

Burnout Prevention and Recovery (the MIT stance) - wickedchicken
http://www.evenmere.org/~bts/Random-Collected-Documents/MIT-views.html

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Anechoic
I read this and (like most readers I suspect) smiled and enjoyed the satire,
although I have to disagree with the statement "Drink more coffee" - in my day
it should have been "drink more Mountain Dew".

However the article did bring up two unpleasant memories.

1\. The suicide of Fes-Mike Moore:
<http://tech.mit.edu/V113/N2/moore.02n.html>
<http://tech.mit.edu/V113/N3/martinez.03o.html> \-- I was living in the dorm
room that was directly three floors below his - the Campus Police misread the
leading "5" in his room number for a "2" and they came to my room on the night
he jumped. I didn't know Fes-Mike personally but I remember seeing him on his
roller blades as he came down the central stairwell. He always had a smile for
everyone.

2\. Carrying a fellow student downstairs who was experiencing severe (what we
suspected was) stress-induced ulcer pain to a waiting ambulance.

I can laugh at thess kinds of submissions and my experience at MIT certainly
made me stronger (in fact _nothing_ in my professional life has been as hard
as MIT, and I say this as someone who has almost been killed on the job more
than once), but an elite education isn't something worth dying over. If you
are at the breaking point, please take a step back and try to enjoy life a
little. A "C" (heck, even an "F") isn't the end of the world.

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zaatar
And here's a Microsoft-adapted version of the same document:
[http://www.bouldertherapist.com/html/humor/MentalHealthHumor...](http://www.bouldertherapist.com/html/humor/MentalHealthHumor/burnout_prevention.htm)

I wonder which one came first.

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_corbett
this is very accurate, even if you don't come in like this, you come out of
MIT with this view.

5 years later I've never escaped the "MIT VIEW: Increase intensity. Maximum
intensity = maximum productivity. If you find yourself relaxed and with your
mind wandering, you are probably having a detrimental effect on the recovery
rate."

I love it, but I completely recognize that I came in a person and out a
machine.

~~~
sgpl
Wait? Is that an honest comment? Because I go to a somewhat challenging Tech
School, and am down in the trenches.

If that is indeed true, I might try and adopt some of the listed stuff, given
that I already do some of these.

Please let me know!

~~~
_corbett
hey-so in my interpretation the basic thesis of this document is that MIT's
culture doesn't really support "burnout prevention and recovery" which rings
true to me.

I never experienced burnout at MIT but yea my intuition about avoiding it is
strongly warped just for having been there.

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kevinr
Having gone to MIT, gotten burned out, and gotten better... Yeah, that about
sums it up.

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mattlong
This has been passed around MIT circles for a while and is as profound and
relevant for me as ever.

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beaumartinez
Took me a while that this is pretty tongue-in-cheek.

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jmmcd
Let's just say that I had a meeting with my boss at 7pm last night. Yes,
Friday. But at least we all went for beers afterwards.

