> "You basically just can't come in, bro up, stack up and get the f* out." Sadly, this is a myth that has been perpetuated since the literal Gold Rush and befo

> "You basically just can't come in, bro up, stack up and get the f* out." Sadly, this is a myth that has been perpetuated since the literal Gold Rush and before. Life is tough. There's no need to drink stylish $12 wine (read Balzac's Lost Illusions- it's a story about a poet who borrows money from his friends to Make It Big in Paris and utterly fucks everything up. It seems like we never learn from history.) I don't think it's safe or fair to say that any place is unplugged from reality. Reality is what it is. And when you have opportunists flooding a place, it behaves differently, operates differently. Sorry about your GF, but again– nobody owes anybody anything. Welcome to reality. You should probably take a long break. Things might not be as bleak as they seem- your experience might teach you some things you don't realize you're learning. (That said, some people seem to just blunder ahead for years and years: http://michalsobel.com/en/experiences/the-idea-of-giving-up-is-worse-than-of-it-killing-me-how-150-000-post-it-came-to-be http://michalsobel.com/en/experiences/the-idea-of-giving-up-... ) Thinking further about this: How do you avoid tiredness? What you describe isn't just run-of-the-mill tiredness, but the sort of exhaustion you get when you've been pushing at a door marked 'pull'. If you create something of value and get positive feedback, that gives you the energy you need to continue along the process. It's absolutely crucial to get to your personal a-ha moments as fast as you can, because otherwise you run yourself aground.