I left my lucrative cybersecurity startup job to pursue full time independent research in AGI. Several months in and it's been great progress wise, and I have to live more frugally. Being on the cyber startup was like being on a cruise ship headed to some destination that was "just okay", all the while seeing an island off in the distance that we were slowly passing by, which is where I wanted to be. I jumped off the bow and started swimming towards the most meaningful goal I could hope to apply my skills toward. Will I advance the field of artificial consciousness? I hope to. There's so much I don't know, and even more no one really knows. COVID was a gift. Political and economic turmoil is a gift. I was already focusing on the goal of AGI, but the strife of the world gave me the will to leap for it.