So you quit your job. What’s next?

I recently quit my job at AT&T in El Segundo working on the DirectvNow platform to do – well I’m not quite sure – something else. I knew I wanted to leave, so I did.

At first it was just going to be leave. I’d come back after some time and probably move laterally to some other organization. At the time I was reading ‘Surely you’re joking Mr. Feynman!’ and became enamored with this idea of continually learning. About being adventurous and hungry for knowledge, just for knowledge’s sake. To be perpetually inquisitive about whatever.

I went back home for a little vacation and one of the first things I did was get all my college books from my parents attic. I hadn’t ever shipped them to LA because they didn’t really apply to my job, so I never needed them.

So I get them down and start flipping through one about computer architecture that I’d always liked. I’m rusty of course, so I start with the beginning and try my hand at some of the problem solving questions in the back of the first or second chapter. You know, just for kicks.

And that was it, I was hooked again. The problems where fairly simple, but the act of trying to figure it out was exhilarating. I couldn’t remember any of it, but I’d learned this trick in college during I think a physics exam because I didn’t remember a particular formula. The realization was this; they always give you enough information, so just make the units work out to what they want. And boom! that’s it. Just use the logic of unit manipulation.

I digress, but I have to quickly say this other point about that experience. The book laid out some absolutely horrid formula for figuring out a translation between MIPS and instruction counts and average cycle times, when the actual relationship between them all is much simpler. I did, however, benefit from this poor explanation because I had to essentially reason it all out for myself to solve the problem.

So I thought, maybe I don’t need to go back to LA. Maybe, I’m being short sighted. Because the world – and not just software world – is huge. When I’d quit I told someone ‘Look, you [AT&T] are competing against everyone for me. And now with blogs and OSS and even glassdoor I can see what they’re up to.’

You’re not just competing with other companies to get customers, you’re also competing with other companies to get employees.

More often than not, this competition is across sectors. Especially in software where most skills are almost completely transferable. Unless you’ve pigeon-holed yourself in some way, there are a lot of jobs out there.

As I think now, I would say that perhaps even software development itself is a type of pigeon hole. The world of science is much larger than just computer science. And in that spirit – even though I couldn’t articulate it at the time – I decided to not go back to work in LA and maybe go get a graduate degree or two.

It just takes one step. Just don’t get on the plane.
The another, just email your boss.
It’s a simple as that to take a completely different direction.

I canceled the flight back and just stayed in Ohio. OK, it was through the holidays so it just made sense to stay. My lease is up soon, so I’ll go back; collect my things and that’s that.

And the time off has been incredible! Especially just to sit, read and I think most importantly, reflect. Bought some Rasberri Pis, started looking into game development. Heard about some ‘New Green Deal‘ and thought – smart grids, that’s neat. Got a puzzle box for Christmas and thought – right! puzzles are fun.

In fact I actually just happen to catch the Spirit Mars landing on C-Span at some late hour like 2 A.M. I also think I was back in Ohio when we shot a car into space – though that seems much less interesting in and of itself. My point is, I’ve had the luxury to stay up late and catch things on TV. To read and get distracted and have 7 tabs open.

So what’s next? I don’t like to speculate; but having and articulating goals is proven to pretty good for you. Problably. And Gnote is such a stupidly simple way to keep track of … whatever’s on your mind, I can’t help but use it.