Have one month break (switching employers) – What should I do?
As the title says - I have one month where I am not employed. The new and previous jobs are well paid Bay Area tech jobs (living expenses are not going to be a concern). I am looking for advice on exciting new tech I should pick up during the month. I am a backend engineer. Should I learn crypto or should I go for ML/AI?
Go outside. Life is about balancing work with the wealth we make. We won't always have the health to do so. I love tech but it is experiences that we remember.
I had a month of between jobs this year, and as it was peak covid I couldn't travel. I ended up hiring a WeWork so I had somewhere to go, and working on personal projects. If there's something you've wanted to build and didn't have the time it's a great thing to do. However, I think there's a strong case just to take the month off and relax! Rest, eat well, get some exercise. We don't always have to be productive.
It really depends on what you love doing. Do you know how to swim? It's a useful skill to have, not to mention a fun cardio exercise. If you spend an hour or two every day, you can actually make pretty good progress on learning how to swim.
What about take deep breath, have a little rest and find some adventure. Maybe roadtrip hike, or if possible go visit abroad.
Pick an open source project that interests you and spend a month on it. I would do it with the linux kernel if I had time
ML and AI is a fun field currently. Check out Two Minute Papers for the current state of the art.
Have you considered sailing or learning a new language such as french (or doing both)?
The Graph DB scene is quite interesting, might be worth considering.
GNU Make sounds like a good fit for your background.