Good link, terrible headline. The link us an interesting video about the benefits of taking a year long sabbatical every seven years, but it doesn't claim that the sabbatical is what made Stefan Sagmeister a design genius. He was insanely talented before he started taking sabbaticals, and they just made him more productive.
Maybe a better title would've been - How To Stay A Design Genius. I didn't see a lot of connection between his post-sabbatical projects and the year that he spent off, which is fine - the main benefit seemed to be a rejuvenation of his love for the craft.
I've thought about doing something similar for a long time now, probably because my dad was a prof and some of my best childhood memories are from spending copious amounts of time abroad.
I think it's less about vacation time/'time off' and more about just disconnecting from your normal routine (often times fairly rigid as we're natural creatures of habit)...and giving yourself the freedom to explore different paths/options/ideas.
I definitely see the value in that and it goes for any career where creativity and insight is important. Taking the time to step back, disengage and then reengage with new ideas and perspectives can be very valuable. But like he said, it needs goals and structure to make sure you accomplish that, otherwise, you're just screwing off.
Firefox preferences -> Content -> Javascript|Advanced ; uncheck whatever you want to disallow. You probably could make similar change in other browsers.
It isn't really time off if you are working is it? It is time spent thinking and learning and depending on your life outside work this could be accomplished without taking time off and just working less.
