burnout in learning

Early in my career, I went through a few burnouts. Over time, I learned to recognize the warning signs before they hit. One of the most important lessons for me was the value of transparent communication with managers.

Now, when I start a new job, I tell my manager upfront that I’ve experienced burnout before. I explain that as soon as I feel the signs coming back, I’ll flag it early so we can address it before it becomes a real problem.

I’ve also learned that a little stress can be a healthy motivator. Zero stress often leads to people becoming too laid back. In my last team, we used a simple stress scale from 1 to 10. Everyone regularly shared their stress level on standups, and whenever someone hit a 7, the whole team stepped in to help reduce their workload or pressure.

That system worked very well for me and for my colleagues.

I believe that all learning should provide a sense of security: that of bringing a reinforcing perspective to what we already know. If new learning completely invalidates what already exists, then there is a problem somewhere (i.e., not sufficiently abstract/general?). As far as I'm concerned, I remember getting excellent grades in high school by first memorizing what was in bold in the texts. The rest was then effortlessly retained by my brain. Because I had the framework, the structure, the basic foundation in mind. I sincerely believe that we need to focus on the theoretical, abstract foundations in life. And then let the concrete contingencies graft themselves onto our minds naturally. Of course, the concrete is important in learning, to help the abstract legitimize itself in our eyes and find its place in our heads, but it must not obstruct our sense of priorities or make us phobic of abstraction. It's important, in my humble opinion.

Some languages successfully attempt to lift our heads above water, such as Gleam or PureScript (more advanced). The goal is to (gradually) embrace a coherent theoretical foundation, where everything fits together and enriches each other, without destructive phagocytosis. That's the technical aspect. Obviously, you don't have to believe me or follow me. I'm just offering an altruistic point of view on what has worked for me. After years and years in business using mainstream languages (JS, PHP...), I took a break of a few months, and went through a long learning process with these alternative languages: my wounded pirate-developer heart has been healed.

Then, on a personal level, the body: running (or any other sport). For me, this was one of the two great white knights. Until I reached peaks of 43 miles (70 km) per week (without any suffering). The benefits of sport are real: a structurally guaranteed mental break, massive physiological effects. My heart rate is slower, and my stress management is vastly superior to what it was before. It's very concrete: you can feel it in your brain, your muscles, etc. It's very physical. You just manage better. You're on top of things. And it's natural, no supplements.

Finally, still on a personal level: your mental health. If you can afford it, I suggest taking the time to find the right therapist for you. If it takes 10-20 attempts, do it. It's worth it. Years of support are then possible, and that makes a big difference.

In any case, thank you for sharing your thoughts with us. They are refreshing in a world that is primarily focused on the purely mechanical aspects of things. We are still human beings. We have the right to express our weaknesses, and we have a duty to acknowledge them.

Defeat burnout, defeat Vecna, you will.

Hope you find your potion.

I suspect that most of us who have been at this for a while have experienced burnout. I've certainly experienced it a few times in my career.

Two of the most powerful tools that I've found are very simple, but challenging to use well in practice:

1. Self pacing. I limit my hours, I take plenty of breaks, and I limit my work in progress and my multitasking. When my mind and body tell me to slow down, I listen. Within those limits though, I am still very deliberate about doing good quality work, at a good pace.

2. Communicating with my managers. When I'm overloaded, I ask for help with prioritizing. Which project / issue is more important? How urgent is this? Can I delegate or share some of this? Is the scope or timeline flexible? Do I need to attend every one of these meetings?

Unfortunately, I only really became comfortable with both of these later in my career - once I had a pretty high level of self confidence and a very strong track record. And once I had managers I trusted. And once I decided that I had been through burnout a few too many times, and had watched too many of my peers and leaders burn out.

Obviously those may be harder to do comfortably early in your career, and in times of uncertainty and pressure etc. But, I guarantee that if you don't protect your own time and energy, nobody else will either.

This really hit home. Burnout in learning is real, and I appreciate how you acknowledge that pushing harder or following rigid systems isn’t always the answer - sometimes the healthiest move is to pause and reset.

I've experienced something similar. Basically, my whole life is one big burnout. I throw my projects in the bin, then regret it, then do the same task again, then get tired and quit and go play games. After 20 hours spread out over several days, I return to my project, change everything, delete it, and then do it again. And then I lose all hope. And yet, sometimes I wonder – how come I haven't burned out working on my dream project? The answer is simple – I just haven't had time to do it yet. Lately, I've begun to realize that I'm burning out.

Well, that's normal, man, you just need to take a break. Even though this is clichéd advice, it's basically the only solution other than abandoning everything, IMHO.

Imho, once a burnout arrives, one should really seek professional help through therapy. If a burnout happened once, it can happen again, and therapy can help reduce that chance. Even after recovery, a therapy session every now and again to check in can help to recognize early signs and take measure early enough. Also, if one's aleeady been to therapy because of a burnout, the threshold to go again before it hits the fan can be lower, which can help to reduce the severity.

This hit in a quiet way. Especially the part about the threshold getting lower over time — that’s something people don’t talk about enough. Burnout isn’t always a dramatic crash. Sometimes it’s just… the buffer shrinking. The same effort costs more than it used to.

I also really felt the resistance to schedules and “systems.” A lot of burnout advice assumes you’re a machine that just needs better calibration. Set the alarm. Block the time. Optimize the routine. But when you’re already burnt out, that stuff can feel like another demand rather than support — especially if your brain doesn’t play nicely with rigid structures.

I appreciate that you didn’t try to turn this into a list of solutions. Sometimes naming the shape of the problem is the work. There’s something grounding about hearing someone say, “I don’t have the answer either, but this is real.”

For what it’s worth, I don’t think burnout is always something to be “avoided.” Sometimes it’s information. Not a failure, not a lack of discipline — just a signal that the way things are set up isn’t sustainable for you, even if it looks fine from the outside.

Thanks for writing this. It felt honest, not performative, and that matters more than offering fixes.