Rec | THE BURNOUT SOCIETY BY BYUNG CHUL HAN

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you can either read The Burnout Society or watch a video on it, i personally recommend the Philosophize This! podcast episodes about Byung Chul Han and his work. essentially, he makes the argument that a society driven by achievement is a society that is widely burnt out and depressed. not to make this an anti-capitalism post but it’s important to mention— capitalism demands that we optimize as individuals in order to produce more capital and then frames the optimization as the reward for the individual rather than the capital being the reward for the optimizing of the individual. but aside from capitalism, he argues that joy cannot be found in solely being good at something— lasting joy comes from the journey towards becoming good at something. i think in a world where identity is hastily acquired through consumerism, we must re-orient ourselves to the fact that true identity, built through skills and interests and community, takes time, a lifetime even. so, how to stop being a workaholic and start becoming good at sketching— appreciate and honor the journey you are on towards being good at the things you want to be good at. i believe in you!

@knitzsche

3d ago

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@sailor

Thank you so much for this answer! I've heard of The Burnout Society, but didn't know too much about what it was about. So much of the culture of the US is about everything starting and ending with you, the individual, but it does create this immense pressure and dissatisfaction. Capitalism is kinda reductive in how it makes everything just checking off a box and being done with it, like why would I want to be done with something that makes me happy? But you're right that the answer is in the journey and in the possibility, I just need to remember that :)

2d ago

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