| You should take a sabbatical right now. I had a similar bored moment who rapidly turned into a destructive burn out situation that almost destroyed both my relationships and my reputation as a good developer. When started showing depression symptoms I took care of the situation and made some changes in my life. - I resigned my job; - I convinced my wife to join me in a 3 week retreat in the woods w/o phone, tv and internet. Just books, wine and conversations. - I took a really long vacation period away from keyboard/internet (sure, you won't lose the next big thing if you turn off a few weeks - the internet, HN & Reddit are always recycling their contents) - I went to some US universities just to hangout with people, I managed to know a bunch of nice people just hanging near the MIT campus and even visited a couple of labs. - I started taking small weekend-trips to places that I've always wanted to visit but never had time. - Managed to get a new job with amazing people. - Adopted a crazy Dog. Now I know I'm still not 100% but every day I fell better than yesterday. |
Try and do it cheaply as well. The places you end up staying as a result puts you on an interesting path where you can meet some very interesting folks.
I try and do a 1-3 month long snowboarding trip each year. Buy a season pass, find a room in a hostel and hang out with the other seasonairres. The total cost is only slightly more than a 1-2 week holiday in a hotel. I've meet some awesome, crazy, fun, random and right-down good folks from all around the world.
The imagination gets fired and after some time, I actually really look forward to coming back home and working on something.