Geek Job Guru: The Danger of Hobby Burnout

We always hear about burnout. People are burnt out. They’re burnt out on the jobs. Burnout is a concern as we work in a meandering economy during a time of technological and social transition. You could get burnt out just studying burnt out, and there’s probably some poor soul out there who’s experienced that.  Said poor soul is also probably writing a paper on that and is very tired by now.

Now we geeks are considered to be inclined to burnout. We’re usually pretty obsessive and hard working. We throw ourselves into things. Having been surrounded by, well, “our people” for decades I’ve certainly seen any amount of burnout among my fellow geeks. Frankly, I think it’s a good thing for us to be wary of reaching that point because in my experience, we do it really well . . . or badly depending on your point of view.

We know burnout is bad for us for obvious reason. We get exhausted. It’s hard to care about things. Nothing seems to be getting done and yet we’re so busy. It just tires you out and can harm your career, your life, and your relations.

So we try to relax, to prevent, alleviate, or at least stave off the burnout. We turn to our hobbies.

There’s just one problem – we can get burnt out on our hobbies too and have nowhere to turn.  We get Hobby Burnout.

In fact, we’re uniquely equipped to do just that.

Hobby Burnout

I’ll be straight up – I’ve experienced Hobby Burnout a few times. I’ve known people who’ve experienced it before. I never really had the words for it until I saw the author of Manga Therapy discuss it and name it, and it struck me “this is a thing.”

When I look back on my experiences and those of others, what hobby burnout is actually pretty clear:

  • A person shows all the signs of burnout – the lack of interest, purpose, tiredness, etc
  • The burnout comes from their hobbyist activities. Usually this burnout occurs either from intense activity or from intense social commitments – or both.
  • Usually this burnout occurs as the person actually has a “hobbyist” job they’re doing and they burnt out on that.
  • We don’t really notice it because “it’s fun.”

THe latter is one of the things that keeps us from noticing Hobby Burnout – we think we’re having fun. We don’t notice the fun has become a job, and it’s a job we’ve become burnt out on. We’ve camouflaged our own chance to burn ourselves out.

The social aspect is also another issue of Hobby Burnout that concerns me. The social pressures we face can be compelling and daunting, ad we may not notice how much they push us. You don’t want to let your friends down after all so you work on that site, that fanfic, or that costume.  I’ve seen it before, plenty of times.

Hobby Burnout is an insidious thing, sneaking up on us because we can’t see how we pressure ourselves.

I think the geek crowd is in specific danger of Hobby Burnout.

The Challenge Of The Geek

We’re in exceptional danger because of our nature as enthusiasts. We get into things deeply, passionately, and actively. We dive on in, and don’t always think of the repercussions. Our idea of fun is working hard on things.

We can be as passionate about our hobbies as we are about our jobs. This is a prime opportunity for Hobby Burnout.

Those cases of Hobby Burnout I saw? Also all from the geek community (which isn’t surprising when you consider that’s my demographic). Hell, the term I adapted came from a post at a Manga site which kind of tells you something

We geeks need to be aware not just of our chance to burnout on the jobs, but on our hobbies – because what inclines us to overdoing it can affect us in all spheres of our lives. In fact, I think this is a prime Career concern for we geeks.

The Dangers of Dual Burnout

My big concern is that our inclinations can lead us to becoming “doubly burnt out” – something I’m sure you’ve probably seen before. You meet someone who is tired of their hobbies and their career, and that great purposelessness has engulfed them.

I see this double burnout happening in several ways:

  1. Stress on our job further drives us to our hobbies, and we go so far into our hobbies we burnt out there too.
  2. Burnout in one sphere makes us distractible enough that we burn out in the other sphere and thus have no refuge or reliable sphere of life.
  3.  One sphere of our life burns us out, and we try and cut it off and isolate it, and thus make our life less whole.  In turn we suffer as it’s like juggling two or more lives.

Come to think of it those burnout cases I saw? I saw all these cases too.

Career Focus

Ultimately I think we geeks need to remember Hobby Burnout happens as well as regular burnout. In fact, it’s a core part of being good at our careers.

Our careers, unless we own our own business, have a lot of external factors. We cannot control them, and some of them may end up leading us toward burnout. But our hobbies?

Hour hobbies are areas we should take control of. They can refresh us and excite us, and indeed spawn new careers (maybe getting us out of the one that’s burning us out). When we burn out on these, we are more at the mercy of career burnout – or can be so vulnerable we can end up causing it, as noted.

So if you’re a professional geek (and you’re reading this, so enough said), keep an eye out on regular burnout, but keep extra vigilance for Hobby Burnout. Its hard to see, we’re vulnerable to it, and it can take away the resources we need to cope with our careers.

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.musehack.com/, publishes books on career and culture at http://www.informotron.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.

Geek Job Guru: Drone Delivery And Careers – No, Really

Flying Drone - Future Of Delivery?

So we’ve all heard about how Amazon is interested in using delivery drones. This has led to everything from your inevitable “will it take off” jokes, to eBay’s CEO mocking the idea, to UPS and Fedex talking about their own drone delivery plans. We’re all talking drones, and not just the whole military-controversy thing that’s been around for a few years, but about them becoming part of our lives.

I don’t think we’ll have drones in 4-5 years as Bezos expected, or said, or hoped for, or trolled (depending on what you think). But the interest in drones plays into something larger that I want to address, because it affects geek careers. The interest in drones isn’t new, it’s just the manifestation of the trends I’ve been following geek job-wise for awhile.

The “drone thing” is part of the overall trend towards more automation. And that gives us some career hints that are useful for we geeks.

An Old Hat Slightly Redone

Drone delivery really isn’t much different than anything else automated. It’s an extension of plenty of other robotic systems such as sorting, packaging, and even vending machines. In fact, that vending machine factor is something I always return to, and something I keep covering.

Needless to say, time for me to return to the subject.

I see the latest drone fad as nothing more than an extension of our already continuing love affair with automation. It now just add door-to-door deliver to the sorting, packaging, shipping, and manfuacturing automation we’re used to. Admittedly door-to-door delivery by a faceless machine with whirling blades, but door-to-door (or something close) nonetheless.

Really, it’s no different than anything else we’ve seen in automation. We have automated pizza, automated coffee, Shop24, and of course good old RedBox. Why shouldn’t delivery be next?

Drones just stand out because they sound really cool.  Actually that’s the only reason they stand out.  Well, that and a few issues . . .

Droning On About Problems

Let me be blunt; I don’t think we’re going to see a successful wide-spread drone delivery program in the next few years. I can’t say “never”, but let us say I can’t conclude they’re going to be some world-changing addition to our shipping economy at least in their current form and in the current economic state. In implementing drone delivery, I see the following issues:

  • In the words of Lewis Black there’s “eight razor-sharp reasons they can’t be used as delivery vehicles.” Building on his observation of the safety issues of a small, mobile gathering of whirling propellors traveling about, there’s also questions of malfunctions, crashes, short-outs, and more on something flying around. Making these things safe will be tough.
  • FAA regulation, law enforcement, and government. People won’t be tame about unmanned, remote aircraft zooming around. There’s going to be lots of regulation at the very least, and that will change when . . .
  • The inevitability of malfunction or worse. These are new technologies, zooming through populated areas, using an unpopular idea (drones), and essentially wearing giant “please hack me signs” on their chassis. Something unsavory will happen by accident, prank, or purpose.
  • The complexity factor. It’s one thing to deliver a vending machine or automate a shipping line. Adding the maneuvering of an object through 3D space and the environment into the process adds unpredictability. Amazon is willing to take risks, others may take risks, but this is going to add a lot of risk.

So no, I don’t see drones as the next big thing. But the fact we’re talking about them says something else – we’re just seeing people try to extend automation in the delivery process. That’s what’s important to our careers, drones are just a spectacular part of that wish.

One More Automated Layer

So drone talk aside, what I really take from all of this is we’ve got another area of possible automation going on; automating delivery. That’s what the real story is for our jobs, and what I want to focus on for your careers.

The cat is well out of the bag and has run away on this idea. Google’s got experimental automated cars, Amazon is pushing drones, and we’ve seen many attempts to innovate delivery systems by those whose job is to deliver stuff. Thats where some of we career geeks may want to pay attention.

Because the razor-sharp propellor delivery system of the future aside, if this many companies are looking at Drones or even talking about it, then there’s an acknowledgement that more can be done in the delivery space.

This is where you come in:

  • Any attempt to automate delivery is going to need people good at the mechanical. Drones aside, even a better sorting system for a vendor or a better offloading system are important.
  • If you’re a coder, look into how automated systems are coded, because there’s going to be more of them.
  • On the subject if you are involved in any hands-on or developmental work, start tlooking into automation AI, processes, 3D maneuvering, and more. Because this is an area where a lot can go spectacularly wrong, being able to understand the problem is a career advantage.
  • If you’re involved in shipping, handling, receiving, this may not be an issue for awhile, but as it has come up it will be a change in your job eventually.
  • If you’re a law geek and involved in policy, I’m not kidding, this is great for you. There’s going to be so many legal, compliance, and safety issues your knowledge is going to be needed.
  • Into training, tech writing, and documentation? Just imagine how explaining this to people will be, and how your skills will be needed.  Just imagine the legal requirements law geeks will find that you’ll have to cover . . .

No, I’m not sold on drones. I am sold that this means more automation in delivery methods – or attempts.

This means opportunities.

Closing

I’m going to be watching the Drone trend, but more as part of the larger picture of automated delivery.

Would I base your career on drones and automated delivery? Well I wouldn’t base your career on any on thing – and this area is too unpredictable. But I’d say keep it in mind, especially if it’s up your alley as there is definite potential.

How long that potential lasts, well that’s a question I’m not too sure on . . . but perhaps I’ll come to some conclusions later . . .

– Steven Savage

Geek Job Guru: Use Your Hobby As A Backup Career

You may be quite happy in your career.  It pays the bills and plays to your interests.  You have your hobbies and passions, yes, but they’re fine where they are or are going in the direction you want.  Nothing to worry about.

However radical changes can come quickly as we all know.  You get laid off.  A company moves and you’re not ready to change locations.  Your profession starts to contract or alter radically – more radically than you’re ready to face or adjust to.  Trust me, I’ve been there – I’ve had many a sudden career change over the years.

So you may be left one day not only without a job, but without many prospects of doing what you’ve been doing.  You can’t even rely on relocation because the market has changed so radically that you’re not sure you can count on your old career to work the same way.

You may want to consider hobby-as-career not just as a laudable goal to tap your interests or a “someday” plan, but as a backup career in its entirety.  Perhaps for a time – perhaps as a transition that’s more permanent.

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