[burntoutfire]

It's good to test drive that idea first. I took a bunch of long gaps between jobs (luckily and somewhat surprisingly no one really cared about that) and this allowed me to further refine what I like and don't like doing for extended periods of time, how I deal with lack of external pressure etc.

A lot of people have been working 9-5 jobs their whole life and that's all they know. They gradually start dreaming about ditching the job and being free to pursue hobbies, and after a couple of years this dream becomes their life goal. My advise is, if anyone wants to commit oneself to X years of misery in current job just to live that dream in the future, I recommend test-driving that dream first if you can. It's very possible that you'll end up missing job environment and will just want to switch jobs or careers or go part-time etc., which is an option available without the X years of grinding through misery first.