Taking a break is not something I know how to do. As a teenager, I was lucky enough to spend every summer learning how to be an engineer at a small environmental science firm in Portland. One college winter, despite the town’s being covered in two feet of snow and absent anyone I knew, I decided staying in Poughkeepsie for a job would be the best use of my January break. When David, John, and Marco invited me to join Tumblr, I wanted to take my seat at our ten-person lunch table so badly, I couldn’t bear to wait more than a week.
More than anything, this is a New Yorker’s disease. I wasn’t raised here, but drive sure is what has kept me in this little leper colony. At this exact moment, New York is undoubtedly the best place in the world for ambitious technologists and hackers of all stripes. But thanks to that gooey richness it is also the worst place for a distractible person like myself to pause and think expansively. Like most New Yorkers, I need to get the hell out of this city from time to time to get any good from it. When I decided to leave Tumblr, I knew my first task was to buy a nonrefundable ticket far, far out of town.
My next three months are going to be a light jog around the world. The route is circuitous and nicely inefficient, with breaks between disorienting new places for old friends in favorite cities. (I put it together after days glued to a tool one of the airline alliances provides to plot out round-the-world airfares. Don’t click that unless you are willing to take the risk of leaving your job tomorrow to hop on the itinerary you’ll inevitably spend several hours putting together.)
I’ll be writing more about where I’m going and why over the next couple weeks as I get my visas, shots, AirBnBs and other logistics lined up. In the meantime, if it looks like our paths are going to cross, you really ought to drop me a line.
49 notes
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chaluypnictwo1 likes this
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internet-haze reblogged this from matthew and added:
I wish I had time and money to spare. :/
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jenna likes this
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lafuguedantoine said:
Fair weather and following seas!
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lafuguedantoine likes this
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tessshebaylo said:
Have an awesome time!
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kari-shma said:
Have a good trip!
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meaghano said:
miss that 10 person table! so glad you are doing this. hope it is duly tumbled.
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matthew posted this
