A Hidden Truth About Burnout
March 2026
A lot of people believe that burnout is, at least in part, a product of excessively high workload. However, I believe there is actually no correlation between the two.
Burnout is characterized by a loss of motivation and interest. It often occurs when one works very hard, is repeatedly failing, and (crucially) believes that their efforts both are not leading anywhere and will not lead anywhere in the foreseeable future. On the other hand, even if progress is very hard work, one doesn't feel burnout when working on something that genuinely gives them purpose and is succeeding.
What one should not conclude from this observation is that one must somehow circumvent failure to avoid burnout. If that were the case, we would be doomed and living in nerd pandemonium. The journey to creating anything original and of value is bound to feature a long road of mistakes and failures. (An attempt to avoid mistakes leads to such slow movement that there is no progress. Make reversible decisions fast.) Rather than foolishly trying to avoid making mistakes, a good way to minimize burnout is thinking in terms of long term goals and being highly open to reimagining the specific path leading there. If you do this, you will not see failures as a sign of lack of progress toward your mission, but rather as triggers for making strategic pivots in your path towards the same mission. In fact, finding out what doesn't work and learning from that can be very important progress. It's a good idea to be firm about your big vision and flexible about what happens in the in-between.