Ask HN: Going to bed with *unsolved* problems in your head?
1 franktankbank 2 8/13/2025, 4:18:11 PM
Now I've gone to bed with a problem in my head that I had some sense was solvable, no problem there and knock it out in the morning. What happens when you go to bed regularly with unsolved problems? Either you encounter a new problem regularly that you don't know how to solve by bedtime; or you have long standing unsolved problems? In my experience this is what causes burnout at the fundamental level. Protagonists/Antagonists have at it, revere me or shred me, its the internet I don't care.
You're "sleeping on it" that's what everyone does, or should do. totally fine thing to be doing.
Last night, i wasthinking about what i would be doing today with gpt-oss-20b now that it actually works with tools.
I'm finding aider is my front runner right now.
>Either you encounter a new problem regularly that you don't know how to solve by bedtime; or you have long standing unsolved problems?
I wish i had the Steve jobs video to link. You're dealing with prioritization. I think it was 80/20. You spend 80% of your time awake fixing problems that matter. You can only work on 20% of nonsense that doesnt matter. Most people in his experience are more so working 20% on what matters and 80% on nonsense.
If you're 'sleeping on it" night after night. You're likely not prioritizing fixing stuff; you're working on the wrong things.
>In my experience this is what causes burnout at the fundamental level.
I look at a random page for "causes of job burnout" and they are all the 20%.