One of the hard things for me about being unemployed is feeling like an abject failure. Not because I was laid off, that part sucks but I get the economics behind it.

It’s because I don't have a purpose. I wander about each day, looking for a job, doing research, working on open source projects, or on my conference talk...but to what end? What is my purpose?

There are so many things to do, but without a defining purpose it's sometimes hard to find motivation and focus to really dive into any of them.