Burnout Highway - by Anmol Diddan (Paperback)

About the Book

We're all on the burnout highway. How did we get here, and where's the exit ramp?

Book Synopsis

We're all on the burnout highway. How did we get here, and where's the exit ramp?

You likely know the feeling: chronic workplace stress, an impression of lost agency, depletion, or a nagging sense of ineffectiveness percolating through every aspect of your life. That's burnout.

Our educations, corporate structures, and economic incentives push us to prioritize financially lucrative careers. We aren't taught to seek careers that feel emotionally sustainable. The result? As author Anmol Diddan knows too well, we end up trapped in a never-ending cycle: exhaustion, self-blame, trying to look at the bright side, and then back to exhaustion again. Diddan, a former behavioral researcher at Google who moved across three continents over a decade, set out to understand why he and so many of his colleagues around the world were on the burnout highway seemingly with no way off.

Burnout Highway explores burnout as a collective challenge, debunking the simplistic idea that it stems only from our personal experiences at work. Leaning on his global perspective and background in economics, Diddan demystifies this deeply individual, yet increasingly collective, suffering by exploring the larger context-the systems within which we make decisions, the milestones we were taught to desire, and the feelings of fulfillment we thought they would provide.

Diddan compassionately empowers you with practical tactics and "rest stops," including how to change your attitude toward work, reexamine your relationship with money or perceived needs, and reconnect with others and with nature. Burnout Highway is an invitation to take a chance on yourself by building an awareness of the why behind your burnout and pivoting how you think about your unique journey. Burnout Highway helps you prioritize work you connect with, that is aligned with your values and, most importantly, that caters to your emotional needs, within or outside of traditional corporate structures. This is how we end the cycle of burnout.

Review Quotes

"Burnout Highway reframes burnout as more than just individual exhaustion-a shared reality, not an individual failure. Anmol's insights help pivot the conversation with yourself and enable an empowering reflection." -Saurabh Dangwal, CBO at Osmos

"In Burnout Highway, Anmol delivers a revealing exploration of modern exhaustion and its true roots. Drawing from his own journey within global tech corporations, Anmol looks beyond typical self-help advice, challenging the stories we tell ourselves about work, success, and rest. This book shows how capitalism, corporate structures, and education shape our daily burnout-while offering practical, compassionate 'rest stops' along the way. Burnout Highway is your honest guide to creating a more authentic, compassionate path to freedom and fulfillment." -David Saez, sales director at Meta Platforms

". . . Rather than prescribing yet another productivity hack or self-optimization technique that adds to your burden, Anmol [ . . . ] traces burnout back to its systemic origins-from the foundations of capitalism to path-based education to modern corporate structures-and empowers you with the awareness to recognize these patterns in your own life. What makes this book invaluable are the 'rest stops'-practical tactics to step off the highway entirely, not just drive it more efficiently. Instead of just doing more, it focuses on understanding the systems that shape our exhaustion and help us consciously choose a different path. If you've ever felt trapped on the burnout highway, Anmol offers you both the map to understand how you got here and the exits to set yourself free." -Francis Thomas, director at Coinbase