Everyone talks about burnout.
But there's another thing that can quietly destroy you as a founder. And it doesn't get nearly enough attention.
It's called boreout.
Boreout isn't exhaustion. It's emptiness. It's that slow, creeping feeling that nothing is wrong — but nothing feels right either. You're not overwhelmed. You're under-stimulated. You're going through the motions, but the spark is gone.
This happens more than you'd think. Especially in the middle stages of building. The early excitement fades. The big vision feels far away. And you're left with the long, repetitive work of maintaining and iterating.
The dangerous thing about boreout is that it feels like laziness. You think: I should be grateful. I should be motivated. What's wrong with me?
Nothing is wrong with you. You're just human. And humans need meaning, challenge, and growth — not just stability.
If you're feeling this, here's what I've learned: You need to manufacture novelty. Start a small experiment. Learn something new. Talk to users you haven't talked to in a while. Shake something up, even if it's small.
Boreout doesn't fix itself through discipline. It fixes itself through curiosity.
This is Founder FM. Find something that interests you again.