I've recently had a difficult period at work and I started observing signs of a looming burnout. I'm going to take a couple of weeks off before that happens so I can clear my mind. During this sabbatical I want to go through an interesting course or a book just for the pleasure of programming. The more impractical the topic is for real-life scenarios, the better. Just want to work on something interesting for a few hours a day while resting. Any recommendations?
Learning comes at a cost (time + sweat), and might not necessarily help clear your mind, particularly of whatever's happening at work that's clogging it up!
It's not what you asked about, but, for myself, if I wanted to clear my mind / avoid burnout, it might be worth rekindling old friendships, or finding out what's going on in local communities, or spending time in nature, or volunteering.
That said.. probably one of the most interesting things I'd suggest learning about are functional optics :)
GNU poke isn't the only way to peek at the world.
[1] a) Lost in Translation: An Illustrated Compendium of Untranslatable Words from Around the World
b) The Illustrated Book of Sayings: Curious Expressions from Around the World
[3] : a) https://ingla.co.uk/humour-in-different-languages/
b) https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/76502/7-puns-make-sense-more-one-language
c) https://metaphor.icsi.berkeley.edu/pub/en/index.php/Category:MetaphorDropping the "more impractical the topic" time frame dependency:
Now that there's GPT3 with google glasses, "Conquer Logical Fallacies: 28 Nuggets Of Knowledge To Nurture Your Reasoning Skills (Critical Thinking & Logic Mastery)" might seem impractical, unless viewed with a blue background.
"The Cathedral & The Bazaar" by Eric S Raymond
"Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution " by Steven Levy
"The Soul of A New Machine" by Tracy Kidder
"Ideas That Created the Future: Classic Papers of Computer Science" by Harry Lewis
"Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software" Charles Pezold
"The Gödelian Puzzle Book: Puzzles, Paradoxes and Proofs (Dover Math Games & Puzzles) " Raymond Smullyan
"UDEXIA: Interactive Escape Room Book - Puzzle Game Book - Play with Friends, Family or by Yourself" by RIDL
"Daedalian Depths: Unravel the clues and escape the labyrinth " by Raml Hansenne
"One Two Three . . . Infinity: Facts and Speculations of Science (Dover Books on Mathematics) " George Gamow
"The Joy Of X: A Guided Tour of Math, from One to Infinity" by Steven Strogatz
"Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid" by Douglas Hofstadtler
"The Annotated Gödel: A Reader's Guide to his Classic Paper on Logic and Incompleteness" by Hal Prince
"The Language Lover's Puzzle Book : A World Tour of Languages and Alphabets in 100 Amazing Puzzles (Alex Bellos Puzzle Books) "
"To Mock a Mockingbird" by Raymond Smullyan
The Subtle Art of not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson - look past the title, there is real wisdom here
Being Mortal by Atul Gawande - because we’re all getting older and thinking about that honestly puts things in perspective
The Four Agreements By Don Miguel Ruiz - a little mystical in presentation for some but underneath that there are some deep thoughts
An honourable mention goes to The 7 habits of highly effective people by Stephen Covey which I listened to on cassette 30 years ago and is still useful.
Generally, exercise and contact are also really important, learning meditation/ mindfulness has also helped me hugely in tough times.
Taking a break just postpones the problem. To cure burnout, you need to change your goals or change your plans to make your goals achievable.
If you making progress but are merely exhausted, rest.