The End of My Sabbatical (And What's Next)
My 18-month sabbatical from product design is coming to a close
Welcome to Unknown Arts, where creative builders navigate new possibilities. Ready to explore uncharted territory? Join me on the journey!
The time has come. My 18-month sabbatical from product design is ending.
Starting next week, I’ll be joining Sublime Security as their first IC product designer with the intention of being a kind of player-coach: designing the product now and helping to build the team as we scale. I’m excited about the path ahead of me. It’ll open new doors for meaningful design work and give me new opportunities to invest in growing Unknown Arts and other pursuits that will improve my life in the near and long-term.
I stepped away from product design in September 2023 after an intense 7-year run of B2B startups. In that time, I basically did a speed run of hyper-growth startup outcomes: one IPO, one acquisition, and one floundering “Zombiecorn.” By the end, I was energetically and emotionally burned out but thankfully had achieved enough financial success to be able to confidently take an open-ended break.
When I read about sabbaticals online, I usually see stories of people selling their possessions and traveling the world in an effort to “find themselves.” All power to them, but that’s not what I felt I needed. I had already reinvented myself multiple times in my career and felt pretty clear on what I liked, didn’t like, and where I stood in the world. More than anything I just wanted some space to live off-the-clock, work on my own projects, and see what would emerge.
To that end, I mostly focused on rebuilding my life in Los Angeles after moving away during the pandemic. I felt the loss of community acutely during COVID and so I wanted to put myself in a place where I could rebuild meaningfully. The east side of Los Angeles has been a great spot for that. While it’s not without its flaws, I feel grateful to be able to live my weird, creative life in a place that respects weird, creative lives. And while I may not be able to afford my dream of stewarding one of the mid-century architectural masterpieces up the street from me quite yet, my little, green bungalow in the hills of Silver Lake is perfect for right now.
As for this project, I rebranded from Better by Design to Unknown Arts part way through the sabbatical and am happy with the change. While I’m grateful for my design career, Unknown Arts better represents my personal ethos and feels like something I can work on indefinitely with little risk of burnout. When I started writing, I imagined I might create the design equivalent of
or . And while I think that’s still directionally true in terms of my ambition for reach, I think it’s less true in terms of its focus on being an industry & career related publication. Simply put, I’ve never fully aligned with a traditional career-focused life, so I can’t be the one to provide that guidance. My focus is on achieving creative mastery, financial success, and life fulfillment on my own terms, so that’s the area where I feel equipped to share my experience and guide others who might feel similarly.Unknown Arts is the reflection of things I care about the most: creative mastery, philosophical exploration, innovative technology, community support, and an overall dedication to helping creative people bring more quality work into the world regardless of their job title. So, if we’re comparing to other creative leaders you might recognize, I’d say my goal is to be more like the Seth Godin of my generation rather than the Lenny’s Newsletter of design. And I’m willing to play the long game to discover and realize my version of that kind of impact.
As for how I’m thinking about Unknown Arts going forward, here’s a quick assessment. I’ve published over 170 articles and 170,000+ words in the last 3 years. That’s close to 3 books worth of material! Subscriptions are just shy of 7,000, which is solid but not yet in line with my ambitions. Subscriber growth was slow last year, but with everything else I got to explore and learn in that time it was a reasonable trade-off. Considering that foundation, I think there are some new things I’ll need to do to get to the next level:
Level up ideas from my articles into larger works that are more accessible to people (both existing readers and people discovering me for the first time).
Find ways to share my ideas and story more personally through video, podcast appearances, talks, etc… writing is great for its durability, but I think it’s important for people to be able to start to hear my actual voice.
Contribute guest posts to larger publications. It’s great to share directly with subscribers, but since it’s been tough for me to get traction on social platforms, I need better, more targeted ways to get in front of new likeminded people.
Renew my focus on community now that I have more clarity on the brand and what it stands for.
Continue my regular writing practice, focusing on things I find interesting and useful. I may experiment with slowing my essay cadence to biweekly to see if that helps me balance growth with quality.
Sponsor other newsletters doing good work with similar audiences (now that I’ll have the extra money coming in to do so).
If you want to help me on my quest, the best way to do so currently is to simply share my work with others who might get value from it.
Overall, this next chapter is shaping up to be a great one. A day job in a meaningful space that makes good use of my expertise, a personal project that serves as my continuous outlet for creative expression, and a growing community in a place I’m happy to call home. At the risk of getting a bit too personal, the thing that’s on my mind the most these days is finding a woman who I can build a life with. I’m 35 and feeling like I’ve figured out basically every other part of my life. So I suppose it’s about time I direct a little more attention and intention to this last crucial part of life satisfaction (will happily accept introductions 🙏).
I know I don’t write personal notes like this often, but even if we’ve never interacted, I’m grateful I can send an email like this to my thousands of friends around the world. I appreciate the opportunity to share my ideas and hope they’re useful to you in your own pursuit of Unknown Arts.
Until next time,
Patrick
PS. Next week, I’m planning to share a Q&A post answering questions from the community about my sabbatical and recent job search. I’ve already gathered a few good starter questions, but my ask for you today is: what would you like to know? As always, I’m aiming to be as open and thorough as possible. Reply to this email or leave a comment on the post in Substack to let me know!
