People get burnout not from working hard but from things not working. Momentum is really energizing. The lack of momentum is super draining.
Sam Altman said he was told and thought for a long time that you get burned out from working hard. However, in his experience, he found that burnout actually comes from the feeling of things not working.
He has infinite energy to work on things that are interesting and working and almost none to work on things that are either he doesn't find interesting or isn't working. Momentum is really energizing. The lack of momentum is super draining.
He said that many founders who tried something and failed would assume that they just can't work hard enough or they don't have enough energy or passion. That's actually not true. The thing is just that didn't work. What they should do is shut down the company, go on vacation, and try again. Many people then realized that, when they doing the thing they like and the thing is working, they have a huge amount of energy.