Frankly, I have no taste for either poverty or honest labor, so writing is the only recourse left me.

— Hunter S. Thompson. 

Why do writers who make several hundred thousand dollars a year doing what they love have the audacity to write about burnout?

Look up one of the most successful Substack newsletters— 

Culture Study by Anne Helen Petersen —search burnout, and you’ll see people relish mental exhaustion advice from writers. 

But unlike paramedics, firefighters, social workers, and the heroic-like, our situations aren’t always exhausting—we are. We write that we have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat as we sit comfortably at our desks. 

So, why do those who make several hundred thousand dollars a year doing what they love have the audacity to write about burnout?

What an ugly question. It’s filled with envy, ego, and a lack of rational compassion. It’s a way to exhaust myself. 

It doesn’t matter how much money Anne or 

Emma Gannon make. People at different stages in their Substack careers, like Rachel Katz from Inner Workings, have also shared their personal journeys, helping others in the process. Everyone’s struggle is different, but everyone’s struggle is the same. 

Except for the Chinese. 

A shitty joke, of course. But every joke contains a grain of truth. Entre broma y broma la verdad se asoma. 

I’ve been teaching Chinese children for the past six years. My workdays are from 9:00 AM to 9:00 PM Monday through Saturday, 30 hours on Substack. I own my own business, which means I’m free to create my own schedule around my students and fill in the hours between classes on Substack, meal breaks, and physical activity—these last two are often spent on Spanish terraces and beaches, so it’s nothing like China’s 996 system. 

Chinese companies have turned the 996 system (working from nine to nine, six days a week) into the “new industry standard.” Allegedly, it’s been declared illegal, but laws and regulations do little without cultural change. 

And that’s where Neijuan (内卷) comes in.

I’ve worked with Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Japanese, Canadian, American, Dutch, Belgian, and German people, and I can honestly say that Chinese people are the best of all of us… to work with. 

If we look at Erin Meyer’s cultural time scale, we can see that Chinese people are on the flexible side, along with many southern European, African, and South American countries. The difference is that Chinese people will let you know if they can’t show up on time.

Rescheduling classes has never been a problem, but lately, my students’ weekends have become even busier than their weekdays. When I asked one of the parents why, he replied:

‘Are you familiar with involution?’

Since I was their English teacher, I didn’t want to make a fool of myself, so I quickly looked up the word.

1.
PHYSIOLOGY
the shrinkage of an organ in old age or when inactive, e.g. of the uterus after childbirth.

2.
MATHEMATICS
a function, transformation, or operator that is equal to its inverse, i.e. which gives the identity when applied to itself.

No tengo ni idea, coño. 

‘Yes,’ I said.

Luckily, he followed up with, ‘We call it neijuan,’ and I figured it out. 

The Chinese term for involution, neijuan, which is made up of the characters for “inside” and “rolling,” suggests a process that curls inward, ensnaring its participants within what the anthropologist Xiang Biao has described as an “endless cycle of self-flagellation.” Involution is “the experience of being locked in a competition that one ultimately knows is meaningless,” Biao told me. It is acceleration without a destination, progress without a purpose, Sisyphus spinning the wheels of a perpetual-motion Peloton.

— Yi-Ling Liu in China’s “Involuted” Generation.

We’re familiar with this in the West. The endless cycle of self-flagellation is what many ‘How to deal with burnout’ articles come down to. We need to allow ourselves to take a break and stop comparing ourselves to others. However, how we describe what led up to our burnout differs.

Everyone’s struggle is different; everyone’s struggle is the same.

China has a culture of saving face. They do and say what they can to preserve one's social reputation, dignity, and honor. Chinese people are more likely to use indirect communication, criticize privately, and use intermediaries than Westerners in a business setting, but every culture has situations where people save face. Just think about the conversations at Church, strata meetings, school functions, and all the other places where secrets and double lives fester behind our lying smiles and small talk. 

However, when I give Western students a chance to complain, they go off. But when I asked my Chinese students to write about the positive and negative effects of Neijuan, it came down to…

Negatives:

• It makes me tired.

Positives:

• It’s great for motivation.
• We know where we stand compared to others.
• It can contribute to the great rejuvenation of the Chinese Nation.

Of course, my experience with students doesn’t tell the whole story. 

At Internet companies, software engineers have protested their working conditions on GitHub, a coding-hosting platform, sharing their overwhelming schedules and drafting petitions for an improved state of affairs. Others have adopted coping mechanisms similar to those of Silicon Valley dropouts: quitting their jobs, joining remote communes, setting up Chinese versions of Burning Man, and developing a “Buddhist” (that is, a chilled-out and laissez-faire) approach to life. Some young Chinese have embraced sang—an attitude of sardonic apathy and nihilism.

— Yi-Ling Liu in China’s “Involuted” Generation.

If nihilism spreads, it will destroy China, and the rest of the world is no different. Nihilism tightens its grip when people are burned out and hopeless—when they realize they were holding onto a lie. 

In China, the lie is neijuan. People believe their nation will prosper from excessive work schedules, but it’s backfiring. An increasing proportion of state and private-sector funds have been taken up with servicing debt, which is now inching towards 300% of GDP. China’s GDP per capita is still under $13,000, roughly between Turkmenistan and the Maldives.

Yet, those numbers aren’t what really matters. 

“The CPC’s greatest terror is nihilism. It was nihilism, in their analysis, that destroyed the Soviet Union: as soon as Khrushchev denounced Stalin’s crimes, all faith in the system fell apart; the ruling cadres ended up believing in nothing, and the people believed in nothing, too; eventually, everyone simply stopped pretending, dropped the communist pretence, and embraced sheer nihilism as the governing philosophy of state and society. You have to believe because the other option isn’t nice Western liberalism; it’s the void. This is why China is committed to building a ‘socialist spiritual civilization,’ a mass uniform ideological enthusiasm for whatever it is that passes here for socialism. China does not dwell on the evils of its past, even if the enforced silence over events well within living memory breeds a nihilism of its own. Which is why the people who govern China, one of the most cynically capitalist societies on the planet, really do believe that they are on the road to communism.”

— Sam Kriss

Everyone’s struggle is different; everyone’s struggle is the same.

Sam is on to something, but not having faith in the system is very different than nihilism. In fact, I’d argue it’s the opposite. 

We put our faith into money—something meaningless at its core—instead of what makes us human. All around the world, we’re losing touch with mystical experiences and replacing fulfilment with pills, cheap laughs, quick resort trips, one-night stands, and whatever else gives us a taste of happiness before we return to our burnout cycle. 

Instead of feeding our souls with art, we consume entertainment like fast food. We value quick highs that leave us feeling depressed instead of trips that bring meaning into our lives. Instead of rejecting this rapid consumption, we become it. 

We are what we consume, and we consume meaningless shit. 

Yet, we live in a time when there are more artists and intellectuals than ever. It’s never been easier to buy a book that will change your life, watch a movie that defies constructs, visit a museum that will broaden your view, and create something for the world.

The opportunities to find meaning are all around us; you just have to break through the algorithm. We are more than labels, brands, and consumers. Our most human experiences can’t be categorized or explained. 

When we live for what makes us human, we can dismantle the systems that cause Neijuan, involution, and burnout.

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