Welcome to Gratitude Driven, a weekly newsletter where I share practical ideas and insights across personal growth, professional development, and the world of AI/ML. ✨

If you’re having trouble remembering what you study, the problem usually isn't that you're not studying enough. It's that the feeling of learning isn't the same thing as actual learning.

There's a well-documented phenomenon called the “fluency illusion”: your brain mistakes recognizing material for the ability to retrieve it later. You re-read something, the material starts to feel familiar, and your brain registers that as knowing it. Then two weeks later in an interview or on the job (when it actually matters) it's gone.

This week's video covers the full system to actually solve this once and for all.

Blog version is here.

When we’re feeling kind of bleh about life, it’s easy to default to describing this as “burned out.”

And sometimes, it is. Sometimes we truly are being overworked.

But there’s another phenomenon that can look similar, but actually requires a completely different response.

“Boreout” is a kind of exhaustion that comes not from doing too much, but from doing work that doesn’t actually mean anything to you, and doesn’t challenge you.

A 2023 survey of 1,204 employees found that 28% had experienced boreout compared to 30% who'd experienced burnout. This is almost the same prevalence, but only one gets any attention.

Some signs of boreout are feeling “hollow”: like weeks blurring together, tasks completed without caring, and tiredness that extra sleep doesn't fix.

And from the outside, it looks like you’re being lazy. People around you might wonder why you aren’t pushing yourself or doing more. So people who are suffering from boreout often treat it as a character flaw instead of a structural problem. One person quoted in the research described it this way: "I fall into despair because my life is passing me by and it turns completely meaningless... you lose your self-confidence and don't know what kind of skills you actually have."

What extra sucks is the standard advice for burnout (like extra rest, slow down, do less, etc.) can actually make boreout worse. In this case you actually don’t need to do less, you need more alignment and challenge.

Here's a quick way to diagnose: write down your honest answer to one question "Is the main thing draining me right now too much, or too little?"

If the answer is too little, pick one thing you could take on or reframe this week to give yourself something worth caring about.

Interestingly, it doesn't have to be a new project or a bigger role. Researcher Amy Wrzesniewski at NYU found that hospital janitors who saw themselves as part of the healing mission of their hospital reported higher satisfaction than physicians who treated their work as just a job. This mindset shift is available inside almost any role or task.

So the takeaway is: If you’re feeling checked-out or unmotivated, it might be that you need a more challenging or more meaningful project, OR that you need to find the meaning and challenge in what you’re already working on.

Last week I launched the AI/ML Career Launchpad, the learning community I wish I had when I was starting my career in the field.

It’s a structured path for navigating skill development, portfolio projects, job applications, and more, all with direct access to me for any questions you have along the way.

Learn more here. 🚀

Want to chat 1:1? Book time with me here.

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