Ask HN: going offline for a long time?

Meditate, work out, eat well, read, journal, say hi to strangers, take photos, learn a new sport, is that a good start?

If not for a software career making it necessary to be "online", I would readily bet that I could go an entire year without the internet, and I wouldn't be any less happy for it. If I could ensure my livelihood in some extremely non-technical yet stable job (e.g. as a HIGHLY overpaid landscaper), it might even be a fun experiment.

This isn't any different from any other exercise of willpower. You don't really need to make it the entire month at once, you just need to be strong enough to handle each moment of weakness OR you need to be smart enough to prevent them so temptation is removed from your life.

I would probably do a few things - build a go-kart (why not?), learn a new computer skill, go for rides on my motorcycle, random red-eye flight for a weekend, act on one of the ten startup ideas continually floating around in my head :D

If it were for vacation, say I'm backpacking through Europe with a couple friends for a month or more, I could(and willingly would) handle it.

I would enjoy it and try not to think about my inbox filling up at home.