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Ask HN: What to do if you are ridiculously burnt out?

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Re: Ask HN: What to do if you are ridiculously burnt out?

#61

Post by oulu2006 »

nso wrote: post #7

I quit my job, sold my house, sold all my stuff and moved to a lazy beach town near the equator. Never felt happier, never felt more rested, never thought as clearly as I do now. Totally not answering you question when it comes to finishing the project, but sometimes you just have to call it quits because your health is more important than yet-another-website. If you are ever in Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca, Mexico -- gi…

Sounds like a great plan; I'm moving to Brazil for a bit to do the same thing. Not for too long the first time, but with an intention to scope out the place and find some incubators I can hack in; been learning portuguese for the last year to make it easier for me to do. I found English fluency was a lot less in Brazil than it was in other non-english speaking countries I had been to.

Re: Ask HN: What to do if you are ridiculously burnt out?

#62

Post by Jemaclus »

I have yet to run into any work-related problem that simply can't wait until tomorrow. If you put in a solid 6-8 hour day, then you've earned the right to let the rest go until tomorrow morning. I don't take my work home with me -- it can wait. I don't check my email when I'm at home -- it can wait. It's not my fault my colleagues check their mail when they're at home, and it's not my fault my manager sets unreasonable expectations. I can only do so much, so when I'm done for the day, I'm done for the day.

Your mileage may vary, but whenever I feel the way you feel, I ask myself, "Will anything change if I stay another 2 hours, or will it be exactly the same tomorrow morning, after a fresh night of sleep?" and the answer is almost "exactly the same." So I go home, have a nice dinner, relax with my girlfriend, and get a good night's sleep so I'm ready to tackle the problem again the next day.

And if I'm ever in a situation where someone is harassing me to work extra hours for no extra pay, that's the day I quit.

Work shouldn't be stressful in a bad way. (There is such thing as good stress.) If it is, someone is being unreasonable -- it may be you, it may be your colleagues, it may be your boss, but either way, it's time to step back and look at the big picture.

Can this wait until tomorrow?

Yes, it can.

Re: Ask HN: What to do if you are ridiculously burnt out?

#63

Post by ptaipale »

mod wrote: post #49
aerovistae wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you speak Spanish??

Not GP, but I moved to Costa Rica for a few months in 2013. Depending where you go, you can get away with very little to no English. I was in a (tiny) surfing town, Playa Grande. It gets a lot of foreign surfers, and so all the locals speak English. Many ex-pats live there year-round. Nearby is Tamarindo, very similar there, and a much bigger town. I can order food and ask for directions and have basic conversations…

I suppose you mean you can get away with little to no Spanish, so English is OK?

Re: Ask HN: What to do if you are ridiculously burnt out?

#64

Post by nikanj »

staunch wrote: post #4

Are you sure you haven't buried yourself in a technical hole of despair? If you have, it may be faster to treat your existing version as a prototype and rewrite a highly simplified version (an "MVP"). You can probably reuse a lot of the existing code and fix all of the big mistakes that are dragging you down, like not using React. Make it your goal to get it released by a certain date and stick to it. Ruthlessly cut…

In my opinion, if you don't know if you have a product-market fit, there's no point in effectively doubling your "bet" in the existence of the market by rewriting the prototype.

So you're not using the best possible tech, but neither scalability nor performance matters when there's absolutely no users. Once you get at least some traction you can make more informed decisions about the rewrite, but right now you'd be just throwing more coding hours into creating something that might not have a market.

I agree with the last chapter 100% though, just throw the baby in the pool and see if it can swim. Our launch version had a lot of features implemented as "one of the founders is going to do it manually if you click on the button". Then we automated the tasks we actually had to do more than once per hour.

Re: Ask HN: What to do if you are ridiculously burnt out?

#65

Post by yanokwa »

nso wrote: post #7

I quit my job, sold my house, sold all my stuff and moved to a lazy beach town near the equator. Never felt happier, never felt more rested, never thought as clearly as I do now. Totally not answering you question when it comes to finishing the project, but sometimes you just have to call it quits because your health is more important than yet-another-website. If you are ever in Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca, Mexico -- gi…

Ha! I also sold all my stuff and I'm in Puerto Escondido too. Wanna grab a beer?

Re: Ask HN: What to do if you are ridiculously burnt out?

#66

Post by jtfairbank »

sillysaurus3 wrote: post #26
ggreer wrote: post #10

Sometimes, the best way to accomplish your goals is to work nonstop. Sometimes, it's more productive to dial back and make a long, sustained effort. Sometimes, the thing you're working on isn't worth the effort, so you do something else. No matter what you choose, I strongly recommend you talk to your buddy. Don't vent, but try to help him understand what you're going through. Tell him what needs to change, and be co…

Don't vent Actually, it seems like a major problem is if they don't have anyone to vent to. The fact that they're making an HN post suggests they might not. The HN post is of course more than welcome. What I'm saying is, they need someone in their personal life to vent to about all of this, otherwise they're going to start making bad decisions.

I vent to my cofounders all the time. Sometimes its about the other (we always circle around the next day and have a more thought out discussion), sometimes its about my work or more general stress. Definitely helpful getting through those tense moments and back to work, I really appreciate another perspective.

Re: Ask HN: What to do if you are ridiculously burnt out?

#69

Post by anonymous_ »

oulu2006 wrote: post #61
nso wrote: post #7

I quit my job, sold my house, sold all my stuff and moved to a lazy beach town near the equator. Never felt happier, never felt more rested, never thought as clearly as I do now. Totally not answering you question when it comes to finishing the project, but sometimes you just have to call it quits because your health is more important than yet-another-website. If you are ever in Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca, Mexico -- gi…

Sounds like a great plan; I'm moving to Brazil for a bit to do the same thing. Not for too long the first time, but with an intention to scope out the place and find some incubators I can hack in; been learning portuguese for the last year to make it easier for me to do. I found English fluency was a lot less in Brazil than it was in other non-english speaking countries I had been to.

Hey, Brazil is big. Any idea where you're going to?

Re: Ask HN: What to do if you are ridiculously burnt out?

#70

Post by nandemo »

yanokwa wrote: post #65
nso wrote: post #7

I quit my job, sold my house, sold all my stuff and moved to a lazy beach town near the equator. Never felt happier, never felt more rested, never thought as clearly as I do now. Totally not answering you question when it comes to finishing the project, but sometimes you just have to call it quits because your health is more important than yet-another-website. If you are ever in Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca, Mexico -- gi…

Ha! I also sold all my stuff and I'm in Puerto Escondido too. Wanna grab a beer?

Looks like that puerto isn't very escondido after all...
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