How to Avoid Burnout | Cal Newport and Lex Fridman

Lex Fridman Podcast full episode: • Cal Newport: Deep Work...
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Cal Newport is a computer scientist who also writes about productivity.
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[@DarpaProperty]

The way I avoid burnout is by making “busy” as part of my normal routine. I don’t work expecting to be free, I work as if there’s no other way. Free time is even more enjoyable this way because you don’t expect it. Less expectations equals less disappointments.

[@RandomRabbit007]

Very true. I feel like some burnout/panic attack is a part of the maturation process. We all need a mental breakdown every once in a while to bring a balance

[@DarpaProperty]

@@RandomRabbit007 this is the first thing I say to depressed people I talk to, smile that you’re getting wiser, keep going.

[@RandomRabbit007]

@@DarpaProperty Exactly bro

[@fscottfitzgerald115]

yikes. Very toxic mindset. It won't last, and you'll be paralyzed.

[@Badboyifier]

year 2 into recovery..have definitely more happy moments than 2 years ago

[@deletrious]

I think there is a difference between passion burnout vs physiological burnout. Both should be considered when talking about burnout.

[@bryceallen1334]

Burnout is what happens after losing so many times that you forget the thrill of winning.

[@allenwixted1992]

Burned out from working at Apple and doing my masters. Took me 3 months off to recover honestly

[@Spkr4TRUTH]

Don’t do your masters... it’s bad enough being a slave, but when you bend over for them... that’s prostitution bro.

[@allenwixted1992]

@@Spkr4TRUTH past tense

[@Spkr4TRUTH]

@@allenwixted1992 I’m glad

[@c3ramics]

@@Spkr4TRUTH As a grad student working and finishing my masters, its case by case what the masters is used for. In my case it supplements my research at work. Although companies will encourage the masters, the project/thesis is a good way to set yourself to leave to another place with your newfound expertise. It’s not an easy path to walk, but I agree that you need a good reason for doing the masters.

[@Spkr4TRUTH]

@@c3ramics 😂 i thought you were referring to “masters” as in overlords.. 😂 That changes the whole context

[@azonto1232]

Great subject. I'd love more on this, with experts if that even exists or atleast more on it. I used to work hard to become a professional footballer, arguably the hardest thing you can become, because so much things are needed on so many different things. And hardship wasn't rare, all life has been a building path to have a successtory in the sense it's been so much. Therefore i carried all on my shoulders, the familys future possibilities too i felt. I had way too much on my shoulders but it was ok i thought, trained 3 times a day while maxing out every other part of my life to live and do the absolute most. Struggle today or experience hell today for a better tomorrow kind of thing even though i liked the regimes of training, loved it. But when it felt like it started to get easier and the feeling of carrying all was left of my shoulders, then i collapsed physically. I was 16. People don't think it's possible at 16 but i had been through more than most adults back then and they had no idea. Those i spoke with were shooked, and ultimately it was only one way it would go, it was unsustainable with all the stress, pressure and the level at which i was effictivising my productivity, never being happy or feeling it was enough, therefore time managing untill minutes thinking i could do it even more and do thing better, it's how you succeed and how you go under at the same time, lessons should be learned from people who burn out completely.. How i collapsed was i started to not be able to talk to people, men, friends, women. I felt everyone looked at me and i got nervous all the time, i couldn't controll my actions or my reactions. When i was in a conversation confident joking, i started to feel all fun go away from my feelings, all feeling go out, i got embarassed, nervous, couldn't talk, became very self concious/abashed. I before was the most social person, talked with everyone, social or not, bullied, popular, whatever i was comfortable with my self and very confident but now i couldn't trust my own face anymore, or my own head anymore, so naturally i felt smaller, i started to engage in less interactions and draw away from people. I tried to figure out what the problem was, i changed schools (high schools) as i thought they weren't as high achieving as me and it was that which impacted me. Ultimately i dropped out, drew myself out of social situations more and more and ultimately all of them, i wasn't myself at all and couldn't handle it. I stayed at home for a year and it wasn't the case where i was lazy, i had been the most high achieving person in all the places i had been in, the one who knew the most when i spoke to people about what we wanted and where we wanted to go and why. After i was home for a year, without social interactions obviously i started to feel depressed and isolated. Got dissociation and more . It went on for a long time in multiple faces untill rockbottom when i was 18 when i tried to end my life but was too weak to do it. (I didn't do another thing from 16 to 18) Obviously this have made me sad cause i lost a lot of years. I'm now 22 and it's only really now it's starting to go back to something i could even compare, but the social part is still far from what it was. I have got back on track now the last year to really improve in life, now discovering new passions and the thing Lex and Cal talk about with seasons and doing different things. i don't think most will burn out, most that go the academic route may not. You have to have some profession where you can just go on one path and just only do that and identify with that, maybe it's an escape mechanism idk, but it isn't good if you fall down doing it. While pro footballers stories might sound similar based on how they made it and how it's sometimes portrayed how they made it "themselves", i think it's mostly made up or made to look that way cause it's partly how they viewed they solved the problem. It's not actually the truth, because you need a good support system that care for you and you need to feel good and have a +- on your energy levels week to week or month to month, cause if always on negative in the hopes you'll "make it" by x months or years, you may brake down and it's not sustainable. Balance essentially. The grind and hustle mentality is true in the sense some could do a lot more and be way more creative with solving ideas or put themselves out there more but for some they can do that to the word, essentially be that mindset, which i was. I was listening to Eric Thomas and i was exactly like the person you'd think you can be when listening to it. The problem was, i thought you couldn't break. No one really told med about what a burn out really was or how deep it could go or how it could make all the other things become nothing. So find meaning like Jordan Peterson says, and learn from all you can and don't get scared by this. And i won't tell you how to live your life cause i don't know, but this is what could happen if you burn out too hard.

[@vascoguerreiro341]

this guy is amazing

[@denzilstudios7072]

I'll never burnout, i'm just to lazy. There is great virtue in being a lazy person.

[@starcrib]

HHahaha....like the drop dead drunk in an Earthquake- everyone dies- but he stumbled away unscathed. 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

[@luar8200]

2:05 to 3:47

[@narej3059]

David F. Wallas was burnout for real, writing all that killed him

[@Jarrettmonty99]

when lex said "dfw said the key to life is ..." I thought, wallace.. giving advice on how to LIVE life?? lol bad joke but I think he had a point for sure. I also don't know that anything could've cured dfw. may have been the writing that kept him going. a very different individual. I wonder if the ketamine/hallucinogen therapies might've helped him.

[@billyandriam]

Lex you should take some rest. You're pushing yourself too hard.

[@randoH3000]

He’s not working at McDonald’s. Why stop going hard at a job you love? It’s different if you’re working three jobs you hate.

[@saltymcsaltface]

Does anyone else feel like they connect with Lex on a similar brainwave? Thank you Lex for your insight.

[@starcrib]

This is where Pinpointed Apathy is Essential , or a Deep understanding of the Absurd. 🗣....🎠👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻🎠

[@rabbychan]

Stay hard

[@adelinaquijano1083]

the body need rest for a while then back to work

[@Bambino_60]

Get some sun and get some sleep

[@mtwata]

"the navy seal BS" "Yes the navy seal BS"

[@elmitoitachi2330]

First