As my previous post explained burnout and how it is personally affecting my family

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22051300

I decided to create a newsletter for entrepreneurs who may be experiencing the same feelings or emotions. Further to this, I wanted to expand the subject matter into other areas such as ideation, growth, well-being, mindfulness and more. Writing about the previous burnout experience was therapeutic, and so I wanted to share some valuable insights that can help others as well.

Optionally, if you would like to receive such articles in a newsletter format you can do so by subbing here, but if not then no worries.

https://thefoundingentrepreneur.crd.co/

(little snippet here) #001 / January 24, 2020

The Founding Entrepreneur

Burnout at Work and Possible Interventions

To give a little context about my personal experiences in relation to burnout affecting my family read this post I shared in Hacker News This post explains why I wanted to create this newsletter in conjunction with topics focusing on entrepreneurship subject matter.

Now with that out of the way, let's dive into some content.

In order to understand burnout which may seem obvious to some, I wanted to provide a definition providing clarity. Burnout (at work) is defined as the psychological long-term exhaustion at work due to three main categories.

- The feeling of cynicism and detachment from the job

- Sense of ineffectiveness and lack of accomplishment

- Overwhelming exhaustion

Often we begin our careers with energy, excitement, and enthusiasm but over periods of time, these feelings tend to diminish… Why?

In this newsletter the topics I will be covering include the following;

- Burnout and how it is linked to health

- Entrepreneurs and Burnout

- Strategies to help combat burnout

? How is burnout linked to our health?

Burnout has various determinants for people who experience it.

Just like you describe, I was on a rapid decline: major fatigue, fog, indecisiveness, blanking, low confidence, poor social interaction, etc. I tried picking myself up, but it was always short lived: taking a break from work, meditation, exercise routines, self help, etc. The moment a bit of pressure came back at work, I’d crumble.

I have been operating in this ‘limp mode’ for about 3 years - doing what I can to help keep my business afloat (and vice-versa).

After a massive burnout episode (thanks covid), I sought help: antidepressants, counselling, and eventually a bipolar diagnosis (which I guess explains the preceding destructive burnout pattern).

Resent started creeping in - I used to be creative and energetic, and eager to solve problems. Now I felt like an imposter in the business I created; redundant and useless. People started treating me like a basket case - telling me “not to worry about doing this”, or “we can take care of that”. I don’t blame them.

The bipolar medication didn’t really help - a band-aid at best. It flattened by highs and kept me out of most deep lows. I was essentially told this is how it’d be for the rest of my life: on pills, treading carefully, avoiding stress, and accepting my new mundane existence.

I haven’t even mentioned the effect all this has had on my family. My son was born the day I quit my job to startup. All he’s ever know is an irritable and mostly depressed dad. I’m so fortunate that my partner is resilient and held us all together over the years.

Anyway, that’s the context to how I ended up in a similar situation to you. Never underestimate the seemingly permanent and cumulative damage to your mental health and personality as a result of sustained stress, burnout, and depression.

Recently I have been going down various rabbit holes looking for possible ways out of this hell. The most recent one, and by far the most effective, has been (would you believe) diet.

During my period of resent/bitterness, I began to abuse and self sabotage. Over eating, poor diet, alcohol, vaping, actively suppressing desire for exercise, activity, and social interaction. I was sapped of all motivation and energy: Working part time, sleeping in the early afternoon, useless around home.

One evening after excessive drinking and binge eating on fast food, I could see the downward spiral I was on - and it felt like I was getting close to some horrible low: hatred and destructive behaviour.

I am lucky to have a couple of good drinking buddies (who both facilitated my bad health, but also well and truly understood the challenges of mental health). One of them shared a podcast episode by Tim Ferris [https://tim.blog/2022/11/12/chris-palmer-transcript/amp/].

Often in times of heavy fatigue and fog, I’d think “this is way more a physical condition than it is a mental one: what if one is feeding into the other?” Not a new idea, but after listening to this podcast, a two key things resonated:

1) If I could get my energy levels up through some mitochondria / metabolic hack, I could function and begin to get other parts of my life back in order, thus starting a positive feedback loop.

2) Specific to me, and maybe others - the interview mentioned that a keto style diet was used to treat kids with epilepsy. My primary bipolar medication was developed for epilepsy, and the interview references some bipolar studies.

I can report that the keto diet I have prescribed myself is working exceptionally well. 36g of carbs. My energy has improved dramatically - I function fully from 6am-11pm with no fatigue; I almost have my former mental clarity and cognition restored.

With increased energy, I’m waay more physically active, and more likely to exercise. This helps improve my mood, and the positive feedback loop is reinforced. I literally feel a force compelling me to move forward - I have not had that for years.

My experience and current situation could be miles apart from yours, but I believe the key is to find something to break the cycle: slot ut in and create positive feedback loop, that begins to spin up a flywheel. This will allow you to rediscover more things that get the wheel spinning faster and make it harder to slow it down when adversity arrives. (Flywheel analogy from some other podcast, credit to whoever that was).

My chain breaker has been to take carbohydrates out of my diet, and use ketosis as an alternative metabolic state that has given me the energy to sort my shit out. It’s early days, and hey things could turn sour - but I’ve had a taste of my previous normality that I had nearly forgotten, and this puts it within arms reach again.

Hang in there, and do your best to step out of the gloom and take a good look from above to where you could make a small positive intervention that might put you on your path towards your break.

PS: Check with your doctor before making any significant dietary changes.

I've spent a considerable amount of time studying top performers and learned how to manage stress levels effectively. I do exercise, meditation, yoga, stretching, forest bathing, mindfulness, journaling, and other activities that battle against burnout.

I am much more worried about failing to meet my goals than I am burnout. Appreciate your concern though!

It is all too easy too rationalise some of the symptoms of burnout as @eliboy stated in this thread as being 'other things' and ignoring the bigger picture. For example, if you are feeling tired and sad, is it depression or early onset burnout, or are you just suffering lack of sleep? Or just dehydration? Or is it because you had a late night out a couple of days ago?

Left to your own devices (especially when you are already burning out), it is all too easy to diagnose it as the latter causes, especially as your reasoning ability will be diminished.

Many times I have felt overwhelmed to the point of paralysis, thinking that it was because I couldn't say "No" to new projects, but it ended up being pure burnout.

Oh, and the frequent 'cure' for burnout from many of my colleagues is to force me to take a break and do nothing for a while. That actually makes it worse for me. I find that my best solution for burnout is to actually WORK HARD at another passion of mine - for example, If programming gets me down, I will go off and learn a fiendishly difficult piece on classical guitar instead. Others are horrified that I am putting my brain through more gruelling stress, but I find that thinking about music rather than programming for a while tends to help me feel creative and refreshed again.

The reality is that you can burnout in any of these ways whether or not you're a corporate monkey or a start-up monkey. Substitute vending machines and water coolers for fancy free-for-all-cafes and foosball tables, and many start-ups have similar WORK demands of their employees. In other words, no matter how fun the culture, it can't forever mask the fact that you're working toward someone else's vision and mission.

I once thought this would be very different in a company of 50 vs 50,000. But even in start-ups, we suffer from an over-emphasis on specialized activities (for efficiency and scale). This creates jobs that lack ownership of the big picture, and therefore may create short term excitement (if the work or team is interesting), but does not equate to long term passion and fulfillment.

As a founder with an idea, part of the reason that I don't want to join an existing effort is because I want to build an organization that challenges this model. Is there a way to better distribute ownership of the vision to everyone in the company so that instead of having a bunch of employees working toward your vision, you have a bunch of entrepreneurs collaborating to define that vision? That in my mind is a major part of avoiding burnout.

The secondary piece is helping people realize that work/life balance is always necessary. As a founder, I spent one month subscribing to the Valley norm that I should just work constantly. Mentally I was fine, but physically I pinched a nerve (or something) and all kinds of horror happened. Yet this cultural attitude of fast fast fast is so prevalent, I think we should also do more to encourage people to adopt some "slow" principles.

As a result of this I launched:

https://4dayweek.io (Software jobs with a better work / life balance)

The burnout I suffered seemed cataclysmic for my startup idea. I started to question it and myself, why wasn't I making progress? All this stuff I have to manage is too much, I wish I was 25 again with no responsibility. I just turned 39!! I'm getting old, now with kids; I'll never be able to make anything out of this thing, I waited too long... My yard is a mess, my desk is a heap of papers. :( Blah blah, that's all just stinkin' thinkin', as someone else said.

My depression came from my not acknowledging that I was already at a diminished capacity with the twins' arrival, and then I stupidly decided to ratchet up the job search AND re-fi my house! What was I thinking?? There is a limit, and I wasn't being realistic about what I could manage.

The good news (for me at least) is, the tidal wave of burnout-inducing extra responsibilities has receded and my new, local day job is so undemanding and steady. I find myself ending the day with some spare energy and I have gradually started to reconnect with my startup project by taking on some low energy improvements that I could feel proud of. Just last night, on looking at my pages render out just so, I got that feeling of secret pride for the first time in so long. I was back to making a quality product again.

I think the OP is feeling burnt by all the failures and false starts and that's creating a negative spiral. Butch up, OP. You're a systems programmer coming out of the video games biz like me. You can cogitate about systems in ways that many cannot. Take some pride in that. Husband your resources. When you're feeling strong again, make some wise decisions and get back in the game.

Her solution to burnout was to _start her own business_?? I'm glad this worked out for her in the end, but holy shit this would be the literal last possible thing I (or I hope many others) would consider as a solution to burnout. That's a _fast track_ to burnout.

Burnout feels incredibly illogical, because you can't do what you tell yourself you want to do. You can have a conversation with someone and get right fired up about an idea in-the-moment, but when you try to execute, a blanket of fog comes over your brain and you sit there like a deer in headlights. You can hardly perform at the level of a 10-year-old, no matter how much you tell myself that you want to continue. You try to explain this state to someone else and you get a blank stare; how could you be so "disabled" when you still look reasonably healthy and vivid in conversation? It's tough for them to see this as anything other than a conscious choice, on your part, to quit. But, you know that you keep getting up and trying to hack away at things -- and you keep hitting the same wall. Thankfully, my partners and investor are being very understanding, and they are the ones with the most to lose.

This is really, really tough -- my amazing and talented staff, my dreams and plans, all the relationships we've built, my reputation -- all of it is now at the mercy of the buzzing of my neurons and the chemicals shooting through my veins, caused by the way I've handled myself over the past 10 months ("full steam ahead, I'm 24 and invincible!").

Has anyone here burnt out before, or seen it happen? Has YC learned of any warning signs?

I would guess that being a part of YC itself would help prevent this, because of the opportunity for social support -- it can be really tough not having friends who know what it's like to be where you are, doing what you are.

As for me, I am pretty confident that eventually I'll be able to put myself back together and start something new again -- but I won't be operating anywhere near 100% any time soon, even though I certainly can't sit still as there's still rent to pay and I'm dead broke from having no salary all year.