I recently left my found-to-give startup and find myself wonderfully free—for the first time in my career, really (whenever I’ve left a position I’ve always had the next one lined up). It was a long and stressful few years so I’m grateful to have a break.
I don’t have a specific timeline for how long I’ll be on sabbatical. Of course travel and career exploration is on the cards and what’s consuming most of my time—but interested to hear how people think one should spend a few months with no commitments!
I can start by giving my own answer to this (things I might do with my time):
travel widely and without real goals/timelines (e.g. Interrailing without too many pre-defined stops, just go where your heart takes you and if you like a place then stay longer)
perhaps directed a little towards where I have friends, where there are EA hubs that are likely to provide fruitful social interactions
do Pieter Levels’ 12 startups in 12 months (maybe with Claude Code this could be 12 startups in 12 weeks, who knows) - spend some time building side projects for the sake of it
these could either be money-making or EA-focused, or just fun
my last startup was found-to-give so making money is still a motivation, although I feel less called to the grind these days
do a silent meditation retreat, and build a daily meditation habit
fix health problems (mental and physical) - spend money and time on this
explore living somewhere new—spend a month in the Bay, Berlin, other cities I’d like to live
write regularly—I looked into doing Inkhaven and am going to run a free online version of it for the month of November