When "lying flat" and taking a gap year are stigmatized, how should we navigate the Odyssey period? | Workplace Extreme Climate ②
Image source: WeChat official account "U Sense")
In February 2026, Xiaohongshu blogger Ju Yicheng NiceFriend posted a video. In the video, she defined the Odyssey Period as "a stage where one experiences intense anxiety and confusion about career, relationships, and self - identity", summarizing it as "the adolescence of adults". This video received over 100,000 likes and 86,000 collections.
The term "Odyssey Period" is not originally from Chinese. In 2007, New York Times columnist David Brooks published a commentary article of the same name. He borrowed the image of Odysseus' ten - year wandering after the war in Homer's epic to describe an extended transitional period between adolescence and adulthood. This concept was dormant in the Western world for nearly two decades, but it gained a second life among Chinese young people in the 2020s.
The popularity of this term on the Chinese Internet has little to do with the ancient Greek epic. Its strength lies in providing a narrative framework: packaging structural dilemmas as active exploration, making forced wandering seem like a heroic journey. In 2026, it continuously occupied the top search positions on Xiaohongshu, Bilibili, and Douyin.
Princeton University sociologist Robert Wuthnow pointed out in After the Baby Boomers that contemporary young people grow up in a highly structured childhood but enter a world full of uncertainties and multiple possibilities after graduation.
However, there are significant differences between the Chinese and Western contexts. The Western Odyssey Period is more of a voluntary delay in adulthood, while the Chinese version is mixed with passive structural disorder: the involution in postgraduate entrance exams and civil service exams, the 35 - year - old threshold in large companies, the disconnection between housing prices and wages, and the obsession with the social clock's concept of "establishing oneself by the age of thirty".
When the old paths to success no longer apply, naming the dilemma itself becomes an outlet.
In the past five years, Chinese young people have been looking for new words to explain the same dilemma: "Lying flat" in 2016, "Confucius' scholar gown" and "Gap discrimination" in 2023. The Bilibili Youth Festival tributes, from The Wave in 2020 to Win in 2026, have focused on youth growth multiple times, sparking discussions and controversies. The Odyssey Period is a new stop in this lineage - it is milder than other words, closer to a positive narrative framework, and at the same time acknowledges the dilemma and exploration, and is therefore more easily accepted by all parties.
And when this term changes from a literary metaphor to a living reality, how should Chinese youths spend this period of wandering in a more professional way?
Diagnosis: Four typical Odyssey portraits ╱ 01
Step1: Calculate the hard accounts first ╱ 02
Step2: Do a good job in prototype design to reduce the cost of trial and error ╱ 03
Step3: Accumulate three types of transferable assets ╱ 04
Exit mechanism: Coping strategies for three scenarios ╱ 05
Epilogue: Strive for more time for the wandering in search of answers ╱ 06
Diagnosis: Four typical Odyssey portraits
Portrait 1: Systematic exploration after leaving a large company
In March 2023, Chen Yunfei resigned from his management position in a large company. He had been working in the user research and operation positions of Internet companies for the previous ten years. After leaving, he started traveling around the world with his savings, from Thailand, Indonesia to Japan and Europe. He set a one - year limit for himself and was prepared for no income during this year.
People like Chen Yunfei actively leave the mainstream career track and enter a planned exploration period. They usually have about ten years of work experience and a certain amount of savings. Leaving the job is by no means an escape, but an actively chosen "research".
Portrait 2: Long - term wandering after failing in postgraduate entrance exams and civil service exams
Jackie (pseudonym), graduated from the Archaeology Department of Nanjing University. He failed in the postgraduate entrance exam for Peking University and hasn't checked his civil service exam results yet. He lives in a shared rental house in the suburbs of Beijing. In ten years, he has changed more than 30 jobs, including real estate agent, street promoter, courier, and HR.
"There was a sense of shame that was hard to talk about everywhere, and it was a dead - end cycle," he recalled. During his time as an HR, he saved hundreds of thousands of yuan. At the age of 33, he quit his job without a new one lined up and moved to the suburbs of Beijing. With a monthly rent and social security cost of 5,000 yuan, he started doing self - media creation and only earned 10,000 yuan in a year, living entirely on his savings.
In early 2023, he posted a video about his "failed" experience. After the postgraduate entrance exam results were released, the video suddenly became popular. In the comment section, young people detailed their own experiences. The message "Graduated from a prestigious university for several years, failed to pass the civil service exam, postgraduate entrance exam, and couldn't find a good job, and have no money" received tens of thousands of likes.
Portrait 3: The reality gap after quitting the job and traveling
In April 2024, a Hunan couple quit their jobs and went to Dali for a traveling - living experience. With a monthly rent budget of two or three thousand yuan, they wanted to find a convenient and not - too - remote yard, but they couldn't find one at all. Although there were many houses available, those for monthly rent were not for rent, and those for daily rent were too expensive. When there were only two days left for their short - term rental accommodation, they still hadn't found a place to live. With the May Day holiday approaching, the room rate increased by two or three hundred yuan per night.
The girl said in the video, "I really want to go back to Changsha now. I don't want to stay here anymore. I don't feel relaxed at all. I don't feel the culture or anything. I'm so frustrated."
Almost no one in the comment section sympathized with them. A highly - liked comment read, "Don't let your former boss see this video, or he'll die of laughter."
Portrait 4: The job - hunting dilemma after a Gap Year
At the 10th month of her Gap Year, 26 - year - old He Di sent out more than 100 resumes and only received one interview opportunity. When she tried to downplay this experience by saying it was for "self - improvement", the HR continuously asked: "What were you doing during the missing year on your resume?" "What was your consideration for having such a long gap?"
A headhunter from an Internet company revealed that the company's system will automatically filter out resumes with a gap of more than three months. An algorithm engineer with an annual salary of 3 million yuan was forced to apply for a job with a pay cut due to a one - year gap, but was still rejected by the HR on the grounds of "technical disconnection".
Step1: Calculate the hard accounts first
The first threshold in the Odyssey Period is not psychological preparation, but the hard constraints of funds and social security.
The cost of social security suspension
In 2025, the social security website issued a document to clarify again [1] that there were important adjustments to the social security policy for flexible - employment individuals: the minimum payment period will be gradually increased from 15 years. Starting from 2030, it will increase by 6 months each year until it reaches 20 years; the legal retirement age for men will be gradually extended from 60 to 63 years old, and for women from 55 to 58 years old. In principle, flexible - employment individuals who have suspended their social security payments are not allowed to make up the payments afterwards. This means the longer the Odyssey Period, the higher the future social security cost.
The risk of medical insurance suspension is also real. In most regions, if the suspension is within 3 months and the payment is made up, the medical insurance benefits can be restored the next month; if it exceeds 3 months, some regions do not allow make - up payments, or a long waiting period is required. The direct consequence of social security suspension is a medical security vacuum, which is a non - negligible hidden danger during a long - term wandering.
The formula for fund reserve
Jackie's model relies on hundreds of thousands of savings and a low monthly consumption of 5,000 yuan. Chen Yunfei's model relies on the assets saved in the previous ten years and the psychological preparation of "not making money for a year". Both models require calculating the accounts before starting:
● The formula for fund reserve
Geographical arbitrage practice
Earning 20,000 yuan per month in a first - tier city may not allow you to save money, but in a third - or fourth - tier city, the same income is enough to cover living expenses and leave room for trial and error. The digital nomad communities emerging in places like Dali, Jingdezhen, and Anji are the physical carriers of this space - for - time strategy. Xu Zhong, the founder of the Cohere community, observed that many young people are currently actively seeking transformation, and digital nomad communities are becoming important platforms for them to land new careers.
However, traveling and living is not equal to vacation. The lesson of Douyin user "Rich and Flowering" lies in: not renting a house in advance, not calculating the premium during the May Day peak season, and not reserving enough cash flow. Her per - capita cost of traveling and living far exceeded the budget.
The registration threshold for a single - person company
In China, the registration threshold for a single - person company has been significantly reduced. The current Company Law allows individuals to establish a single - person company, with the minimum registered capital as low as 1 yuan, and it supports the subscription system. The registration process includes: name verification, submitting materials, obtaining a business license, stamping and filing, opening a bank account, and tax registration. After obtaining the license, tax registration must be completed at the tax bureau within 30 days, and you can choose the status of a small - scale taxpayer or a general taxpayer.
This provides a legal business entity for people in the Odyssey Period in the workplace, which is convenient for issuing invoices, signing contracts, and establishing business credit.
[1] The Decision of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress on Implementing the Progressive Delay of the Legal Retirement Age was issued in September 2024, and the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and the social security website issued a document to clarify it again in mid - 2025
Step2: Do a good job in prototype design to reduce the cost of trial and error
If the Odyssey Plan is a blueprint, prototype design is a sample test. It means, just like a designer creating a product prototype, experiencing the life you want with the minimum cost and the fastest speed, rather than directly investing all your assets.
Life interviews: Find people who are living the life you want and ask a few specific questions: How did you get your first customer? How much monthly income is needed to cover the costs? What is the most anxious moment? What did you learn only after doing it? This information will make your romantic imagination more realistic.
Prototype experience: If you want to be a digital nomad, you can apply to your company for three months of remote work. For example, move to Dali and rent a room by Erhai Lake with a monthly rent of less than 2,000 yuan. Handle company work in the morning, take on outsourcing projects in the afternoon, and participate in community sharing meetings at night. You need to verify in three months how long you can stick to this schedule, whether your income can cover your expenses, and whether the sense of loneliness will overwhelm you.
Xiaohongshu user @Retired Lamb has traveled on a budget to 5 countries and 40 cities after quitting her job and traveling for a year and a half. She only recently achieved a monthly income of 20,000 yuan. But she prefers to call herself a "digital refugee".
"Money won't come from all directions just by lying on the beach and enjoying life every day." She said in the video.
The MVP thinking is also applicable. Spending six months planning a perfect transformation is not as good as completing three small - scale trial - and - error attempts within six weeks. The feedback from the market is always more accurate than your own imagination. Paying for verification is the real verification: Everyone likes free things, but only when users are willing to pay can it prove that the demand really exists.
Before developing the "Kitten Fill Light", Chen Yunfei had used the AI programming tool Cursor to create more than 20 products. He is not a programmer, but graduated from an economics major and has no programming background. After Cursor became popular in August 2024, he spent 16 hours a day in the coffee shop, describing his requirements to the AI through natural language, and the AI completed the code. In November of that year, because his girlfriend mentioned the need for a fill light when editing a video, he spent one hour creating this product. The number of downloads exceeded 30,000 within a few days of its launch, and it reached the top 20 in the photography category on the App Store. The subsequent Pro version topped the paid list, with a cumulative user base of over 160,000.
Before that, he had created more than 20 products such as the Photo - based Word - learning App, HumanizeAI, and Fashion Critic Master. He summarized, "You have to make about ten mediocre products before you can make an outstanding one."
The popularization of AI tools has further lowered the threshold of the Odyssey Period. What used to require a team to complete can now be done by one person with the help of AI.
Step3: Accumulate three types of transferable assets
The book The Long View mentions that the most important thing in the first 15 years of a career is to accumulate fuel: transferable skills, meaningful relationships, and transformative experiences. Today, the form of "fuel" has evolved.
Personal IP is the first new asset. Its focus is to establish a credible professional reputation in a certain field - rather than becoming an internet celebrity. It can be in - depth thinking on a WeChat official account, skill sharing on Xiaohongshu, open - source projects on GitHub, or even industry insights in the WeChat Moments.
The value of a good personal IP lies in its transferability across platforms, industries, and regions. The projects you worked on in a large company cannot be