I'm about a year out from some of the worst burnout I've built up in my time building Olmo. I feel like just in the last few weeks I've turned a corner to being more chill again (huge yay). It's wild to me just how long recovering from burnout can take.

For many people when they ask me how to break into AI I tell them the actions are simple, but it takes longer than you think. Same goes for burnout.

Though I think burnout is harder, as breaking into AI is a much more "forward looking" thing. Burnout is really pernicious to nail down and address. I think it often takes a moderate change in your career and habits. It's hard to take a slight step back as a successful person and fix your burnout. It'll really take a while.

In my case the final straw maybe my book being done and some more clarity on what I'm doing next. On top of it surely taking months longer because of how sad the changes at Ai2 were for me personally.

I really wish all of my friends in AI who are feeling this even stronger than I was can catch a break. I've by a mix of my nature and my habits as an athlete been pretty in tune with stopping myself before overworking. Imo as AI researchers we should take care of our brains like professional athletes take care of their brain.

Touching grass is worth it, and I'm very glad to find myself being slightly bored again. It's nudged me to reading more, of all things!

Take care of yourself.

Ps I feel like there's a recurring behavior of people somewhat like myself where they write about burnout or try to help people when they're actually burnt out themselves. Surely this is part of why I felt like I could write about it so well.