15+ years in the "industry" and I'm slowly losing my ability to be self motivated. I'm tired of the grind most days.

But any time someone comes to me with a problem they're stuck on, I'm instantly motivated.

Am I burnt out or just transitioning?

transitioning

you got something else in mind

burnout only comes when you're forcing yourself to do something you don't like -- it saps your body of resources like doing too big a physical stretch and damaging ligaments

@jestdotty

> burnout only comes when you're forcing yourself to do something you don't like

no. it generally happens when you over-use your resources for too long.

doesn't matter if you like what you're doing or not - if you're constantly working at or above your limit, some day you're gonna break. how much you like something does indeed affect how taxing a certain job is, but stress is stress. you can still burn yourself out on something you love.

@tosensei um no

I can code for 3 days without sleeping and no burnout

you know what happens eventually?

_you want to sleep instead of code_

and _then_ if you keep pushing ahead ignoring that, you get "burnout"

but if you're in tune with what you want you can never burn out

people think something else because they are _not_ in tune with what they want. we're not really taught that as a society. instead we're taught that such things are selfish and we should be other-focused instead, and that is somehow holy and enlightened when it is not. meditation or sitting in silence without distractions lets you know yourself and your own motivations, and centers you, and then you "cure burnout" as those lame HR people keep awkwardly pushing but that's the basis behind it that they actually themselves don't understand so it's pretty funny

Yeah, as @jestdotty said, I've had projects I enjoyed previously and could burn days on without issue, but as soon as I had other priorities, they started to grind on me and make me tired when working on them.

@tosensei @jestdotty, I had an extreme version of burnout that was caused by top notch performance, for years long, werking extra voluntarily investing 100% of my resources and did it happy and with pride. Besides that, I lived a unhealthy life. But, it was OK. I was happy. But then something changed and I just couldn't handle it anymore. It could've been simply also aging as well. And I started to fail to figure things out what was kinda new. But then that became often. And I don't accept failure so kept on going, even when burnout and that led to a psychosis.

But for me, burnout happened because using your resources 100% without having any buffer left for problems. The resources were spent on 80% working, 20% drinking. And what it really drove to a psychosis - I had the attitude that whatever happens, I wouldn't drop dead so I kept on going and going. That last thing, oh my god. If death is the only think that would suck. Psychosis almost worse. So we learn.

you'd make a good manager tbh

@retoor to be fair you were overworking because you thought you could fix it if you worked just a little harder, if I remember correctly

I recently heard this was a typical cope software developers all do which is also pretty funny. have problem? just solve harder!

but solving harder in some situations just gives you more problems. or worse. and everything you solve is just simply rejected. and you can't solve it. now what? now your whole existence falls apart. you want the problem to be over but it refuses to be over. so you just work harder. until you fall apart. because nothing is solving it