In my experience I would define the burnout phenomenon as reinforced, conditioned fatigue. Learned apathy. Learned hopelessness.<p>For me it was happening, and is happening because I care. Because I care what other people think things are. Because I care what other people think I am to them.<p>It is very obscure how one can learn the art of manliness. How one can be sure what things are and what you are to other people, and not be swayed all day this and that way.<p>Sitting there coding you get used to direct communication. I tell this to be that. I read what this does.<p>But then your boss comes in to boss you (as he should), and you don't switch. You listen to him talking as if you're having those thoughts, you try to understand his position and accommodate. You don't engage him like this other person that he is, rather you relate to him/her. You take them in like they're documentation, not like they're marketing material.<p>And now they just told you what you care about, and you take that on, and run with it. And you keep on caring about it when come home, going to bed, waking up in the morning.<p>You're built to prioritize dangers, and warnings, and worry above other things as a biological being. Maybe 10 to one above other things. And your boss will not be 10 parts praise to 1 part business, he can't do that. He'll be business first and niceties later.<p>That doesn't mean that all is hell and you should stress and punch it, but you do.<p>And because it happens every day by day 21 it is a habit of yours. You learn to stress and punch it, and take your anxiety home with you and never let it go. You never rest. You get exhausted. You burn out.<p>I'm learning to be my own man, know what is what, put up filters. Express my care as a consequence of work decisions and not as a precursor. Invoke care in context.<p>I see some people have this from young age. Many of them had a father, or fathers.<p>I'm learning this at 38, after having misplaced care all of my most statistically productive period of life, and having nothing to show for it, consequently.<p>Learning about the concepts of "agreeableness" and proclivity to "negative emotion" helped make sense of how this works in my life, with other people.<p>What I'm saying, I guess is that the article takes a systematic, top-down view to this. Looking for a solution at a societal level, telling people how much to work and when to stop. But in my experience it isn't about any of that at all.<p>Instead it is about knowing when you're tired and what to do about that. It is about knowing how to be when working and how to be when your boss is talking to you. It is about caring for the things you're doing and are about to do, not the things you left waiting for you at work tomorrow. It is about practicing completing things, being done with things, and not practicing worrying about things (that's your boss' job) or practicing being accommodating (again, not your job).