this post was submitted on 28 Apr 2026
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It's like a step above autopilot. It feels like the rational parts of your brain are locked off to you and the world is briefly as confusing to you as when you were a kid.
Obviously you can shake out of it and think harder about your scenario, but usually you just want the thing over and done with and that leaves you fumbling about long enough to make a bad decision.
I experience the opposite even when I'm under time pressure (running late for something). When I discover some small, unrelated problem my brain will switch to problem solving mode and focus on this new task instead. This way I totally loose track of time, even though I was totally stressed out about it a second ago. This can happen with stuff like a broken tool but also if I happen to look at a sudoku.
sounds like burnout :(