A New Kind Of Burnout
July 24, 2026
I wanted to talk about a new kind of burnout. Well, I should say a new cause for burnout. Burnout is burnout. It can come from different causes. The official definition is:
A state of severe physical, mental, and emotional exhaustion caused by long-term, unmanaged stress.
You May Have Seen It
What is the new cause? You may have already experienced it somewhat. I’m going to bring up a topic that even though it’s a new subject, the topic of discussion is already becoming old and worn out. Even boring by some standards. So I’ll try to put a new twist into the conversation of AI by talking about AI Burnout. I would like to think that I came up with that term. I’ve never heard it before but that doesn’t mean someone else hasn’t already talked about it.
I began thinking about the topic because I am in the process of learning AI and its use in running a business. Specifically using it to perform tasks that someone in a leadership position like a leader in a company, a business owner, real estate investor, or anyone involved in a business activity that has tasks to perform that affect the success of the business. Especially tasks that they hate doing, or don’t have the talent or skills to do.
Our Linear Limitation
Here’s the problem and the reason for the burnout that I think will quickly become commonplace. People think linearly. Most people have trouble with exponential thought or understanding. We just aren’t designed that way. AI improves exponentially. As time moves forward AI’s progress will accelerate until we can no longer keep up with more than a small specialized part of it. Here’s what I have experienced. See if this sounds familiar to you based on what you’ve experienced.
I have an AI platform I subscribe to that I use for creating marketing materials. It’s great and is probably the most useful thing I have used for my business, until about a week ago. It’s a very specialized app built on Claude. They created it specifically for marketing and until recently Claude by itself was not as effective for marketing. But Claude has progressed beyond that point now to where I am pretty sure I can just use Claude if I choose to and cancel the other platform. I haven’t made that decision yet but I’m not ruling it out. Here the thing; about the time I learn how to use an AI app or platform effectively a new groundbreaking advancement comes out to replace it. My new knowledge is already being left behind. It seems like about every 30 days. But it used to be about once a year. And then every 6 months. Now every 30 days. Soon it will be weekly.
A Hamster Wheel
I believe that actually trying to keep up with everything new will cause us to experience AI Burnout especially if you have shiny object syndrome (which my wife insists I have). I have realized that at some point I will have to be happy with the level I have reached and use what I know and have. I’m not saying be satisfied. Just be happy with it for a while and let your mind relax a little. It’s easy to get caught up in the race to keep up with the latest thing and the newest experts. Soon we will all have AI niches by necessity because it will be absolutely impossible to be the kind of expert we have always been accustomed to. Positions will probably have AI attached to their title. For example, an AI CFO, or an AI Mortgage Broker or Real Estate Broker. To be clear, not AI doing the job but rather a Chief Financial Officer who is an expert with AI for financial duties. How about a Real Estate Broker who is an expert using AI to find and analyze property deals, track important contract dates, and manage properties. Guess what…they both already exist. And we will see more really soon.
Which Is Easier?
Is it easier to do the work yourself than it is to learn to use AI to do the job? For some people, yes. And for some use cases, yes. That will have to be a personal decision. When making that decision remember that your human touch is needed on just about everything that gets done in the world today. We still need your thought, your feelings, your creativity, and your experience.
Thanks to all our readers and welcome to the new subscribers!
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