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Ask HN: What would you do if you had the summer off as a technologist?

by thesurlydev on 6/8/23, 3:52 PM with 45 comments

• by cik on 6/8/23, 6:43 PM

  I'd lean into my love affair with nature. I'd walk, in random places, at different times of day, and experience more of the beauty of a first at dawn, and in the middle of the night.

  This is already one of my favourite things in life.

• by mindcrime on 6/8/23, 4:20 PM

  What would you do if you had the summer off as a technologist?

  AI. I think we're getting to the point where we've seen just enough progress with contemporary AI systems, to think that the "knee of the curve" is close, and that within a few years "everything is going to change." I'm at a point with this to where I mostly think that working on anything other than AI is probably a waste of time.

  Of course in my case AI has been one of my top interests for the last 30 years anyway, so this isn't some big swerve for me. But it motivates me to "lean in" to AI research as fully as I can, and to focus on AI applications, integration, etc.

  OK, so saying "working on anything other than AI is probably a waste of time" may be a little bit of hyperbole, but I definitely see it being pretty damn important. That said, if I was going to carve out some time to study anything other than AI, for me it would probably be biochemistry, bioengineering, nanotechnology, or electronics / hardware stuff.

• by dv_dt on 6/8/23, 5:24 PM

  Finding a not tech-primary domain to work or learn about. Understanding the problems and work of domains that currently don't use modern tech is where potential tech based solutions could offer improvements (of course the possibility is that there may not be a need for more tech in a particular domain).

• by DirectorKrennic on 6/8/23, 3:57 PM

  Unplug my brain and travel to a faraway place like New Zealand or the Azores.

• by dyingkneepad on 6/8/23, 5:25 PM

  Take care of my kids during the day so my wife can finish writing (and publishing) her books.

• by cratermoon on 6/8/23, 7:31 PM

  In April 2021 I did about the same thing you are doing. I was burnt out. I no longer liked my job, I was a bit stir-crazy from WFH and not going to social gatherings because of the pandemic. I decided to take a sabbatical. In my case, a full year. I had high hopes that the incidence of COVID would fall faster than it did, so I wasn't able to do everything that I wanted.

  Still, you asked what I did. I read, a lot, and deeply. I wrote tens of thousands of words about what I read and did. I guess you could say I went into myself.

  I did manage to do a little road tripping, carefully, avoiding crowded tourist venues and mostly seeing the country.

  I did a lot of photography, my hobby-job.

• by VoodooJuJu on 6/8/23, 5:13 PM

  Pursue things that actually possess art or soul - gardening, woodworking, masonry, baking, reading old Latin books, reciting old Cumbrian poetry, writing poetry, walk in the woods. Maybe play some vidya, maybe create some vidya.

• by ilaksh on 6/9/23, 1:11 AM

  For me, same as always: try to bootstrap a startup.

  Right now GPT and Stable Diffusion are very popular and there are many potential new businesses.

  My suggestion is to be very careful which GPT you use though. There are a lot of inferior ones out there.

• by giaour on 6/8/23, 5:25 PM

  Rent a beach house, bring a bunch of books, and host friends on vacation.

• by stcroixx on 6/8/23, 6:51 PM

  Fishing. Every day if I could. Paddle boarding. Mountain biking. So many other things. I’d easily be able to fill my days for the rest of my life if I didn’t have to earn money.

• by 83 on 6/8/23, 9:10 PM

  Make things - welding, woodworking, fiberglassing, etc. Maybe even make a website documenting things I'm making to assist others (and show off a little).

• by austin-cheney on 6/9/23, 12:30 AM

  I am taking the time to complete my next professional military education course for 3 months. I will regain my CISSP and consider changing careers.

• by baremetal on 6/8/23, 6:45 PM

  I learned carpentry and gardening.

  Very grounding. Still requires mental acuity but gives you the opportunity to use different parts of your brain, and it rounds you out as a person.

  Very grounding and it has been good for my mental (and physical!) health too.

• by nicbou on 6/9/23, 1:39 AM

  Go do stuff that is not computer-related, or use computers to make things happen in the real world. "A person's primary task should not be computing, but being human."

• by trillic on 6/8/23, 7:10 PM

  Sail. Race and Cruise. Solo, double-handed, and with Crew.

• by penjelly on 6/8/23, 8:32 PM

  wow almost every post so far is about unplugging. I expected to see more about AI or AR, seeing people taking care of their health is refreshing

• by markus_zhang on 6/8/23, 4:23 PM

  Just rest. Play some Doom, Quake and maybe Blood. Learn some basic camping skills and camp a few times with family. Maybe visit some friends too.

• by mayormcmatt on 6/8/23, 8:24 PM

  Hike as much of the Sierras as is humanly possible. Not the PCT, but as many trails as I could up and down, East and West, whatever.

• by giantg2 on 6/8/23, 4:52 PM

  Work on non-tech projects. Work on personal tech projects. Work in the garden. Go fishing. Work on personal fitness.

• by bafe on 6/8/23, 8:22 PM

  Improve my running, grow more plants and work on personal SDR projects

• by nathants on 6/8/23, 10:36 PM

  congrats on the extended vacation! this should be common behavior, and is not.

  take the summer and chill, without any guidelines or expectations. this may feel weird at first. creativity is the residue of time wasted.

  then do some more structured and ambitious adventuring in the fall. if that feels annoying, continue to chill.

  in winter, start thinking about which kind of people you’re interested in working for, and try to figure out where they are and how to reach them.

  tldr; summer is just the beginning!

  wrt to technical topics to mess around with, follow your own curiosities. for me it’s gamedev, ops/infra, and data/secrets management.

  it looks like you’re interested in rust. in case you haven’t seen it, checkout #showcase in bevy’s discord server. lots of people posting cool stuff in there.

• by david2ndaccount on 6/8/23, 7:40 PM

  Pacific Crest Trail.

• by wanderingmind on 6/8/23, 8:23 PM

  Train for a triathlon and maybe complete one.

• by local_crmdgeon on 6/8/23, 7:18 PM

  Smoke weed, get yoked.

• by jeremy_k on 6/8/23, 9:28 PM

  Play a lot of golf

• by slmjkdbtl on 6/9/23, 12:07 AM

  play my saxophone 8 hours a day