Burnt out on a three-day week • Hacker News Board

Re: Burnt out on a three-day week

#61

Post by iamnothere » Fri, Sep 04, 2026, 4:01 PM UTC

ifwinterco wrote: post #3

Ultimately the common thread in most of these cases seems to be a lack of purpose and meaning in life in general, not really an issue with the specific work environment. The purpose of life is to make meaningful human connections, become wiser, become a better person. This is something that some combination of family, traditional social structures and religion used to provide for a lot of people. "Create shareholder…

There is no singular “purpose of life”, different people are built differently and experience the world in their own way.

Some are lucky enough to get meaning from the default path of those around them, some have trouble finding a way that works for them.

Every person should consider what their own purpose is (and why, and what “purpose” even means for them) or they will be held in thrall to the social forces around them. If they don’t fundamentally align with those forces, they will have a bad time, and they may blame themselves rather than recognizing that they should seek a different path.

Re: Burnt out on a three-day week

#62

Post by burnedbyhell » Fri, Sep 04, 2026, 5:10 PM UTC

Burnout happened to me because I lost my way.

I had worked 25 hard years to LeanFIRE which ag the end burned me out but I knew why. Less than two years later divorce happened. This forced me back into the workforce. I chose a job that fit my values. I have no reason or understanding of why I matter anymore and that has led to significant and severe burnout.

Find a purpose in life and protect it. In the end you can only rely only on yourself.

Re: Burnt out on a three-day week

#63

Post by aeblyve » Fri, Sep 04, 2026, 5:15 PM UTC

ifwinterco wrote: post #3

Ultimately the common thread in most of these cases seems to be a lack of purpose and meaning in life in general, not really an issue with the specific work environment. The purpose of life is to make meaningful human connections, become wiser, become a better person. This is something that some combination of family, traditional social structures and religion used to provide for a lot of people. "Create shareholder…

Oftentimes it's undiagnosed health issues, such as vitamin deficiencies and/or malabsorption conditions such as gluten intolerance preventing proper vitamin levels, that can present much like "inexplicable" burnout, imho.

Re: Burnt out on a three-day week

#64

Post by jennyw111 » Fri, Sep 04, 2026, 5:23 PM UTC

Jenny (the author) here --

I write a newsletter every two weeks (more or less). My primary income comes from consulting, not coaching.

Most of the coaching work I do has nothing to do with burnout and it isn't my specialty. If that's the primary thing you were struggling with I'd probably point you to a different person. That being said, it comes up with most of my clients at some point or another because feeling super worn down seems to be a staple of our current existence (as the debate on this thread shows).

As for how I wrote it, these are real stories of real people that I anonymized. I outlined and drafted everything and I usually dictate my first draft within that outline. I then work with AI to clean it up and help me finesse some things where I get stuck. I already changed that final header which I agree with you was neither the point I was making and sounded like off-the-shelf AI. I always struggle the most with headers and the title. I stand by the ideas as 100% my own.

Ultimately, I've gotten a few folks reaching out saying it provided some useful frameworks and perspectives for them, and I'm glad for the reflection it inspired here around what the purpose of work is and various stories of how you've found satisfaction in your employment. So from that sense I'm quite proud of this one because it's mostly had the desired effect of self-reflection.

Re: Burnt out on a three-day week

#65

Post by josefritzishere » Fri, Sep 04, 2026, 5:26 PM UTC

Expecting life satisfaction to spring forth from work is irrational new age nonsense. You need to pay the rent. You need food on the table. Get paid, and go home. You can work hard and work late if need be, but make time for fulfillment elsewhere. People are unsatisfied because they're looking for self realization in a cubicle and it's usually not going to happen.

Re: Burnt out on a three-day week

#66

Post by burnto » Fri, Sep 04, 2026, 6:02 PM UTC

Weird, I’m usually sensitive to telltales, but I didn’t read it as AI generated enough that I stopped reading, and I found it relevant. I felt like it had a pretty substantial human input behind it, maybe because I related to the stories.

Re: Burnt out on a three-day week

#67

Post by burnto » Fri, Sep 04, 2026, 6:05 PM UTC

I’ve found “burnout” is often shorthand for a feeling that something broke and there’s no complete fix. It’s a scenario where we can’t just get some sleep or take some vacation and be good as new. Even if we go back to the job and look normal-ish to colleagues, there’s a weakened seam where we did the repair, and going back into the environment where the break happened puts stress on that same spot.

So the solution tends to be learning how to avoid injury (boundaries, mental health), and/or a bigger change in the conditions. I think this post is mostly about the latter.

Re: Burnt out on a three-day week

#68

Post by nicbou » Fri, Sep 04, 2026, 6:12 PM UTC

HEmanZ wrote: post #51

nicbou wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my case, my work is being devalued by AI.[0] The same effort nets smaller and smaller returns every month, even though the work is _still_ necessary, because AI does not do original investigative work. It's hard to put work into something that might vanish in a few months. I'm starting to feel something a lot like how people describe burnout. I need to do a bunch of different things to stay afloat, but I ain't got…

I'm feeling the same way, and when I brought it up to some friends in tech it turned out in our group of 8 I was the least depressed. The wife of another friend of mine confided in me that AI replacing his work in such a short time has made him depressed to the point she's getting scared he'll hurt himself. I think we need a support group or something. But I'm too busy burning the candle at both ends trying to "catch…

Thanks for writing this. This is how support groups start, when people find out that they're not the only ones going through this.

When I opened up to friends (and wrote that post), it encouraged a whole lot of people to also open up. We shared tricks, talked it out, and just felt a little bit more seen.

That goes along way.