A few employers were wondering why I took a LOA from school and what I was doing during this LOA.

TL;DR — Burnout, wanting to take some time to figure things out, and to work on projects of my own.

Reasons I took a LOA

I imagine if I did not take the leave of absence, I likely would have gone through another semester or year at MIT with good (A or B) grades, but generally not enjoying the process, not having time to hang out with friends, not having time to involve myself in extracurriculars and projects I was interested in, or really do anything else apart from school work. At the time I decided to take the LOA, I wasn’t really feeling very excited about this prospect. I was also generally conflicted as to how I felt about my career and wanted some time to read, learn, write, think, and talk with others rather than go through an aimless year at MIT. I figured that there was a version of myself out there that would be invigorated by the various opportunities at MIT rather than debilitated by decision paralysis. I figured some time away would give me the chance to get more out of my four-year MIT experience.

What I did during my LOA

I’m going to link many of my projects here rather than repeat the descriptions.

  1. Getting diagnosed with ADHD — Have noticed a 4x → 2x drop in the time it takes to read technical academic papers after being prescribed Ritalin. Generally better mood and focus.
  2. Getting a sleep study conducted — Had issues with night terrors and some other sleep issues.
  3. Able to focus more on personal projects
    1. Life quantization
      1. Created my Beliefs Database and read some Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy articles
    2. This Portfolio
    3. Learned to play guitar (Level 6 on Yousician for whatever that’s worth)
    4. Learned to use Ableton Live music workspace
      1. Wrote a song using Ableton Live (The Story of Us)
    5. Hired three virtual assistants, one for myself and the rest for my colleagues
    6. Became AWS Cloud Practitioner Certified
    7. Did some cybersecurity lessons online with TryHackMe
    8. Created MopMan
    9. Set up the MIT AI Alignment Office Space and ran the office + backend for the non-profit MAIA
    10. Traveled to New Orleans and Mexico City for the Effective Altruism Global Conference + Tourism
    11. Read ~50 books on Economics, Psychology, Business, Philosophy, Anthropology, etc. (total, not individual)
    12. Read ~8 full Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (SEP) articles and took notes.
    13. Completed the AI Safety Fundamentals Curriculum with MAIA
    14. Reduced my possessions down to ~3 suitcases and a backpack and developed a minimalist philosophy of life that has been beneficial for my mental health
    15. And more.
  4. Being able to forge some better relationships with friends around Cambridge