The only reliable check for burnout I've found is thinking of whether I expect enough success from my project as will justify the effort I put in. This seems much more predictive than hours worked, or how burned out you feel (often NOT burned out just before you collapse, as you struggle to get something over the finish line). You should be getting more from a project than what you put in, not vice versa.
In that context, I don't think of "sustainability" as a reliable, long-term sustainability, but more along the lines of "will the amount of gut-expected success from this project actually make me feel energy-positive afterward?" A lot of people seem to only be tracking abstract expected impact in a way that they do not believe on a gut level, and I think being real about your feeling of "success" here can really improve matters. Obviously success can include things like working with great people on a great bet that doesn't pan out, but it's easy to fool yourself that a bet is worth it if you're not serious about your gut. Lots of good people and good bets will still not reach your gut's bar.
Knowing other people reading this are similar to me in relevant ways, I encourage people to chat with an LLM about how all this cashes out (or just what “burnout” means) at a physiological and systems level if interested
In the name of making it convenient but at risk of adding to the pile of LLM slop, here’s a description from Claude:
“Burnout manifests as a progressive failure of stress-regulation where initial sympathetic hyperactivity and elevated cortisol secretion transitions to paradoxical hyporesponsiveness, triggering systemic inflammation, altered brain connectivity, mitochondrial inefficiency, and disrupted recovery mechanisms. This represents not simply exhaustion but a fundamental recalibration of biological thresholds across neural, endocrine, and immune systems—the endpoint when chronic demands persistently exceed the body's regulatory capacity, creating a self-perpetuating cycle of physiological dysregulation and diminished resilience.“
My hopefully-accurate takeaway is:
1) this is the result of excessive physiological arousal (largely but not only sympathetic aka fight or flight nervous system activation, which I think is something you can basically teach yourself to identify/notice in yourself)
And
2) …to the point that recovery basically stops doing its thing, one level of homeostasis (basic healthy recovery) fails and another worse one kicks in (making you incapable of doing things so that you’re forced to rest and recover but like also maybe you just don’t listen and the negative feedback cycle continues
This was a good post! It's a compelling read and also importantly correct
The only reliable check for burnout I've found is thinking of whether I expect enough success from my project as will justify the effort I put in. This seems much more predictive than hours worked, or how burned out you feel (often NOT burned out just before you collapse, as you struggle to get something over the finish line). You should be getting more from a project than what you put in, not vice versa.
In that context, I don't think of "sustainability" as a reliable, long-term sustainability, but more along the lines of "will the amount of gut-expected success from this project actually make me feel energy-positive afterward?" A lot of people seem to only be tracking abstract expected impact in a way that they do not believe on a gut level, and I think being real about your feeling of "success" here can really improve matters. Obviously success can include things like working with great people on a great bet that doesn't pan out, but it's easy to fool yourself that a bet is worth it if you're not serious about your gut. Lots of good people and good bets will still not reach your gut's bar.
great post! If your org’s burn out protection relies entirely on employees’ self-advocacy, your org doesn’t have burn out protection.
I think relying on self-advocacy especially fails for young, eager employees who haven’t internalized that they need boundaries.
Knowing other people reading this are similar to me in relevant ways, I encourage people to chat with an LLM about how all this cashes out (or just what “burnout” means) at a physiological and systems level if interested
In the name of making it convenient but at risk of adding to the pile of LLM slop, here’s a description from Claude:
“Burnout manifests as a progressive failure of stress-regulation where initial sympathetic hyperactivity and elevated cortisol secretion transitions to paradoxical hyporesponsiveness, triggering systemic inflammation, altered brain connectivity, mitochondrial inefficiency, and disrupted recovery mechanisms. This represents not simply exhaustion but a fundamental recalibration of biological thresholds across neural, endocrine, and immune systems—the endpoint when chronic demands persistently exceed the body's regulatory capacity, creating a self-perpetuating cycle of physiological dysregulation and diminished resilience.“
My hopefully-accurate takeaway is:
1) this is the result of excessive physiological arousal (largely but not only sympathetic aka fight or flight nervous system activation, which I think is something you can basically teach yourself to identify/notice in yourself)
And
2) …to the point that recovery basically stops doing its thing, one level of homeostasis (basic healthy recovery) fails and another worse one kicks in (making you incapable of doing things so that you’re forced to rest and recover but like also maybe you just don’t listen and the negative feedback cycle continues