I found No.8 Odd Behaviour interesting I have a theory that everybody has a fixed amount of ‘energy’. You use this energy to do your daily tasks and for the fun stuff. If your life is getting stressed and your feeling burned out then you need more energy to get through the day and have nothing left over for the fun stuff. When in this situation most people need to get energy back and the fastest and most direct way is to shut people out and stop doing things or giving of yourself.

When somebody I know is acting odd or is a bit short with me then I usually look to understand what is going on in their life that is sapping them of their energy (assuming they’re not just pissed off with me).

It’s at time like these that real friends will give some of their energy to help you through the hard times until you have spare energy again so you are in a position to start making a difference yourself.

I like this presentation.

I think Melissa’s point of permission is a must.

Evan asked if your slides apply to volunteers in the F/OSS communities. Of course, burnout out happens in all communities Just because people aren’t getting paid doesn’t mean they don’t “work” hard on a project.

Speaking as a volunteer if I did not make sure there was a balance and give myself permission to say no, I could very easily find myself on a path to burnout. I volunteer in several communities and not all involve open source and when I mentioned this talk to all those groups, they all felt the same way, “why haven’t we talked about this before?” So it is a topic that needs to be discussed so people know when they are feeling these things or see that someone else is they are not alone in dealing with it.

Thanks again for the talk and sharing the slides!

When I saw Jono’s presentation, I had this strange sensation of some points applying very much to me and some not at all, and I think one of the reasons that some points didn’t apply is that I’ve always (or at least, for a very long time, since I was an undergrad at least) given myself permission to take time off, or possibly stronger: given myself orders to take time off.

The other trap I’ve been lucky enough to not fall into is the “one big push will make it OK again” one. Never bought that.

you’ve got my deepest respect for openly talking about burnout, depression, and your own personal experience. I watched your show on ustream.tv and can confirm what you said from my own experience. Thanks a lot for sharing and keep up your great work!

Things like Herding Cats was ok, but explaining the Ubuntu community to the Ubuntu community was kind of… pointless.

I hope we see more thought-provoking and introspective topics from your future talks as well!