I can really relate to this and reading it sparked something inside me to write a response. I started writing a comment on his post, but it became so long that I turned it into a post on my own blog:

http://blog.raamdev.com/2009/02/19/the-pursuit-of-knowledge

My goal now is to continue living frugally so I can set aside a big enough bucket of money to get me through one year without work. Then, when the time is right, I’ll spend a year learning something of interest, possibly making small amounts of money on the side. When needed, I’ll start working and hopefully keep repeating this process. If something I do makes me tons of money, great. If not... well it’s not about the money.