A little over 2 weeks ago, I left my job to take some personal time off. One of my goals was to use the time to pursue activities that I could no longer find time for as a full-time employee and a parent. One of them was writing. So, here I am.

The decision to give up a steady paycheck is not one I imagine most people who are employed take lightly. I spent the better part of 2024 ruminating on plans, speaking to friends who had done this, and convincing well-wishers and myself that this won’t be catastrophic. One of the challenges was comparing the status quo that is quantifiable like pay and benefits, with a choice that is hard to measure – health and fitness, time with family, learning new skills, for example. Add to that the fear of an uncertain future and of being bored beyond one’s wits, and one can see the draw of being on a payroll. In the end, it took a leap of faith, a very supportive spouse, and the semblance of a plan for me to quit.

I spent the first 2 weeks diligently planning each day out in the morning, with every hour from 9 am to 5 pm accounted for by learning tasks that I wanted to make progress on. As a bit of background, my professional experience is in data science and machine learning, and this space is being transformed by the emergence of large language models (LLMs) at a pace that I had found hard to keep up with while working. I was pleased with the progress I was making with the time that I now have. Yet, it felt a little like jumping from one job to another one that gave me more control on what I want to do, albeit still somewhat of a job. So starting this week, I have started to experiment with ‘unplanned’ days where I drift into activities that are fun and engaging, such as creating this site, and writing this post.

I am back on WordPress after almost 8 years. My prior blog continues to exist here where I wrote about the books I read and some creative stuff. I intend for this one to be my professional presence on the web, though as with my time, I am likely to drift into unplanned territory. Or perhaps I am being foolishly optimistic and this post may end up being the start and end of my writing expedition. Did I mention a leap of faith?