Starting at the beginning...

Figured I'd start by explaining what I'm actually doing while on my "break" (on a "normal" day), and we can work backwards from there. I still have not figured out how basic camera technology works but we will get there someday.

This is the music theory book I'm enjoying: "Music Theory and Composition: A Practical Approach" by Stephen C. Stone

[adrianhayden]

Finishing college now, remember watching you in middle school. Couldn't comment earlier because I was at work. I'm really enjoying watching you - truthfully, I admire your introspection and self growth. Looking forward to seeing what you do in the future. Keeping my eyes and ears open for those stories and career advice :)

[JochemKuijpers]

Good to hear you're working on what's most important (yourself). All those years ago you were one of the several forces pulling me towards game dev, I've now helped ship a major title and working towards the next one. I hope that illustrates the value of what you're doing with your channel, whichever direction that ends up being (if any), I'm definitely here for it 😄

It sounds like you've gained quite some valuable experiences in the last several years, I'm definitely curious to hear more, as I'm quite interested in posture/stress management and mindfulness as a means to improve my mental and physical health.

This video feels like catching up with an old acquaintance (even though this is very much a one-sided thing, I know!). Perhaps this question worthy of a video on its own, but feel free to ignore if you don't want to answer this question: Do you experience your departure from working in tech as a 'burnout' and are you experiencing this as a recovery, or did you change lifestyle to try and prevent a burnout? Did you see (or miss) early warning signals that others could look out for?

Thanks for the content, it's nice to see this name pop up in my subscriptions again 🙂
Hope you continue to do well, whether you continue posting videos or not!

[balorprice]

Two posts in two days! We're being spoiled. I love hearing about how you're approaching your life

[jordanmotta]

youtube didn't notify me the previous video :(. I am really happy to seeing you back. The way you explained the videos was really helpful because at that moment my english skill was really basic but I was still able to understand you. Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us and I wish you the best in your life. Take care.

[NizarElZarif]

I subscribed to your channel a long time ago to learn some programming practices, but these kind of videos are so authentic and genuine. they are always interesting and relaxing to watch. Thank you for sharing.

[Chris_Donovan]

Discussing mental and physical health, and how they are related to career and chores is an important topic. I have two extra comments. Your indecision sounds like how my highly capable friend describes his ADHD. Also, when I was in school for Therapeutic Recreation I did a presentation on The Sims. Strangely enough, the game portion of The Sims, which is based on Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, captures the core challenges of modern life.

[TheVideogamemaster]

I've built my life around my anxious depression and lack of desire to get out of bed. I literally don't leave my house ever, besides taking out my garbage. I work from home and get my groceries delivered. I'm not burdened by friends/family/relationships, and have no responsibilities at all. I even sold my vehicle because it was causing too much stress in my life with the deadlines for renewals all the time.

[TomSweeney-ovqs]

It's delightful to see these check ins at different points in your life. As much as I love watching your videos, I wouldn't be sad at all if you decided to wait another 5 years for another update. It's just great that you're doing what's right for you! It's nice to see someone on youtube who seems to be going through similar things that I am.

[papayacatproductions]

Woah. That "what is the best thing to do right now that will forward my overall life" hit home hard. It does feel like an artificial, self-applied structure that's pretty overwhelming, but I've never connected it to OCD. Gonna be chewing on that for awhile heh...

[jextra]

It's really nice to hear you explain your thoughts. I think I like watching you because you have very similar mental patterns to me and it's fairly rare (for me) to find someone like that. One of my issues is I can't find the 'perfect' career, and every time I go down a new path, the 'grass is greener' effect shows up. I'm just interested in too many things and have a negativity bias.

Enough about me, I think it is great that you're taking a break from tech and embracing the outside world. If you're concerned about your energy, a blood test is very useful. I was chronically sick and tired. Turns out I was low in a lot of nutrients due to eating depression food. The blood test gave me a wake-up call.

[martixy]

The life you describe, having a porch to sit on and relax, your own home, a partner to spend time with you, a garden out back, having the ability to take a break, that's very privileged. For many people even one of those are goals to work towards and I know I'd spend some time just being happy and mindful of those.

[magei]

Thanks for sharing! I see myself in a very similar situation. On a break after burning out from my it "career", similar problems with back and shoulder from bad desk habits, learning to listen to my body and feelings rather than letting the mind run the entire thing. Just existing and doing daily chores easily take up my days as well, hard to imagine myself back in a regular job, but even though it may sound like being stuck I strangely enough feel like I'm living life genuinely and I'm happy in that.

[CTenma]

Thank you for sharing, it helps being reminded that sometimes even the most mundane day to day things can be super hard for others too.

[kulkalkul]

I recall watching several of your old videos and subscribing ~2 years ago. I only got time to check out the first minute. Happy to see you are living a peaceful life out there!

[gustavohqueiroz]

Thanks for sharing :) Looking forward for the next video!

[BiijiiTheGamer]

I took an 8 month break from software dev last year and went in with the exact same expectation of becoming ultra-productive now that I had the freedom to work on whatever I wanted. Turns out that just because I chose my work doesn't mean I could magically work for 12 hours a day with no stress.. I had to cut down the amount of productive time per day to 0 for awhile to finally turn the volume of the "I should be working" thoughts down to like 25%. Then I could slowly build up the ability to work without melting my brain. The things that helped most were pretty simple, like sitting in my chair with upright but relaxed posture so I'm not a tensed-up ball 6 inches away from my monitor, having the mindfulness to notice when I'm mentally drilling down into something that's just taxing my brain and causing me to spin in circles, and allowing my curiosity to take me on little tangents during work. Also I started taking weightlifting more seriously which was my fix for the geek posture you've been fixing with yoga lol.

I realized that with complete freedom I was on average only 1.5x as productive on non-career things I cared about, so now I'm not as frustrated being "stuck" working full-time. Nowadays I approach work kind of like yoga where instead of pushing myself beyond my limits, I try to do as much as I can while remaining calm. I don't regret taking my break at all, and it sounds like you're benefitting from yours as well so hope it continues to go well.

[benrex]

Listening to you makes me thankful for the life I have. Even though I have my own problems _(for example YouTube addiction and low discipline, especially when it comes to my free time), _ I have a healthy body and a healthy mind and I feel happy all the time. Listening to you also helps me get to know what types of struggles people other than me have.

Since this is a rambly topic I bring in one thought I had when I listened to your video. One reason why I don't like having pets is because they are often a human relationship replacement. I'm aware that you use the animals as a therapy and a place of learning. But I would love to have children at some point. And the way you describe your effort into "raising" your pets sounds like you will be occupied by them until the day you are no longer capable of having children. That's why I would only want to have a pet after having children. Taking the time to grow and be an as perfect partner/parent as possible is great. So I can understand that some people say, they want to wait until everything about them is perfect until they get children. But the very same argument can be made about waiting to be in a relationship. Or about caring for a pet. Some things have to be learned by doing it and some things have a time limit in which we can actually do it.

[Bibibosh]

I've been a subscriber for a long time
And these kind of videos make me enjoy your channel once more! Amazing Content! Better than some of the most so called "influential" channel on YouTube.

Don't ever stop doing what you love, even if no ones there to see it. Eventually the whole world will agree with you and that's all that matters! Your awesome!

[noidea]

Man, I thought I left a comment on your last video but it didn't actually post lol. Anyway, happy to have you back, you helped me deal with a lot of the non-technical challenges of being a software dev. Some video ideas i would personally be interested are retrospectives on places you worked at (not sure if that's this video - haven't finished it), exploring the potential dark side of being goal oriented and depending on external rewards for happiness, and I think the last one wasn't a video per say but seeing you stream creating a video game from concept to implementation and eventual release would be really cool :)

[ruslanvafin]

Thanks for sharing some of your problems. I relate to shoulder and yoga stuff, but also that thinking about what should I do next to not waste the day - its nice to simply know that you're not alone with those problems