Ask HN: What has worked for you to address burn out?

Try playing a video game. So stop working for a while and just play a game. I stopped working and started playing Diablo IV. The idea was to get to level 100. My reasoning was this I wanted to remember what it felt like spending a long time doing something I enjoyed. It is repetitive like coding can be but I enjoyed it. Got to 100. Then did a few more characters and then wanted to get back to work.

I picked up a skateboard for the first time in 40 years and decided to relearn the sport. After a year or so, I built a 4 foot mini ramp in my back yard so I can just take a break in the middle of the day, duck out and have a quick session.

What I love about skateboarding is that it is almost impossible to let your mind wander to work related thoughts - you are totally consumed with the next few seconds of your life.

I still can't do any tricks, but I find rolling back and forth on the ramp doing the occasional FS and BS kick-turn incredibly soothing.

For me, I choose a field that I was not particularly well-educated about, and dove in - medieval history. It's a fascinating and deep topic, and I began to collect a library of the significant histories. Went off the deep end and collected more books than I read. But the reading was fascinating, as was trying to determine who the best historians were, finding their books, and reading them for comprehension.

In short, collecting.

I suppose any type of immersion in a collectible thing might do the trick, but for me, it was both collecting the books and reading them that took my mind off burn out (and a troubled personal life).

After 55 years of burn out, nothing really works. All one can do is develop coping strategies. I suspect that burn out is organic damage.

Honestly getting away from technology in general. I go out hunting or fishing every weekend and just distance from anything related to technology. It works great if you’re into being outdoors.