After about three weeks away from work, a feeling of calm is finally starting to come over me - something I haven’t felt in many years.
The time has been filled with exploration and adventure. I’ve skied in Sälen with family, explored Stockholm during a stopover, and passed through Umeå - a town I lived in as a child. I was also lucky enough to see the Northern Lights in Kiruna. These experiences have given me space to simply exist without the constant pull/worry of work.
I haven’t completely unplugged from the tech world. While I’m holding firm on not coding, I’ve caught up on articles and podcasts from The Pragmatic Engineer publication, and tried understanding the hype around opencode and Cloudflare Durable Objects - a curious exercise when you’re committed to not actually writing code. (I’ve debated whether prompting counts as coding. I’ve decided it does.)
I’ve also started reading. I’m about halfway through Project Hail Mary, which I’ve enjoyed so far. I have a long list of books lined up for my time off and will need to spend more time reading in the coming weeks.
What’s become clear is how much my attention span has degraded. Years of context-switching at work, combined with distractions like TikTok, have destroyed my ability to focus on a book or deep article. TikTok is deleted now. I’m slowly clawing back my focus.
I’ve got a few days left in Sweden before returning to Amsterdam for the second leg of my journey.