The Burnout Society by Byung-Chul Han 

One of my favorite sections in literature is found in Anna Karenina, when Levin heads off to mow (it starts with ‘The personal matter that occupied Levin while he was talking with his brother…’). I think about this scene all the time, those ‘happy moments…joyous were the moments when, reaching the river at the lower end of the swaths, the old man would wipe his scythe with the wet grass, rinse its blade in the clear water, and dipping his whetstone-box in the stream, would offer it to Levin […] And then came the ecstasy of a slow walk.’ Tolstoy showed the beauty and importance of being “tired with others” in this scene, which is to say that a world where we are only ever “tired in isolation” is a world where Tolstoy could not give us this description of Levin mowing. And whatever life we are losing now is life we cannot know we have lost.

Thanks for this. This really resonates, especially what you said towards the end about choosing to read with mindfulness instead of out of compulsion. I think our own goals become sources of burnout as soon as we start viewing them as tasks to be completed and lose sense of why we are doing them in the first place. Not that we will always feel fully enthusiastic about everything we're doing, but it's good to do things with purpose and intention instead of doing them because some part of my goal-oriented mind is just nagging at me to do them.

What a wonderful video, I find your voice so calming! Thank you for what you do!

What I find interesting is BCH's take on depression...if too much doing, and mindless striving (positivity) is the cause of depression, then imagine how wrong we are getting it considering treatment is to give medications which increase dopamine and serotonin, and therapy that aims to make people more active (Acceptance-commitment therapy, behavioural activation therapy)!

I almost picked this up at the bookstore the other day, but thought I would look more into it, and just saw this! The differentiation of tiredness is something I need to pinpoint better in my own endeavors. It is difficult to say exactly what it is, and a book like this sounds like it would help with figuring that out. I will have to go back and pick it up. Thanks for the overview!

Very cool! I just finished this one myself. I am making my way through the entire Byung-Chul Han corpus.

great analysis, thank you

I honestly had a difficult time understanding several parts and themes of the text (happens often with me and philosophy) and that's why im here for further context. Im gonna have to revist the book after some time and more readings

Great video, my friend. I liked this book a lot. I just read Non-things, which was really good as well. I sense you might like The Disappearance of Rituals.

Thanks so much 🙏 mindfulness