I'm about to do this. I had finally gotten a job at my dream company, and unfortunately, it turned out to be a dead end, and I got laid off. Luckily, I had been there long enough to get a reasonable severance, and I'm eligible for unemployment (60% of my salary) and health care while unemployed (I live in Germany).

I realize this is incredibly fortunate, and I'm going to take the opportunity to do something a bit different. I'm going to try to pursue a new direction in my career, with the goal of starting my own mini-company. But, I'm also trying to be very realistic, and setting some contingency goals. Since I'll be focusing on learning some new skills, Plan B is to build a portfolio as I learn, and if I can't meet the goal of starting my own company, I'd like to start contracting with my new skills. Or.. Plan C is to get a job using my new skills, and at least I'm able to pivot my career in a new direction.

I'm not too worried about the lack of a line in my resume, I'll plan to document what I'm doing this year in public, on a blog, and on Github, and find some way to describe it on my resume.