My initial comments regarding the use of AI to write fist drafts were just that—an initial response.
After some thought, I came to understand the acceptability of using AI to write a first draft depends on how a writer views their role and purpose in writing.
From my blog post: “If writers view their role as primarily communicating ideas in writing, then having AI write their first drafts is acceptable. However, if writers understand their role as artistic self-expression, then having AI write their first draft is unacceptable.”
The Art of Writing: Why AI Shouldn’t Write Your First Draft - Original Mac Guy
Well it was a blog post, and my blog being a very personal expression of myself to my readers, it was of course an artistic expression! 
I hope you have a great Holiday season.
Oops. I deleted my message before yours showed up, Jim, so it might look a bit weird to anyone that’s reading it now. I deleted it because I was concerned it might look a bit rude or blunt, and I didn’t want that. Have a nice break, my artistic friend!
I thought the discussion about sabbaticals was interesting. However, I wonder if using the word “sabbatical” is helpful or results in more semantic confusion?
The hosts spent a lot of time trying to define what they meant by a sabbatical, and attempting to distinguish it from traditional cultural uses of that term (religious, educational, and corporate), as well as vacations, etc. Sometimes it sounded like one of the hosts was saying that during a sabbatical you couldnt plan anything, but almost everyone I knows who has claimed to take a sabbatical does plan to work on various projects during the sabbatical (just not work projects).
At the end of the discussion, the definition sounded to me like it was “taking a break from doing the work you normally do.”
That’s really nothing new, and the concept doesn’t need to be fancied up by using a cool term like “sabbatical.” Most people understand that humans need and benefit from taking a break from working all the time, whether they take breaks or not.
Even the concept of breaks leading to more productivity is not a new insight. I remember traveling in Germany in the 1980s and speaking with a lady on the train who told me they have at least one 3 day weekend each month, and virtually everyone who works gets a month off in the summer. Germany was extremely productive despite, or maybe because, of the breaks they got from work.
I suggest it might be better to stop trying to give the term sabbatical yet another new defitiniton, and just describe it for what it is: an extended (or not) time to take a break from the work you typically do. It doesn’t mean you can’t plan anything, you just need to take a break from what you normally do.
I’d agree. I found it frustrating that the hosts were better able to say what they thought a sabbatical wasn’t (basically all the things I thought the word meant!) but couldn’t pin down precisely what it was and so made it much harder to say why it would be beneficial.
I also found myself thinking that this whole discussion is important but socially and politically (with a small “p”) naive. The ability of workers to take breaks at all is the outcome of many battles, over centuries (along with many other aspects of the work environment, like not making children work, ensuring that work conditions are safe etc.). To put it mildly, those battles are not over: the past few decades have seen a deterioration in the rights and conditions of many workers and a determined attempt to cut labour costs to an absolute minimum. It’s not rational: the evidence is overwhelming that workers who have reasonable breaks from work and who feel and are valued are more productive overall, and that making workers more productive through stronger investment in technology, processes and facilities is much more cost-effective, rather than making them work more hours, but there is huge pressure from some employers and some politicians to maximise the time workers have to spend working and minimise what they are paid for it. It’s very much a live issue in many countries.
I understand that there’s a good discussion to be had about the best way for self-employed and self-managed workers to find a healthy and productive balance to maximise their productivity and creativity, and I understand from personal experience how difficult that is in practice, but I am not sure a general theory of sabbaticals is the best way to do it.
I would agree that the conversation on sabbatical was confusing. A sabbatical is work but is different work. A sabbatical is designed to focused on what a person is interested to learn. A professor may research a “burning” question that they are intrigued about, or a theologian may delve into a particular topic. Those are both work.
This is different than a vacation, while the transition from daily work to sabbatical work should have some down time to reflect. It is also different than the Manager v. Maker time where a person examines the tactical level versus a strategic level of work. That is still the daily work at some level.
A sabbatical is both rest and contemplation. Stephen having deep focus on how the Relay community can improve work at St Jude’s hospital is worthy of a sabbatical. It is different than the daily work and is something he is passionate about. Contemplating giving up a legal career and transitioning to a content creator could be a sabbatical.
Thinking differently and examining an interest is what a sabbatical is intended. Personally, what I do as my daily work and the topic I study is my sabbatical. It may be in short bursts or in longer contemplations but that is my sabbatical. It motivates me to explore the topic in ways I am passionate about.
I hope this helps but is also my opinion. Keep up the great work.
The problem I see with the use of the term “sabbatical” is that everyone seems to have their own unique definition of it.
I think it’s fine for people to have different definitions if it helps them define what it means for them, but it also illustrates my feeling that using the term is often confusing and unhelpful because it has too much baggage to communicate clearly.
This was pretty interesting, including the stumbling about the definitions.
I hope Mike’s able to incorporate a week off every several weeks. Companies that have 4+ weeks of mandatory breaks per year seem like happy places.
My work does Shape Up cycles, and while the two weeks between each six week cycle aren’t time off, it’s a natural break if you do want vacation, and it’s an appropriate time to read, research, train, poke around and think, etc.
Oooohhhh. Shape Up Cycles looks interesting! Thanks
I think that different people find different ways that work best for them to get the breaks they need from doing their regular work.
As previously mentioned, most workers don’t have the luxury of deciding to take a week or weeks off on a regular basis. That’s even true for many creators with their own businesses.
When I was a sole practitioner, I intentionally limited the growth of my business to what I felt was “enough.” That gave me the margin to regularly block off an extra day or two in conjunction with a weekend to go backpacking or do local travel. The sabbatical gurus would likely not call those sabbaticals, but they functioned for me as most define a sabbatical.
Here’s a blog post I published this morning: Why You Shouldn’t “Take a Sabbatical” - Original Mac Guy
I understand sabbatical from how it is used in the academic world. This is where a professor takes a semester off from his regular duties of teaching classes, etc to then focus exclusively on his research or writing a book, etc. I wouldn’t call it taking time off from work, we already have a word for that, vacation. A sabbatical is more about focusing on one specific aspect of your work at the exclusion of other parts of your responsibilities.
I agree that’s the definition in the academic context
My point is that the definition is not clear at all in the context tech creators are using it. They are using it not to mean “focusing on one specific aspect of your work,” but more along the lines of “getting away from your work.” But even within their context they disagree on the meaning. I think it was a mistake to attempt to borrow a word with so many preexisting meanings in different contexts.
If I had used the word sabbatical when I entered the workforce 50+ years ago, some people would have said I was being pretentious. My friends would have said the same thing, using less “lofty” words. 
But language changes as words are appropriated for new uses. I used to fly through clouds, now I store my data in them too. Some changes don’t bother me, some do.
I understand that words change meanings in different contexts over time.
As you point out you used to fly through clouds (and you still do when you’re in the context of sitting in an airplane), but you can also be in the cloud when you’re in the context of storing and retrieving electronic data.
However, within the context of tech creators, the word “sabbatical” does not have a single new meaning, but rather many different definitions/meanings depending upon who you talk to.
If the term simply “changed meaning” in this context I wouldn’t have written the blog post. The problem is there is no singular meaning it’s changed to. That’s what causes the poor communication by using “sabbatical” in this context.
True. From what I’ve read recently the term is being used for all kinds of paid and unpaid time off. I see no reason to “tilt at windmills” when just about anything is acceptable today.