Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

There Is No Cure for Burnout

elladawson.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 101 posts

Re: There Is No Cure for Burnout

#61

Post by BlueTemplar »

harryf wrote: post #53
falcolas wrote: post #24

I can’t say I’m a fan of the classism, racism, and sexism in this article. It creates and reinforces repeatedly the trope that burnout is an unavoidable but uniquely millenial problem; that “white men” from Gen X and before don’t get burned out. Fuck that; anyone and everyone can and do get burnt out. Isolating yourself based on your race, class, and generation will not help you get better. That said, I will take thi…

> that “white men” from Gen X and before don’t get burned out. That's anyway observer bias. Most people you'll encounter Gen X and older in corporations are old enough to have figured out how to manage their career without burnout ... the ones that couldn't already dropped out. I'm Gen X and I've been in a "burnt out" state many times in my career - 15 years ago there was no real label for it though. Frankly I'd call…

That's not burn-out. That's exhaustion. Burn-out happens when you push past that point. (See the linked article in the article she links to.)

Re: There Is No Cure for Burnout

#62

Post by rb808 »

One thing I've seen is people get used to working 60-80 hour weeks at university. But you can't keep doing that your whole life, you have to learn to work a regular weeks as well.

Also and people assuming promotions is always a good thing. You don't have to always want to be the boss.

Re: There Is No Cure for Burnout

#63

Post by sailfast »

This isn’t a cure but it helped me and the author mentions their job having to be on Twitter a lot.

The constant churn of social media (esp Twitter) is not a place for sanity or calm and is absolutely a recipe for late nights wasting away when your brain can only handle repetitive tasks with quick endorphin hits (railroad tycoon was cited) or random mobile games.

When success is how quick you respond to the latest with something witty or anything at all, rather than considered substantive discussion you will not be able to quiet your mind.

Get off Twitter if you can. Logout of Facebook. Have a friend change your passwords. Avoid the “news”. Some good can come from it, but this is step one. It is an addiction, and must be treated as such.

Re: There Is No Cure for Burnout

#64

Post by Tade0 »

UglyToad wrote: post #58
falcolas wrote: post #24

I can’t say I’m a fan of the classism, racism, and sexism in this article. It creates and reinforces repeatedly the trope that burnout is an unavoidable but uniquely millenial problem; that “white men” from Gen X and before don’t get burned out. Fuck that; anyone and everyone can and do get burnt out. Isolating yourself based on your race, class, and generation will not help you get better. That said, I will take thi…

As a white man I feel you're being extremely sensitive here. You've taken a small part of the article seemingly out of context. The author is talking about well meaning but ultimately useless advice from those with the financial means to support themselves indefinitely while they travel or relax. While a generalisation, the ability to build up a cushion of 'fuck you money' tends to correlate with being from a generat…

As a white man who's neither American nor Western-European I often see things being associated with or characterized by my skin tone when this couldn't be further from the truth.

I mean, in reality, these things almost always have everything to do with status and nothing to do with skin tone - otherwise I wouldn't be experiencing them from my higher-status friends who are baffled that I don't put more than 70% of my income into savings(actual thing one far removed from reality person said to me).

Re: There Is No Cure for Burnout

#65

Post by BlueTemplar »

Tade0 wrote: post #59

But my primary motivation—the one that finally overrode my aversion to risk and pushed me to give notice before I could line up another job I quit my job a month ago or so, citing burnout. They one thing the majority of my co-workers couldn't wrap their heads around was that I had nothing else waiting for me and made a point out of it. Some said they envied me, because they didn't have enough savings to pull somethin…

After some unpleasant life experiences, I've made a point of always having savings to be able to survive and keep a roof over my head for a year if the worst were to happen. (And lower my spending when I don't.) Sadly, it looks like the situation has gotten so bad that most people can't even do that...

Re: There Is No Cure for Burnout

#67

Post by DATACOMMANDER »

I’ve noticed a trend recently. Someone will write a very long article about some problem, without mentioning politics once. Then, at the end, they’ll assert that the answer is to remake society from the ground up. This is the template:

5000 words of bitching about some problem that’s always existed

...

Ahem. And that is why we must dismantle the White Supremacist Capitalist Patriarchy.

Re: There Is No Cure for Burnout

#68

Post by falcolas »

UglyToad wrote: post #58
falcolas wrote: post #24

I can’t say I’m a fan of the classism, racism, and sexism in this article. It creates and reinforces repeatedly the trope that burnout is an unavoidable but uniquely millenial problem; that “white men” from Gen X and before don’t get burned out. Fuck that; anyone and everyone can and do get burnt out. Isolating yourself based on your race, class, and generation will not help you get better. That said, I will take thi…

As a white man I feel you're being extremely sensitive here. You've taken a small part of the article seemingly out of context. The author is talking about well meaning but ultimately useless advice from those with the financial means to support themselves indefinitely while they travel or relax. While a generalisation, the ability to build up a cushion of 'fuck you money' tends to correlate with being from a generat…

> the ability to build up a cushion of 'fuck you money' tends to correlate with being from a generation with higher job security

With all due respect - this stability comes from age, not generation. I have a stable life now. As someone born in the late 70's, I have a house, a stable job, and a 401k.

But I didn't have these things at 20 - I was fighting to keep my head above water from month to month after coming off being homeless and jobless. I didn't have it at 25, I had been fired and was couch surfing in CA. I was just starting to get stability at 30 - I had enough experience to get a steady job and enough money to start saving, even after paying bills and debt. It took the next decade to get to where I am today.

Age has re-inforced to me that TANSTAAFL is more than a programming idiom. I've put a lot of directed effort and energy into getting a stable life. Like my parents before me and their parents before them.

EDIT: I'd also like to note that my job security is virtually identical to the rest of my colleagues, a number of whom are in their early 20's. My only advantage over them for stability are the skills I'm honing to keep myself useful to this (and other) companies.

Re: There Is No Cure for Burnout

#69

Post by lr »

> Don’t talk to me about burnout without addressing universal healthcare and worker’s rights. I just don’t want to hear it (or read it, or listen to it, or buy it, or watch it).

That is the real issue: people can't give up their jobs because there is absolutely no way they can afford the health care. The healthcare system in the US is completely broken. This absolutely must be addressed, which is a major point in her post.

Re: There Is No Cure for Burnout

#70

Post by ThrowawayR2 »

0xcde4c3db wrote: post #55
falcolas wrote: post #24

I can’t say I’m a fan of the classism, racism, and sexism in this article. It creates and reinforces repeatedly the trope that burnout is an unavoidable but uniquely millenial problem; that “white men” from Gen X and before don’t get burned out. Fuck that; anyone and everyone can and do get burnt out. Isolating yourself based on your race, class, and generation will not help you get better. That said, I will take thi…

Did we read the same article? As far as I can tell, the only mention of white men is as part of a bigger picture of someone who hit the jackpot with respect to "burnout recovery" options, and so whose advice isn't worth much to the average person suffering burnout. The fact that they're white men isn't presented as a problem per se .

> "white men is as part of a bigger picture of someone who hit the jackpot with respect to "burnout recovery" options"

Wow. Somehow you wrote this statement but you don't see it as dismissive sexist and racist stereotyping just because it's in the reverse direction sexism and racism usually goes? Being reversed doesn't make it okay, at least if you claim to believe in equality.

Post reply on HN