I don’t think founders burn out from working too much. I think they burn out from uncertainty

There were periods in my life where I worked insane hours and felt completely fine. Energized, even.

And then there were weeks where I worked half as much but felt mentally exhausted all the time.

I don’t think the difference was workload. I think it was certainty.

When you feel momentum — even small momentum — your brain tolerates a ridiculous amount of effort. But when you spend weeks unsure whether anything is working, every task suddenly feels heavier.

Especially in the early stages.

You tweak onboarding. No change.
You launch on a platform. No traction.
You post content. Nobody cares.

It’s not the work itself that drains you. It’s the feeling that you might be pushing in the wrong direction and not knowing for how long.

I feel like this part of building products is massively under-discussed. People talk about hustle and discipline all the time, but not enough about the psychological side of uncertainty.

One thing that’s helped me personally is focusing less on “is this succeeding?” and more on “am I learning something useful every week?”

Not a perfect fix, but it keeps me moving.

How do you personally deal with long periods where results are unclear?