Made this comment elsewhere, but having gone through two of these (one shorter and the recent one much larger), I think the best thing anyone can do for themsel

Made this comment elsewhere, but having gone through two of these (one shorter and the recent one much larger), I think the best thing anyone can do for themselves is make a "break glass in case of burnout" plan where they save up margin (money, vacation days, etc) during the good times so that when the famine hits part of the stress isn't the painted-in-corner feeling of "I need a break but have no margin to take one" Burnout always ends up being your own personal Rubik's cube in terms of what factors are truly causing it, but the solution is always the same - protracted rest - deload and de-stress life as much as possible. In my recent case going down to a part-time schedule helped to add back margin. Some of it was also eliminating the burden of leadership isolation, cutting back on workout intensity, limiting screen time at night, fixing some health issues, increasing social activity, and doing some counseling for past unresolved issues. Give yourself that margin and burnout becomes less of this soul-crushing life-altering existental crisis where you end up posting on HN about becoming a monk (or stuck on SSRIs for years) and more about resolving the check-engine light that flashes when your body is telling you it's time to make life changes.