4 ms·
As I tried to note in the final paragraph (I would clarify in hindsight), I'm not trying to say exactly why Hsieh fell — I'm trying to warn others who might fal
by floatingatoll 6y ago
As I tried to note in the final paragraph (I would clarify in hindsight), I'm not trying to say exactly why Hsieh fell — I'm trying to warn others who might fall in a predictable (to me) manner, by drawing parallels to elements that are familiar from Hsieh's story.
Two or three of those I've seen fall are exact fits for "I went from working hundred hour weeks to quasi-retirement", and they did not treat their burnout with the respect and healing I feel it requires. When they took away the overwork, the unhealed burnout smoldered and eventually caught fire and burned them, weeks or months later.
Is this what took down Hsieh? I haven't a clue, and it's unlikely I'll ever know, and I certainly don't intend to bother anyone to learn more about his circumstance. His friends are having a bad enough time as it is and I empathize too strongly to press for more knowledge.
Is Hsieh's story familiar from personal experience? Yes, absolutely. In the couple of press articles I've read, and a couple of quotes from a letter from a friend to him in one of them, there is certainly material enough to remind me of others I've known who worked themselves to the bone, sold it all and rested, and then a while later (a few months to a couple years) self-destructed.
- tempsy 6y agoOk but I don’t think it had anything to do with being burnt out at any point either due to founder stress. He had always been into the rave scene. His entire instagram page was like one big love letter to Burning Man. He had a new tour titled the “Rabbit Hole.” I think clearly there was some interest on his part with psychedelics or dissociatives that went too far, and made worse by surrounding himself with people too afraid to confront him about it. Perhaps his story his relatable from afar but to paint this as something to do with “getting over burn out from overwork” is not what I’m seeing when I read this piece.
- floatingatoll 6y agoI do not intend to paint Hsieh's story as "overwork led to burnout led to self-destruction". I am absolutely using the parallels I perceive to tell a different story that I hope will help at least one other avoid what I've seen happen to so many.
- j4yav 6y agoI think that leading with this is what's causing the confusion of what your intent was: > Each exhibited the same pattern of awesome-burnout-intoxicate-destruction as Hsieh is described as having here
- floatingatoll 6y agoMakes sense, but there’s little I can do about it now.