With Graham, taking a break (or 'hammock time' as Hickey might phrase it) appears to be a pattern if one can draw a pattern from two data points. After selling Viaweb and working a Yahoo for a bit, Graham wrote and painted and created a new dialect of Lisp for several years before the experiment that led to YCombinator (there may have been consulting and investing in there too, it wouldn't surprise me but since I've never seen anything directly stating there was, it would not surprise me if there wasn't)...and Graham's descriptions of why he did a startup includes not having to get 'a real job' so to speak.
When Graham turned over the public face of YC to Altman, I was like, huh? Since then, I've come to think that 'I'm going to take my money and learn to paint' is one diffs between Altman's and Graham's personalities...though in fairness Graham was well into his thirties when he made his first millions and Altman was just 29 when he became president of YC.
It takes 3 points to confirm a pattern. :) Otherwise, it is nice and fortunate to be able to take time off (if you choose) to raise your kids, especially as a family. Especially when they are young and before school starts.
When Graham turned over the public face of YC to Altman, I was like, huh? Since then, I've come to think that 'I'm going to take my money and learn to paint' is one diffs between Altman's and Graham's personalities...though in fairness Graham was well into his thirties when he made his first millions and Altman was just 29 when he became president of YC.