabbatical. Anecdotally, it was great and reminded me that retirement has always been the goal.

Re: I Spent My Sabbatical Building a Power Meter for Sledgehammers

#13

Post by wdrw »

ramon156 wrote: post #10

Cool idea, just wondering why you wouldn't travel during a sabbatical. > a paid month off that's not a sabbatical anyway, is it? i thought this was 6-12 months, not one? https://intensity.systems/ is currently unstyled. Post also has some LLM sniffs, so I'm unsure how much of the content is true.

At least in North America (and the author seems to be from Canada), having a company give you any sabbatical at all is pretty rare, and 6+ months is pure fantasy:) And not everyone likes travel, the post actually explains his reasoning pretty well.

Re: I Spent My Sabbatical Building a Power Meter for Sledgehammers

#14

Post by T0Bi »

markus_zhang wrote: post #7
engineer_22 wrote: post #5

I'm 13 years into my career and I haven't taken more than 5 days off in a row. That's usually a family reunion. I think 4-8 weeks to recharge and reset would be helpful. What's the research say?

Wish I could do that too. But sabbatical is usually reserved for the elite engineers in elite firms.

Or Europeans (:

Re: I Spent My Sabbatical Building a Power Meter for Sledgehammers

#15

Post by MisterTea »

ramon156 wrote: post #10

Cool idea, just wondering why you wouldn't travel during a sabbatical. > a paid month off that's not a sabbatical anyway, is it? i thought this was 6-12 months, not one? https://intensity.systems/ is currently unstyled. Post also has some LLM sniffs, so I'm unsure how much of the content is true.

> Cool idea, just wondering why you wouldn't travel during a sabbatical.

That is really none of your business and sounds judgemental. How about we talk about the pollution you contribute when needlessly traveling for ego boosting?

Re: I Spent My Sabbatical Building a Power Meter for Sledgehammers

#16

Post by ilikecakeandpie »

ramon156 wrote: post #11
markus_zhang wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wish I could do that too. But sabbatical is usually reserved for the elite engineers in elite firms.

Work culture is so weird. What do you mean, it's reserved for the elites? In my country you get to build your holiday days, so I could totally take a month off if I don't take any other days off this year. Hell, we even have a website to perfectly time it here so you get the most bang-for-your-days. lmao. I will never comprehend this Silicon Valley mindset. You can also be a 10x engineer while drinking a martini in t…

Lives don't exist in vacuums. If I could uproot my close friends and family and we all moved to the same place then I would, but that's not possible. I'm sure it's the same for a lot of people

Re: I Spent My Sabbatical Building a Power Meter for Sledgehammers

#17

Post by ambicapter »

ilikecakeandpie wrote: post #16
ramon156 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Work culture is so weird. What do you mean, it's reserved for the elites? In my country you get to build your holiday days, so I could totally take a month off if I don't take any other days off this year. Hell, we even have a website to perfectly time it here so you get the most bang-for-your-days. lmao. I will never comprehend this Silicon Valley mindset. You can also be a 10x engineer while drinking a martini in t…

Lives don't exist in vacuums. If I could uproot my close friends and family and we all moved to the same place then I would, but that's not possible. I'm sure it's the same for a lot of people

What does uprooting your friends and family have to do with taking a month off once in your life?

Re: I Spent My Sabbatical Building a Power Meter for Sledgehammers

#18

Post by MisterTea »

wdrw wrote: post #13
ramon156 wrote: post #10

Cool idea, just wondering why you wouldn't travel during a sabbatical. > a paid month off that's not a sabbatical anyway, is it? i thought this was 6-12 months, not one? https://intensity.systems/ is currently unstyled. Post also has some LLM sniffs, so I'm unsure how much of the content is true.

At least in North America (and the author seems to be from Canada), having a company give you any sabbatical at all is pretty rare, and 6+ months is pure fantasy:) And not everyone likes travel, the post actually explains his reasoning pretty well.

> and 6+ months is pure fantasy:)

I've seen this before. Had a vendor become helpless after their only engineer took a 6 month sabbatical. Had to cancel orders and switch vendors because they stated "Until the engineer returns, we can not quote a delivery time." Imagine being that company...

Re: I Spent My Sabbatical Building a Power Meter for Sledgehammers

#19

Post by 0xfaded »

wdrw wrote: post #13
ramon156 wrote: post #10

Cool idea, just wondering why you wouldn't travel during a sabbatical. > a paid month off that's not a sabbatical anyway, is it? i thought this was 6-12 months, not one? https://intensity.systems/ is currently unstyled. Post also has some LLM sniffs, so I'm unsure how much of the content is true.

At least in North America (and the author seems to be from Canada), having a company give you any sabbatical at all is pretty rare, and 6+ months is pure fantasy:) And not everyone likes travel, the post actually explains his reasoning pretty well.

I work in the US and every year I take 17 days off over the July period which works out (with another company holiday) to be 4 continuous weeks. The first year I did it I told my manager "I'm going to take three weeks off, but what do you think about four?". I got my three weeks and made myself indispensable enough to get the four the next year.

This stuff can be negotiable if asked for and planned correctly. It won't be offered.

The Danes do it best, they basically shut down the country for 3 months every summer and have an unspoken agreement that nothing will get done.

Re: I Spent My Sabbatical Building a Power Meter for Sledgehammers

#20

Post by foltik »

_spoke_ wrote: post #6

Is anyone else bothered that this was run through an LLM before publication? The tone is a distraction for me.

yes

All the superficial filler leaves a linkedin flavored taste in my mouth. I’d prefer to hear the author’s own voice and thoughts without noise injected to give the illusion of polish.

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