%% date:: [[2023-07-02]] Author:: [[Anne Helen Petersen]] %% # [[Can't Even]] ## Summary > [!abstract] Summary > Contents ## Thesis > [!question] What are the main points of the book? > What was the author trying to say? Identify the overarching ideas and how the author connected them. - Burnout is when your default answer to every obstacle in your life is to work harder, and you've done it for long enough that every aspect of your life has become unstable. - Burnout is not (just) a personal problem-- it's a *systemic* problem. - [[Millennials]] are particularly prone to burnout because of the unique pressures of the era they were born in: - The proliferation of the [[Do what you love]] philosophy has encouraged millennials to set unreasonably high expectations for their jobs to be more than jobs. - [[The Gig Economy]] has increased [[Opportunity Cost|opportunity costs]] for millennials to [[Relaxation|relax]]. - Economic downturns have caused millennials to be worse off, financially, than any other generation before them. - The rise of [[Dysfunctions of Big Tech|Big Tech]] has made [[Hustle Culture]] the new normal. - More millennials are [[Knowledge work|knowledge workers]], and that means their work is often invisible until they're finished, causing unnecessary pressure. ### Similar ideas > [!question] Similar ideas > Have you heard these ideas before? List similar concepts from other authors, applications of the same ideas, or arguments that support the author's ideas. - [[Cal Newport]] also says [[Ep. 248 — Decoding Overload|in his podcast]] that the the invisible part of [[Knowledge work]] , which he calls [[Overhead]], contributes significantly to burnout ("overload"). - [[Emily Nagoski|Emily]] and [[Amelia Nagoski]] [[readwise/Books/Burnout|agree]] that burnout affects people disproportionately. Instead of focusing on Millennials, though, they emphasise that it affects women disproportionately more than men. - ## Antithesis > [!question] What are some points you took issue with? > Identify points the author made that you disagree with. > [!question] Comparison to other ideas > Talk about related ideas from other authors that might conflict with this author's ideas. ## Synthesis > [!question] Middle ground > How would you reconcile conflicting ideas? How is this relevant to you? ## Related - [[readwise/Books/Can't Even|Can't Even]] (Highlights)