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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

#101

Post by ipaddr »

rockinghigh wrote: post #96
reggieband wrote: post #62

I watch a lot of YouTube and a fair amount of Twitch. Sooner or later every creator talks a bit about their anxiety working in that content creator grind. On Twitch, taking a day off may mean losing hundreds of subscribers. Streamers are cautious about taking bathroom breaks since they can lose thousands of viewers during a short break. YouTube ruthlessly punishes creators that don't upload on a consistent schedule.…

> YouTube ruthlessly punishes creators that don't upload on a consistent schedule. I imagine TikTok and Instagram are similar. Older videos are naturally downranked because users want fresh content. The age of a post is a strong predictor of user interaction. However, it doesn't mean Youtube actively punishes less frequent creators. YouTube actually promotes a lot of old content (>1 year old) compared to other platfo…

They do punish you. If you fall outside of the formula you will lose a lot of traffic but posting too much pushes your older content out of the formula so posting too much means any one video won't get scale.

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

#102

Post by naikrovek »

mkr-hn wrote: post #60
naikrovek wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoted post unavailable.

I wish therapy were more accessible and better regulated. You shouldn't have to still be so upset about a normal early adopter experience 27 years later that you unload on strangers like this.

in no way should this be normal.

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

#103

Post by thevardanian »

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…

And I would like to see that minimum wage worker in America say they're "burnt out" to third-world country workers. You would think the old "think about the starving children in Africa" retort would die out by now... Just because things can be worse doesn't mean things aren't bad. Making things better, not worse, should always be the goal.

On the same note suicidal or depressed people can similarly be called privileged, spoiled, or what have you, but that would seriously be tone-deaf.

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

#104

Post by dylan604 »

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?

I had a friend live like a hermit for a year. He never spent money on anything he didn't absolutely need. To see him, you had to go to his place as he never went out. All of this was leading up to him taking a planned sabbatical and traveling through SE Asia. When he returned, because everthing was so much cheaper for him there, he had way more savings left than he anticipated. That afforded him the freedom to continue the sabbatical visiting as many national parks as he could. Eventually, he returned to the grind.

You just need to be disciplined.

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

#105

Post by staticcaucasian »

lastofthemojito wrote: post #79

I see myself in Jason Kottke's writing about burnout. I used to occasionally marvel that I got paid (and paid pretty well!) to solve problems in software. The past few years I've felt mired in Jira/Agile hell, working on machines slowed by corporate-mandated anti-virus and whatever other spyware, building software that is often thrown away due to unrealistic requirements or just plain bad requirements gathering. I've…

I just want to say, every one of your bullet points resonated with me - work hurdles, fatherhood, aging parents, societal ugliness. Let me be your clone and perhaps you can be mine - go take the sabbatical.

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

#106

Post by MrDresden »

SQueeeeeL wrote: post #58
tylergetsay wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Most managers don't have the luxury of being Gabe Newell from Valve. They'll just fire you as soon as you sound like your numbers are going down with some cause. Even if in the long run it'll be better, most managers only work at companies for 4 years, under VPs who only work their 6 or 7 years. The long term health of the team isn't a priority for anyone.

I tried to quit 2 months ago due to burnout. My manager told me to rather go on extended sick leave, and contact him in 6 months if I felt like coming back.

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

#107

Post by iratewizard »

naikrovek wrote: post #102
mkr-hn wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish therapy were more accessible and better regulated. You shouldn't have to still be so upset about a normal early adopter experience 27 years later that you unload on strangers like this.

in no way should this be normal.

The high school popularity contest continues forever, sadly. You learn to play it or play something else with a few close friends.

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

#109

Post by echelon »

manquer wrote: post #80
mwidell wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Youtube does not punish you if you are not consistent. That is simply a myth. There are plenty of very successful youtubers who only publish occasionally or irregularly.

This is the same as between making tv series of 5-6 episodes or one of 24 episodes/season or a soap opera doing 200+ episodes a year. YT as a platform works for all kinds of producers , but as a content creator you are the in the space of high volume low quality content then yes publishing frequently is a must. However if you are high quality low volume creator who is almost guaranteed tens of million views you could…

It's almost as if YouTube can distinguish between the type and quality of content when choosing how to weight distribution.

(I'm sure it does, and I'd like to know more about the algorithm.)

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

#110

Post by ajb »

Kottke is not a blog I follow. I don't know why but nevertheless the domain feels reputable to me. I know I've read a small number of articles there over the years, none of which I specifically recall, but that must have been good enough that when I look at this domain I think "this is going to be thoughtful, not bombastic or trying to sell me something". Now I will look and see if this recollection is correct...
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