[swalsh]

“Sleep, friends, p-sets — choose two,”

I have not had the opportunity to attend MIT, however I have worked with several people who did. One of the common attributes I've noticed between all of them is an ability/drive to work hard, and get things done. To almost ignore their physical self. To me, aside from the bit of genius each possesses it's this personality attribute that I suspect is the secret to MIT's notorious success rate.

As someone who has experienced a severe burnout, managing my time, and carefully monitoring my energy has become a major priority. What baffles me is how these people can accomplish this without experiencing the same burnout I did when I tried.

[strawbucks]

Burnout and subsequent energy management are only the superficial components, I think. I've found that the curriculum really cuts to the core of how people think as they work. To me, the major lesson I've learned throughout my 3.5 years at MIT so far is how to deal with futility.

I feel like people (I'm probably thinking mostly of my parents and friends outside) often refer to "trying until you succeed". But sometimes you just won't. Often you won't. You're not smart enough, don't have the resources, those things that keep you up at night. If you tie everything to big success and ground-breaking progress, you'll burnout because there's nothing for you to chew on. You feel like you're spinning your wheels.

So the lesson I've only just started to really take in is that to avoid burnout you do things for the sake of doing them and celebrate the smallest, stupidest things you can. That's of course from someone who has yet to even graduate, let alone really start accomplishing anything of significant worth. So take that shit with a grain of salt.

[snikolov]

Burnout does happen, but you don't necessarily hear about it.

[borski]

Burnout definitely happens. I've been there, and most of my friends have been there. It's just not a popular topic to talk about.

I would say I think it happens less often, though.