There's a specific kind of exhaustion that comes not from doing too much but from performing a version of yourself all day that doesn't actually exist. The tiredness isn't physical. It's the distance between who people think you are and who you become the moment the door closes. - Silicon Canals

"The common reading of tiredness is that it comes from overwork. Too many hours, too many tasks, too little sleep. And sometimes that's accurate. But it misses an entire category of fatigue that has nothing to do with volume and everything to do with friction: the gap between the self you project and the self that actually exists."

"Psychologist Adam Phillips has argued that identity itself functions as a kind of self-cure for the feeling of exclusion, something we construct to belong, and then spend enormous energy defending."

"The version of yourself that shows up to a Monday morning meeting is not the version that existed at breakfast. The transition happens fast, almost imperceptibly. A slight straightening of posture. A recalibration of tone. An entire personality adjustment that takes maybe three seconds and lasts the rest of the day."

Social performance leads to a unique form of fatigue that stems from the discrepancy between the self one projects and the authentic self. This gap is often mistaken for professionalism or social etiquette, but it incurs a psychological cost that accumulates over time. Many individuals experience this in corporate environments, where they adjust their demeanor and personality to fit social expectations. The concept of identity as a self-cure for exclusion highlights the energy spent in maintaining these false selves, which is not a flaw but a systemic issue.

Read at Silicon Canals