on burnout, succession plans, and starting projects
Speaking as someone who is extremely unreliable for any consistent task like running a community: If you're going to start something other people use, have both a permanent succession plan, and backups for your roles.
You may wake up one day and decide you don't want to do (or can't) this any more but people rely on your service.
You may run out of spoons for weeks but still have duties to perform, and forcing yourself to do them because there's no backup may bring you back the not wanting to do it any more.
You may end up incapacitated suddenly somehow and need to enact either plan, or both.
But more importantly, having those in place means if you're worried about burning out and giving up, at least what you build will continue if it happens. That alone can be a comfort.
I'm posting this more to give myself permission to start things I worry I'll stop more than anything.
You may wake up one day and decide you don't want to do (or can't) this any more but people rely on your service.
You may run out of spoons for weeks but still have duties to perform, and forcing yourself to do them because there's no backup may bring you back the not wanting to do it any more.
You may end up incapacitated suddenly somehow and need to enact either plan, or both.
But more importantly, having those in place means if you're worried about burning out and giving up, at least what you build will continue if it happens. That alone can be a comfort.
I'm posting this more to give myself permission to start things I worry I'll stop more than anything.
re: on burnout, succession plans, and starting projects
@trysdyn A big part of why the previous incarnation of my discord had collapsed, I tried to top-down a system where it could run itself with little input from me, and I curated the community with the kinds of people who expect one person to do everything.
Lesson learned: Never build a community for Gamers™ they won't have your back unless they have something to personally gain from it.
re: on burnout, succession plans, and starting projects
@FreyaManibrandr Yeah... I was Kind Of A Big Deal in the NES Speedrunning community and experienced very similar. Eventually the two people who did everything stopped doing it, and so did the entire community-- except for the parts that began power struggling.
Alas.
Alas.
re: on burnout, succession plans, and starting projects
I think a lot of people are pressured that way by society in general.