I recently left my job at Google DeepMind (more on this soon). As such, I was on gardening leave from July 16th through until August 31st before being allowed to start working elsewhere.

Here is an approximately chronological log of what I got up to.

  • Climbed Mount Snowdon.
  • Walked a stretch of the Anglesey coastal path.
  • Saw some puffins.
  • Taught a friend how to use the terminal.
  • Co-hosted 4 weekly house (+ friends!) dinners.
  • Co-built a CRM with said above friend to help keep track of guests at said weekly house dinners.
  • Baked 4 birthday cakes.
  • Made my first ever hire.
  • Attended AdamCon 2026.
  • Planned out two days of activities for a friends 28th birthday.
  • Cooked an elaborate 20 person dinner for said birthday.
  • Acquired many free plants from the aftermath of Columbia Road Flower Market.
  • Made a silver ring.
  • Walked 224km up the Thames Path National Trail from my home in East London to Oxford over the course of six days.
  • Learned how to deal with blisters...
  • Hitchhiked upstream on a row boat to bypass a long inland detour due to a rotten bridge at Henley.
  • Acquired a 100 year old map of the River Thames from Sanders in Oxford.
  • Framed said map.
  • Witnessed the eclipse from Port Meadow.
  • Wrote one blog post, intended to write many more.
  • Went to the dentist for the first time in 5 years (my teeth are perfectly fine :))
  • Ran a (no, not the) half marathon in Copenhagen.
  • Built an excellent new work from home set up.
  • Bought some new Saucony Guides.
  • Substantially rewrote my health dashboard.
  • Built a new app to keep track of my assets, income, expenses, house rent, and also automate the process of splitwise-ing expenses with friends.
  • Iterated on my CRM that tracks of how much I'm seeing my various friends.
  • Mostly failed to pick blackberries in Brockwell Park. Drought :(
  • Did a quarterly review and planning session.
  • Helped 4 friends move into my house.
  • Hosted a housewarming party to celebrate the above.
  • Ran 2 house meetings.
  • Made my house run more smoothly day to day in various ways.
  • Gave 5 people who are thinking about leaving their jobs detailed career advice.
  • Adopted a cat.
  • Gardened.
  • Ran the remaining portion of the East London Thames Path National Trail from my home to the Thames Barrier in Woolwich.
  • Starting thinking seriously about whether I should go vegan.

And here are some summary stats for the period:

  • Walked 1,012,043 steps (average: 21,533 a day).
  • Hiked 275 km, over 9 walking days.
  • Ran 133 km.
  • 16 nights away from home.
  • Completed 425 todoist tasks (average: 9 a day).
  • 39 distinct friends seen.