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I’m going to miss you, but I am taking a sabbatical

kottke.org

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Re: I’m going to miss you, but I am taking a sabbatical

#81

Post by nightski »

mgkimsal wrote: post #55
the_lonely_road wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can buy your own insurance policy. You only chose to use your company provided insurance because they pay for half of it and no rational person takes on a large expense for no reason. If you can afford to take six months off and travel to Europe you can afford to pay full rate for insurance for 6 months while you do it and they go back to a half priced company policy when you get back.

They may pay half, or most, or all, or none. OP didn't say explicitly? But... you may not be able to get your own with any tax benefits if your company offers something and you choose not to take it. That's my understanding anyway. And... health insurance is just totally hosed in the US, with regulations like that on the books. Take employers out of the equation. Let everyone buy their own, and/or, institute some bas…

For a family yes it gets crazy. But as a self employed mid-thirties person it wasn't too terrible. $300/mo, $1,500 deductible, etc.. Yes expensive, but doable for someone determined enough.

Re: I’m going to miss you, but I am taking a sabbatical

#83

Post by kingnothing »

I took a 6 month sabbatical and am just now interviewing for work again. It's been one of the best decisions of my career and I would highly recommend everyone who can to save up and make it happen for themselves. I worked for over a decade before feeling burnt out and realizing I needed to make a change. Fortunately I'd been saving for this for quite a while, knowing I'd want to do it eventually. It's been amazing to have time to myself to ponder what I want out of the rest of my work life, enjoy hikes in the middle of the week, work on a side project, level up my cooking game, and spend time with friends and family without regard for having to return to work at the end of several week long vacations. I'm eager to get back to work and am already looking forward to my next sabbatical and how it will affect my future self. Live a little leaner, save up, and take some time for yourself. We don't have much of it.

Here's a relevant TED talk I found to be inspiring: https://www.ted.com/talks/stefan_sagmeister_the_power_of_tim...

Re: I’m going to miss you, but I am taking a sabbatical

#84

Post by mkr-hn »

dahfizz wrote: post #75
reggieband wrote: post #62

I watch a lot of YouTube and a fair amount of Twitch. Sooner or later every creator talks a bit about their anxiety working in that content creator grind. On Twitch, taking a day off may mean losing hundreds of subscribers. Streamers are cautious about taking bathroom breaks since they can lose thousands of viewers during a short break. YouTube ruthlessly punishes creators that don't upload on a consistent schedule.…

If you're a streamer large enough to be receiving hundreds of subs a day, and so many viewers you could lose thousands during a bathroom break, you're a multi millionaire. It's hard for me to be sympathetic about how stressful their job is when they could retire comfortably at any point.

They always have staff they pay with that money. It doesn't all flow into their pockets. It's very hard to reach that scale on your own.

Re: I’m going to miss you, but I am taking a sabbatical

#85

Post by prox »

reggieband wrote: post #62

I watch a lot of YouTube and a fair amount of Twitch. Sooner or later every creator talks a bit about their anxiety working in that content creator grind. On Twitch, taking a day off may mean losing hundreds of subscribers. Streamers are cautious about taking bathroom breaks since they can lose thousands of viewers during a short break. YouTube ruthlessly punishes creators that don't upload on a consistent schedule.…

Sovietwomble has had a stable following (and even growing) for years. He doesn’t always stream, but yet he is very consistent in his timetable. He hardly loses many people when he doesn’t stream for a while. The guy never goes on holiday though, but not because he fears losing subs.

Perhaps it depends on what kind of content creator we are talking about. Is it the shock and awe / latest greatest / hype train type of content?

Re: I’m going to miss you, but I am taking a sabbatical

#86

Post by thefaux »

MontyCarloHall wrote: post #56
santoshalper wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really feel like you're reading too much into the term "burned out". You can get sick of doing anything and lose the spark. I've never managed to do anything consistently for half as long as he's run his blog. It's kind of amazing to me he lasted this long. I just get the sense that his interest in it is waning, and he doesn't want to just "check the box" every day. It's his right. Just because some people live in…

I agree with everything you wrote. This is the crux of my annoyance: >I'm curious, would it have bothered you as much if he'd just said: "I'm sick of this blog and I'm quitting it?" because that's basically what he did, except he promised to come back (I wonder if he'll regret that promise in six months). Yes, this is exactly how he should have phrased it. "Burnt out" is a very strong term that refers to a state of e…

You sound burned out.

Re: I’m going to miss you, but I am taking a sabbatical

#87

Post by ryantgtg »

thecrumb wrote: post #43

Must be wonderful to actually have the luxury to step away... I'm living the American dream - to work a non-rewarding job for no other reason other than health insurance. How do people manage these sabbaticals? Are they just wealthy enough so they don't need income?

Kottke has a paid membership system, and in the post he notes he’s not closing it down and doesn’t expect _everyone_ to cancel their sub.

Re: I’m going to miss you, but I am taking a sabbatical

#88

Post by askonomm »

giraffe_lady wrote: post #78
tylergetsay wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If a knowledgeable person on your team is burnt out and considering a new job, a long (paid) vacation can be advantageous for all.

I'm sure it would be but I've never heard of that happening. I once went to my manager saying I was worried about burning out bc of pushing so hard on a project with a legal deadline. Asked him to consider/look into options for me to take a month off unpaid at the end of it. He said he'd talk to leadership about it and get back to me. I got fired the next day.

This is where I would have lawyered up. I don't know where this happened to you, but over in Europe I'm pretty sure this is illegal and I'd be gunning for some sweet, sweet money.

Re: I’m going to miss you, but I am taking a sabbatical

#89

Post by kajecounterhack »

judofyr wrote: post #52
kajecounterhack wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not saying curation is the world's hardest job but stakes are a bit different when you've become popular enough to make a living off of it. It's like being a Youtuber -- folks donate to you because you add value to their lives via your content. Even if generating links and paragraphs seems low-effort to you, to do it well every day for 24 years you can't shut off your consumption of media and you need to stay in…

I think people react here because of the term “burn out”. It’s usually used when you’ve been under high stress for a longer period and you completely collapse and is unable to do any work. Losing motivation for a project and moving over to new things is very different from a burn out.

> I think people react here because of the term “burn out”. It’s usually used when you’ve been under high stress for a longer period and you completely collapse and is unable to do any work.

Yeah you're probably right, though it's so annoying when people can't contextualize the usage of terms like "burn out" -- what's "high stress" or "a longer period?" Isn't that subjective?

> Losing motivation for a project and moving over to new things is very different from a burn out.

Is it though? I googled "burnout" and got "Burnout is a form of exhaustion caused by constantly feeling swamped." If someone says the reason they are taking a break is because they are burned out, who is anyone to say that's not what they're experiencing?

If you've heard of Chinese water torture, it's one little drop at a time over a long period of time -- seems entirely plausible that 24 years of being in non-stop curation mode could make someone feel exhausted and constantly swamped.

Re: I’m going to miss you, but I am taking a sabbatical

#90

Post by munificent »

MontyCarloHall wrote: post #66
munificent wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The emotional experience of an activity is 10% the activity itself and 90% the framing around the activity and what it means for your life. It's not the surfing and posting links. It's the knowing if I don't surf and post sufficiently interesting links every day, I can't afford my health insurance. The stakes are much higher in the latter.

>[K]nowing if I don't , I can't afford my " is true for literally everyone except the independently wealthy. It is a lot easier to not stress over for someone for whom "the activity itself" is a non-demanding job, than for someone whose job is inherently extremely emotionally or physically draining. As an extreme example, suppose my parents bestowed on me a trust fund. It affords me a monthly allowance that lets me l…

Yes, and that's why jobs are more stressful than hobbies even when the activity is the same. I think you're just restating my point?

The parent comment was, essentially, "Why is doing X stressful for Kottke who does it for work when I do X for fun and don't find it stressful at all?" And the answer is... Kottke does it for work and you do it for fun.

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