Honestly, I wouldn't be asking Hacker News, I don't think anyone here knows what would be best for you. As someone else mentioned, you can often take 3 months

Honestly, I wouldn't be asking Hacker News, I don't think anyone here knows what would be best for you. As someone else mentioned, you can often take 3 months unpaid leave. Often you can do something like take your 3 weeks vacation + 9 weeks of unpaid leave. This is pretty much true with any company I know of in the U.S. and / or Europe (so long as you are not a contractor).