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I'm a VC-backed founder who's definitely burned out. I know for certain what caused it, and I know for certain when it became unrecoverable, and I know for cert
by throwaway42668 2y ago
I'm a VC-backed founder who's definitely burned out. I know for certain what caused it, and I know for certain when it became unrecoverable, and I know for certain that I charged ahead deeper into it anyway because I had little other choice at the time. There's also a very strong sort of sunk-cost/devil-you-know thing with burnout that sucks you down the rabbit hole.
You simultaneously feel like you're too burned out to be able to do some entirely new thing, if you can even muster the energy to engage in the switching process (e.g. job hunting, etc.), and the familiarity of the thing that's burning you out brings its own kind of perverse comfort.
However, now that I've been deeeeeep in it for a couple years (still doing the thing that's burning me the whole time and even now) I've developed an appreciation for what it probably really is... existential malaise. That's a really useful thing to experience. Because it can be used to redefine a superficial value system you've adopted, to get to this point of dread in the first place, toward things you do actually find personally fulfilling for their own sake. Sometimes in dramatic fashion.
- consp 2y ago> You simultaneously feel like you're too burned out to be able to do some entirely new thing, if you can even muster the energy to engage in the switching process (e.g. job hunting, etc.), and the familiarity of the thing that's burning you out brings its own kind of perverse comfort. This describes an average Monday. Though I would not describe it as comfort but as continuous eternal pain you try very hard to ignore.
- mixtureoftakes 2y ago[flagged]
- adamc 2y agoI could same the same of depression (in my case, arising from divorce). Difficult times enable values clarification.
- hobs 2y agoThe problem with this journey into lived nihilism is that it so often ends with suicide. Stay safe.
- throwaway42668 2y agoThanks. Appreciate it. I'm probably fortunate that I came to grips with that whole end of things 20 years prior to work-induced burnout. I can probably safely credit the experiences for both the relative ease with which I went down the burnout hole and the relative ease of building a mindset for dealing with it. Everything has its unsigned and signed integers.
- hobs 2y agoOof, like looking in a mirror. Maybe I shouldn't start that company then.
- throwaway42668 2y agoMaybe. Dunno. Depends a lot on so many things. I mean, I'm excited about doing another startup after this one using everything I've learned about how I actually want to be spending my time and what kinds of users/customers/people I want to be interacting with everyday.
- rubicon33 2y ago> toward things you do actually find personally fulfilling for their own sake. Sometimes in dramatic fashion. Go on…