Factory Reset

It has been one month since I quit my job.

I have come to think of this moment in my life as a factory reset. Everything once considered essential has either fallen away or surrendered to inertia:

1. I am unemployed.
2. I am homeless.¹
3. I am single.

The system’s been stripped down to its bare essentials, just core functionality.

Reset

By conventional standards, I was doing fine:

• A job that paid well
• No debt
• A stable life in a major city

It reads like a good situation. On paper, it was.

Something deeper was off.

What am I doing?

That question didn’t blow everything up overnight. But it lingered. There was tension between what I had and who I am.

Eventually, things started falling away. None of it was easy, but none of it felt wrong either. If life’s short, I’d rather not spend it misaligned.

I was here. I changed.

Realignment

The question now arises what to do next. It's daunting but in an exhilarating way.

I don’t have a five-year plan. I don’t even have a six-month plan. But I have room to ask better questions.

What does refactoring life look like from first principles?

Per Richard Hamming:

It is well known the drunken sailor who staggers to the left or right with n independent random steps will, on the average, end up about √n steps from the origin. But if there is a pretty girl in one direction, then his steps will tend to go in that direction and he will go a distance proportional to n. In a lifetime of many, many independent choices, small and large, a career with a vision will get you a distance proportional to n, while no vision will get you only the distance √n. In a sense, the main difference between those who go far and those who do not is some people have a vision and the others do not and therefore can only react to the current events as they happen.

My stagger is no longer aimless. For the first time, I can say with confidence: I’m moving with intention however imperfectly.

I know I am an engineer. I know I am born for this shit.

Why did I write this? It is mostly a reminder to myself to avoid the mimetic tracks laid out by others.

Take the road less traveled. Never sell out. Win.