The Burnout Generation

  • BookNotes The Burnout Generation
    • The book is very US-centric, for this reason alone it is not recommended for people living outside US.
    • With the way the US works, we see it’s a perfect ground for burnout: student debt, expensive health care, crazy real estate prices.
    • The majority of people in the US have a lot of responsibilities due to the above facts, but very little control over how to approach them.
    • Responsibility without agency is a simple way to burnout (illustrated with a case of social workers).
    • The only universal insights I found in this book are those that mirrored Viktor Frankl’s “A Man’s Search for Meaning” and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi “Flow”.
    • If your job or life doesn’t have a meaning, you’ll burn out quickly.
    • If your job or life provides flow (the feeling of getting lost in an activity that provides just enough challenge to keep you stimulated) you’ll be less prone to burnout.
    • Coding is a career that is known to provide flow which is good. On the other hand, it can also provide responsibility without agency which is burnout-inducing.
    • Your job is not your life. Your job is not who you are. Defining yoursefl only in terms of your job and professional achievements is a way to burnout.
    • Invest (your time) in hobbies and social interactions to balance the stress generated by your job.
  • The Burnout Generation

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