"working in ML", nothing like research on an arbitrary deadline to burn out staff. "Distributed systems" is hard, but working on Julia seems like a natural consolidation of your interests.
A 1 year break is a good idea, if you are at the burn-out stage with persistent neck pain, and constant illnesses due to immune system stress.
Generally, most take a graduate course, or pick up a new certified skill.
Synthetic biology study is interesting, as it approaches some problems in unique ways. Also, a course on Human Behavioral Biology may be interesting if you are interested in Neuromorphic engineering.
A 1 year break is a good idea, if you are at the burn-out stage with persistent neck pain, and constant illnesses due to immune system stress.
The ikigai chart is pretty good guidance: https://management30.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/IKIGAI--...
Generally, most take a graduate course, or pick up a new certified skill.
Synthetic biology study is interesting, as it approaches some problems in unique ways. Also, a course on Human Behavioral Biology may be interesting if you are interested in Neuromorphic engineering.
Different people have different ideas of fun. =)