Ask HN: What's your spectacular burnout story?
I am in the midst of one. It has been about a year and a half, plus or minus, and it has taken a tremendous toll on my well-being.<p>I find it especially difficult to deal with the mismatch between my sense of what I can do, which is calibrated to my former self, and what I can actually deliver. I desperately need to believe that what I am going through is a temporary perturbation, so I keep trying to &quot;shake it off&quot;, and I make plans and commitments from a sense of self that is still stubbornly calibrated to who I was then and not what I am today. As the months turn into years, that sense of competence seems increasingly fantastical and dubious. Was I ever good at my job? Did I suck then, too, and just fail to realize it?<p>These doubts are compounded by the fact that I have changed employers and change teams multiple times so no one I work with now is acquainted with that former self. But he really did exist, at one point. I swear he did. At least I think he did.<p>&gt; When you are playing really well ... you can’t even imagine playing badly. And when you are playing badly, you can’t even remember what it felt like to play well.<p>(Tiger Woods: How Low Can He Go <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.newyorker.com&#x2F;news&#x2F;john-cassidy&#x2F;tiger-woods-how-low-can-he-go" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.newyorker.com&#x2F;news&#x2F;john-cassidy&#x2F;tiger-woods-how-l...</a>)