Extremely disillusioned with technology. Please help

Work on interesting things or make the things you're working on interesting. Don't work only for yourself; take on the mind of a servant and you'll often be grateful. Don't look for total fulfillment from the things you can see, or the things that pass away. Store up treasures in a place that won't fade away.

Holy crap lmao.

Are you completely oblivious as to how much of a dick you sound like? Here's a societies claimed moral compass nice thing to do: tell him you aren't friends, possibly give him the reasons why, and leave it like that.

Don't come to HN trying to humble yourself in posting this. I bet you're a ton of fun

Exactly, if you aren't willingly hanging out with each other outside of work, you aren't friends, you're just friendly.

I work in academia and get mild burnout twice a year (after the semester ends). I have actually found Churchill's advice on overcoming burnout quite helpful -- in short, find several real (physical) hobbies like painting or gardening.

Here are some excellent quotes from Churchill's small book "Painting as a Pasttime":

Painting as a Pastime by Winston Churchill

The tired part of the mind can be rested and strengthen, not merely by rest, but by using other parts.

It is no use saying to the tired 'mental muscles' – if one: such an expression – 'I will give you a good rest,' 'I will go for a long walk,' or 'I will lie down and think of nothing.' The mind keeps busy just the same. If it has been weighing and measuring, it goes on weighing and measuring. If it has been worrying, it goes on worrying. It is only when new cells are called into activity, when new stars become the lords of ascendant, that relief, repose, refreshment are afforded.

To be really happy and really safe, one ought to have at least two or three hobbies, and they must all be real.

The need of an alternative outlook, of a change of atmosphere, of a diversion of effort, is essential.

The most common form of diversion is reading.

'What shall I do with all my books?' was the question; and the answer, 'Read them,' sobered the questioner. But if you cannot read them, at any rate handle them and, as it were, fondle them. Peer into them. Let them fall open where they will. Read on from the first sentence that arrests the eye. Then turn to another. Make a voyage of discovery, taking soundings of uncharted seas. Set them back on their shelves with your own hands.

Since change is an essential element in diversion of all kinds, it is naturally more restful and refreshing to read in a different language from that in which one's ordinary daily work is done. To have a second language at your disposal, even if you only know it enough to read it with pleasure, is a sensible advantage.

To restore psychic equilibrium we should call into use those parts of the mind which direct both eye and hand. Many men have found great advantage in practicing a handicraft for pleasure.

But best of all and easiest to procure are sketching and painting in all their forms.

We must not be too ambitious. We cannot aspire to masterpieces. We may content ourselves with a joyride in the paint-box.

> There's what you love, and there's what you do. It's best to keep some distance:

Underrated piece of advice. Keep the way you make money and your passions separate. You love photography? Great, do it on weekends. If you become a pro you'll end up photographing weddings and hating your life and the thing you thought you loved.