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2025 was supposed to be my year. Instead, I panicked
In my last post, written in late October, I was contemplating the last six months of my year off and feeling pretty good. Three months later, I would be in full blown panic mode trying to find work and abandoning my dream of starting a business. What the heck happened? The discomfort of no security…
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I’m halfway through my gap year. What now?
Time is both flying by and moving slowly. It feels like I should be completely through my gap year, yet I’m only halfway done! So I thought I’d come here today and give you a quick update on my progress so far. I’m happy with my first six months It wasn’t the easiest of things…
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Letting Go to See What Comes Back
I was chatting with the director of the migrant shelter where I volunteer a few weeks ago. She wanted to hire me, but I really didn’t feel comfortable with that. Why would I say no to free money? I kept wondering why I wouldn’t want to earn $15 per hour for work I was doing…
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I read a book about finding meaning at work
I recently read this book called, roughly translated, Giving Back Meaning to Work: a revolutionary approach. The main gist of the book is that most jobs are bullshit jobs. Yes, the French authors of the book actually used this English term. They even used expressions like “the bullshit-ization of work.” The book is divided into…
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Falling off the wagon is easy
Shortly after starting my year off, I implemented a routine where I would work on my project to research and write a book about happiness at work. I spent a few hours every day reading, taking notes, and writing my thoughts here, on this blog. And when I wasn’t doing this, I was instead taking…
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I read a book about happiness
One of my gap year projects is to do write a book on the theme of happiness from the point of view of a software engineer. I admit that I’m not quite sure I’ll be able to write the book during this break, however. Most books take a few years to write, and authors spend…
My Gap Year
A journey of rediscovery after twenty years of software development and management
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@lsalin
This is how it all started…
I took the plunge and decided to quit my job, except that this time I didn’t have another job lined up. I just left and decided to take a year off and rediscover who am I and what I really want to do for a living because what I’ve been doing these past few years has been draining my batteries empty. I realize the immense privilege that I have to even be able to do this and I am grateful for all the opportunities that I have had in the past that have led me to this moment, and for the support of my family as they tolerate me while I search for my true self, staying at home all day!
What will I do during my year off? This is a question that I’m asked a lot and I think I have an answer. Well, kind of. Stick around as I explain everything during my year off and see where this road takes me. Will I come out of this a new person? Will I go back to software engineering in my late forties? Will I bite the bullet and go back to management? Or will I decide that now is a great time to start a new business? Only time will tell, but at least you won’t have to wait that long to find out… I only have 49 weeks left as I write this!
Louis Salin
Entrepreneur, software engineer and manager