[Image: a bunch of burnt-down matches standing in a group, on a pink background]

This article honestly changed everything for me. It articulates a number of issues I’ve been dealing with and struggled to explain to both myself and others.

[ETA: This article felt perfect to me at first blush, but as I’ve listened to other folks’ takes on it, it seems that the author took a personal experience and tried to generalize it to our whole generation without mind to class, race, age, and more.

That being said, it still outlines several important phenomenons and can be extremely worthwhile and validating for burned-out spoonies. Have a look!]

Since it’s a long read, I’m going to try to distill it so as to make it more accessible:

• There is a type of burnout unrelated to one’s work, but instead all those little tasks one has to do as an adult (”adulting”). Dealing with insurance. Registering to vote. Returning unwanted clothes. Errands, paperwork, you name it. You can be highly motivated and enjoy your work, but when it comes to your to do list, you get this awful paralysis you can’t shake.
  
  
• We aren’t being lazy when we are paralyzed by tasks on our to do list; there are very specific reasons we’re reacting this way—namely, burnout.
  
  
• We are trying to “win” the system, even though the system is unwinnable. This, of course, is a bit of a bait-and-switch, since we were told that if we studied hard and went to college we’d be able to have stable careers and a comfortable life with a home, family, 401k, etc.
  
  
• A lot of us optimize our time and productivity to extremes (which, of course, would be on top of the optimizing spoonies have to do to keep afloat with limited spoons). We believe that if we just optimize right, we’ll finally be able to reach our goals and escape this hell.
  
  
• Self care is often offered as a way to relieve the burnout, but it tends to just encourage this self-optimization. It’s also a hugely profitable industry.
  
  
• Many of us are working through and past the burnout because we have to, and that increases our value to corporations, who continue to encourage the same old behaviors and sell us more “self care” strategies.
  
  
• What can we do about all this? Well, not much aside from huge social change. But knowing about it and talking about it is half the battle.
  

Heavy stuff. But hugely important stuff.

❤️, Editor Diane

p.s. Want more sweet, sweet discourse? Try “Life-Hacks of the Poor and Aimless” for some academic real talk that completely dismantles the self care movement and its insidious connections with our toxic society and political climate.