“You must do everything”: the philosophy of burnout
Ted Gioia, excellent as ever, on the influential German-Korean thinker Byung-Chul Han, author of The Burnout Society.
“You can do anything!
“That’s the mantra, and you hear it everywhere. All the messages circulating in our society seem to converge on that same imperative.
“But this soon turns into: You must do everything. The symptoms are everywhere—fitness programs, self-help podcasts, inspirational quotes on social media, vitamins and nutritional supplements, constant proclamations about self-actualization, weight-loss fads, life coaches, and countless other schemes for improvement. No boss would ever be as tyrannical as we are to our souls and selves.“
It’s not clear that Byung-Chul Han has a good answer to how to escape the treadmill of self-actualisation he identifies. But Gioia offers this excellent piece of advice: “Even if you work inside the system, you don’t need to let the system work inside of you.“