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I’m going to miss you, but I am taking a sabbatical

kottke.org

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Re: I’m going to miss you, but I am taking a sabbatical

#41

Post by MontyCarloHall »

jpadkins wrote: post #36
MontyCarloHall wrote: post #34

Jason posts a handful of cool links each week and occasionally writes a few paragraphs about them. He also sometimes produces a podcast. As far as I can tell, this is the full extent of his job. It’s really hard to imagine getting “burnt out” from this. It sounds exactly how many people actively enjoy spending their free time: surf the internet for fun and take a few minutes sharing a couple cool links with your frie…

maybe people just need to take a break from the internet? especially people who have been a part of the internet for almost the whole time of the commercial web.

It really rubs me the wrong way that someone claims to be "burnt out" from a job that probably requires an average of an hour or two a day of non-taxing work. I'd love to see Jason say with a straight face that he's "burnt out" to a minimum wage worker who works 12+ hours days, 7 days a week, or even to your average office drone who spends 8 hours a day pushing TPS reports without any breaks in a soulless cubicle. It just seems really tone deaf and privileged, especially given how much Jason has loved to post about issues regarding privilege as of late.

It's on the level of someone saying they're "malnourished" because they had to give up a daily diet of Michelin Star-level restaurant food.

Re: I’m going to miss you, but I am taking a sabbatical

#42

Post by edmcnulty101 »

MontyCarloHall wrote: post #41
jpadkins wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

maybe people just need to take a break from the internet? especially people who have been a part of the internet for almost the whole time of the commercial web.

It really rubs me the wrong way that someone claims to be "burnt out" from a job that probably requires an average of an hour or two a day of non-taxing work. I'd love to see Jason say with a straight face that he's "burnt out" to a minimum wage worker who works 12+ hours days, 7 days a week, or even to your average office drone who spends 8 hours a day pushing TPS reports without any breaks in a soulless cubicle. It…

I got the same feeling.

Wish I had the luxury to tell my boss , hey I'm burnt out, be back in 6 months or so.

Re: I’m going to miss you, but I am taking a sabbatical

#43

Post by thecrumb »

Must be wonderful to actually have the luxury to step away... I'm living the American dream - to work a non-rewarding job for no other reason other than health insurance. How do people manage these sabbaticals? Are they just wealthy enough so they don't need income?

Re: I’m going to miss you, but I am taking a sabbatical

#44

Post by Adraghast »

smohnot wrote: post #24

I have to admit, I will miss the blog. Post the demise of RSS it's one of the few places I check in on directly every few days. What are your other favorites that might help me fill the gap?

> Post the demise of RSS it's one of the few places I check in on directly every few days.

What do you mean by this? I saw the announcement in my RSS reader before seeing it here.

> What are your other favorites that might help me fill the gap?

I actually just purged a lot of my media consumption for "burnout" related reasons of my own, but can second some of the recommendations Jason included at the end of the post like Colossal and Open Culture. He also posted this a couple years back:

https://kottke.org/18/04/blogging-is-most-certainly-not-dead

Re: I’m going to miss you, but I am taking a sabbatical

#45

Post by tylergetsay »

thecrumb wrote: post #43

Must be wonderful to actually have the luxury to step away... I'm living the American dream - to work a non-rewarding job for no other reason other than health insurance. How do people manage these sabbaticals? Are they just wealthy enough so they don't need income?

If a knowledgeable person on your team is burnt out and considering a new job, a long (paid) vacation can be advantageous for all.

Re: I’m going to miss you, but I am taking a sabbatical

#46

Post by munificent »

thecrumb wrote: post #43

Must be wonderful to actually have the luxury to step away... I'm living the American dream - to work a non-rewarding job for no other reason other than health insurance. How do people manage these sabbaticals? Are they just wealthy enough so they don't need income?

> Are they just wealthy enough so they don't need income?

There's a sliding scale here. Few are wealthy enough that they don't need income forever. But many can save up enough to take a few weeks or a few months off. More like a long unpaid vacation.

Re: I’m going to miss you, but I am taking a sabbatical

#47

Post by munificent »

MontyCarloHall wrote: post #34

Jason posts a handful of cool links each week and occasionally writes a few paragraphs about them. He also sometimes produces a podcast. As far as I can tell, this is the full extent of his job. It’s really hard to imagine getting “burnt out” from this. It sounds exactly how many people actively enjoy spending their free time: surf the internet for fun and take a few minutes sharing a couple cool links with your frie…

The emotional experience of an activity is 10% the activity itself and 90% the framing around the activity and what it means for your life.

It's not the surfing and posting links. It's the knowing if I don't surf and post sufficiently interesting links every day, I can't afford my health insurance. The stakes are much higher in the latter.

Re: I’m going to miss you, but I am taking a sabbatical

#48

Post by jcims »

chizhik-pyzhik wrote: post #3

He should probably plant the fig tree outside, at this point. (Not sure how that fits in to the analogy.)

Probably that he should put himself into reality rather than the facsimile that's necessarily created through the editorial process.

Re: I’m going to miss you, but I am taking a sabbatical

#49

Post by bombcar »

edmcnulty101 wrote: post #42
MontyCarloHall wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It really rubs me the wrong way that someone claims to be "burnt out" from a job that probably requires an average of an hour or two a day of non-taxing work. I'd love to see Jason say with a straight face that he's "burnt out" to a minimum wage worker who works 12+ hours days, 7 days a week, or even to your average office drone who spends 8 hours a day pushing TPS reports without any breaks in a soulless cubicle. It…

I got the same feeling. Wish I had the luxury to tell my boss , hey I'm burnt out, be back in 6 months or so.

The term used to be ennui in this case - but burnout makes you sound more like you’re “one of us” I guess.

Re: I’m going to miss you, but I am taking a sabbatical

#50

Post by the_lonely_road »

thecrumb wrote: post #43

Must be wonderful to actually have the luxury to step away... I'm living the American dream - to work a non-rewarding job for no other reason other than health insurance. How do people manage these sabbaticals? Are they just wealthy enough so they don't need income?

You can buy your own insurance policy. You only chose to use your company provided insurance because they pay for half of it and no rational person takes on a large expense for no reason. If you can afford to take six months off and travel to Europe you can afford to pay full rate for insurance for 6 months while you do it and they go back to a half priced company policy when you get back.
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