[gmfawcett]

Walking away or burning out isn't an inevitable outcome. We are all capable of learning new behaviours. It's a learnable skill to notice when you're starting to burn out, and then to take a step back, rest, and correct your behaviour.

Sometimes we have to remind ourselves (and our teams, and our managers) that, in spite of deadline pressures, software development is often more like a marathon than a sprint. Long-distance effort requires personal changes in goal-setting, planning, preparation, and ongoing practice --- all of which can be learned.

Health care professionals have a very high burnout rate, and to address this, "self care" is often stressed in their educational programs. Maybe this should be incorporated into software development education as well.