Brain boots to go the distance with energy vs. burnout - learnings from a top ML engineer.

🌈 Abstract

The article discusses strategies to prevent burnout among engineers, particularly those working on complex integration and infrastructure projects. It highlights the importance of maintaining self-awareness, finding rewarding aspects in one's work, and implementing techniques like curiosity-driven rewards, short-term milestones, and synergy with other personal goals.

🙋 Q&A

[01] Longer timelines and integration work can lead to burnout

1. What are the key factors that can lead to burnout in engineers working on complex integration and infrastructure projects?

• Longer timelines and integration work, where engineers have to "fit together a system with components made by different people", can lead to burnout.
• The article discusses how the "reward-based learning" loop can get broken, where the reward is missing from the trigger-behavior cycle, leading to a 2-node cycle that is unsustainable and causes unhappiness and unproductivity.
• People doing integration work are especially at risk of this, as they may get caught in a cycle of constantly "pulling out the snake from the box" without a clear end in sight.

2. How can self-awareness help prevent burnout in such situations?

• Self-awareness is the key solution to prevent burnout. Taking time off to reflect on whether one is getting the necessary reward from their work is important.
• Asking a friend for help or going on a long walk can also aid in developing self-awareness.
• Once aware that the reward is missing, one can take steps to shift to a more curiosity-driven approach, structure the work with shorter-term milestones, or find synergies with other personal goals that provide immediate rewards.

[02] Reward hacks to prevent burnout

1. What are the three types of "reward hacks" discussed in the article to prevent burnout? The three types of reward hacks are:

1. Curiosity-driven rewards
2. Short-term milestones
3. Synergy with another direction that provides immediate reward

2. Can you provide examples of how these reward hacks were implemented by the engineer, Yaroslav, in his work?

• Curiosity-driven rewards: When Yaroslav joined a new company, he became curious about building infrastructure from scratch using AWS, which made the work enjoyable as there was no deadline.
• Short-term milestones: At another company, Yaroslav reorganized his workflow around Google Docs, tracking issues and seeing the list of resolved issues grow, which provided a sense of reward.
• Synergy with another direction: Yaroslav saw the unexpected problems he encountered as content sources for a book he was writing, which allowed him to feel like he was becoming more knowledgeable with each issue he solved.

3. What is the key lesson about convincing others to do tasks, as discussed in the context of Yaroslav's experience? The key lesson is that one should only do what they want to do, and ensure their reports (or others) also do what they want. The article suggests that you should let the person convince you to do something, or let them want to do something, rather than simply asking them to do it, as they may not be motivated and will do a poor job.