All I know is that on my last night to "live," I'll put everything I have left in a pile, burn it, and dance around the flames. I've dreamed of doing that *many* times for years now. What will I do the next day? No clue. - Lo

All I know is what I learned from watching "Joe vs. the Volcano" and that is that when you believe (or act as though) you are going to die, a lot of your decisions get swayed towards immediate gratification, sometimes at the cost of long-term misery. And that's all well and good to a degree as long as the starting assumption (imminent death) is correct. When you start taking greater risks and planning to be completely gone from the world but it isn't true, I worry that the day *after* your "last day" could be a very rude awakening. - Brad Greer

Brad, these are the exact sort of practical implications I've been wondering how to address :) Suffice it to say that from what I've seen so far, the available literature on the topic does not really address such matters and tends heavily towards the new age. I think that taking the challenge seriously would be very important to me, but neither do I want to completely fuck myself over (example of the top of my head: if I were irrevocably dying, I think I would be more inclined to abandon health insurance, but knowing I'm not, I don't want to do that.) I hope I can count on you for practical advice in this venture :) - Lo

Isn't this how people end up buried in debt? Kidding! But seriously, I would consider a way to do this to a lesser extreme. Maybe like coming up with a system to take decisions (other then money and health) and look at them without risk in mind. Like is something scares you but intrigues you, listen to that curiosity first. I can't help thinking of Yes Man. - Heather

I wouldn't want to accumulate piles of debt that my "heirs" (i.e. dad) would be responsible for. The main point would be not worrying about how current jobs would look on future resumes. And probably lots of other stuff too. I'm stoked about the idea. Waiting to talk to my dad on the matter. I value your input too, Heather. - Lo

Practical advice: Do not treat your life like a thought experiment. Pretending things are the way they are not is delusion, and while not all delusion is bad, I've long been of the opinion that you can't make good decisions with bad intel. - Brad Greer

That said, on the scale you're talking about (work references) I'd say go for it. The worst case is you leave it off your resume and have to explain the gap ("during the recession, I took a temporary job that doesn't represent my long-term career goals"). The best is you find out that this industry isn't so bad and you have a new career track that will welcome that reference. - Brad Greer