In this profession, "burnout" has a well-understood meaning. If you say you're suffering from burnout, people will mostly know what you mean, if you say "exhaus

In this profession, "burnout" has a well-understood meaning. If you say you're suffering from burnout, people will mostly know what you mean, if you say "exhaustion" people will figure you're just not sleeping enough. No one is going to assume you did a ton of psychedelics or speed and broke your brain, even if that's what happened (I rather suspect stimulant use is a factor in more programmer burnout than one might like to think).