what_happened

Yes, I'd say you pretty much hit the nail on the head.

Starting a company: Yes, I tried that during my freelancing time. The plan was to freelance on the side to keep myself afloat until the company could carry itself. Except things didn't work out: not only did the company not find any clients, as a freelancer I didn't get enough contracts to actually keep myself afloat. The timing of me trying that was incredibly stupid in retrospect; 2002/3 would have to be the worst years in the past decade to try something like that.

The main thing I did learn from that entire episode is that I suck at marketing/selling. While trying again is not completely off the table, I would definitely only try it again with a co-founder who is a good sales person.

Already did that. First teaching evening courses at community colleges while at university, then doing freelance jobs for a well-known IT teaching center during the episode that nearly broke my financial neck.

However when I did this I was (obviously) in a different mindset, so the experience would be different this time around. I'll have a look into revisiting this aspect.

Strangely enough, if I had the money, I'd probably go back to university and study one of the splinter-subjects genetics must have exploded into during the past 15 years. I've kicked myself over the past years repeatedly for not staying in university and getting some research job there. Maybe I can have a look into the DIY aspect of biotech, that someone already mentioned.

You're probably mostly correct with that assumption. For me the exploration of new concepts was the driving force and the main endorphine trigger. Actually applying what was learned was more of an afterthought.

It's probably no coincidence that I studied theoretical CS and minored in math :)

AI (neural networks/fuzzy logic/genetic algorithms) were actually part of my focus at university, and something I felt pretty exited about back then. That never went anywhere afterwards though. The realities in the job market here are pretty much anti-innovation for the most part ("We can't do that - we'd be one of the first companies in germany to work with XXX" is something I've heard pretty much verbatim more than once).

Maybe I should read up on my differential equations and give Kohonens "Self-Organizing Maps" another whirl, just for kicks.

The hard part here, of course, is coming up with something else to do. While basically sound advise, after years of a wakeup-work-eat-bed cycle while worrying about the negative content of the bank account, thinking around a corner is hard, let alone thinking outside the box. But I'll try not to force the issue and see what comes up.

This sounds like something to look into. Are there any resources in particular that you can recommend?