280 days

This is a follow up to my post 110 days, where I talked about my time going independent. Sharing a few thoughts now that I’m almost a year in…

With the recent loss of both my mother and mother-in-law, vector search and data platform engineering haven’t been top-of-mind. My longtime friend Prageeta Sharma is no stranger to loss and recently told me how we don’t say “moving on” but instead say “moving forward”. So moving forward I shall do. I don’t block the grief when it comes. The wave hits, I let it through, then I get back to the task at hand.

My biggest 280-day takeaway has been getting the freedom to explore. This morning I spent time further refining the Claude Code research skill to make it a New York Times-style PDF newspaper that covers a variety of data platform, vector search, embedding models, product management and overall AI news from the last week. This is definitely a flow-state activity for me and I’ve appreciated getting to take detours and dig deep on topics unapologetically.

The first phase of my independence was spent writing and recording the Vector Search Essentials and Vector Search in Practice courses. I’ve had a mix of small consulting engagements, including product management and career mentoring. I’ve been approached on SQL-related engagements but have kindly turned them away as I really wanted to do things that pushed me into new territory. Less money doing that and it pains me to do so - but I wanted to stay true to the intent of this experience.

I think my biggest surprise from the last 280 days is that my core still feels very much the same. This hasn’t been a serene blank canvas of time - but in life is that ever the case? Throughout this experience, I continue to have an impulse to create and to be productive. I’m still high energy and often restless.

So now what? I finally had the sabbatical I very much have been dreaming about since 2023. I also realize that taking away a calendar stacked with meetings didn’t change my core desires to create, learn, and oddly - feel some external pressure. Regardless of next steps, I’ve been grateful that I’ve had the freedom and flexibility to be with family over this time.