jonnymiller's comments

> "I believe that this ability to listen deeply to someone else’s experience without adding any of one’s own ideas or thoughts is among the rarest gifts in today’s world"

This resonated. As someone who loves to give advice and recommendations to be 'helpful' (and so validate my presence) it's incredibly hard to just be with someone else's experience.

Thanks for sharing this, I'll have a listen!

Hi, appreciate the feedback (I'm Jonny, one of the co-authors), writing this we were conscious of framing this report not as a finished artefact, but as the beginning of a multi-year resilience research study and we fully acknowledge that it raises more questions than it provides answers.

However, we also did make an effort to outline some concrete strategies for relieving emotional debt in section 7 and also outlined in the [wiki](http://resilient.wiki/), which include daily/weekly/monthly/annual activities (although by no means an exhaustive list and invite readers to contribute additional suggestions).

> re: Especially in terms of letting corporations and HR departments deflect and ignore fixing toxic work environments rampant with major burnout stressors

This may be well the case in some organisations and part of our intention with the 'Shadow Stressors' framework was to shed light on those sources of stress in the 'ambient/external quadrant' which would likely fall under the responsibility of the organisation's leadership to address.

Appreciate that Tom, and yes the PDF is a more readable summary for those who don't have time to read all the way through the 60+ page Gdoc ;)

And a support group / Slack channel for Software Engineers sounds like a superb idea.

The author did indeed (fixed) thanks for catching that (it slipped by us & our proof-reader)

> "Like it would somehow undo my years of professional progress. I'm grateful that my upper leadership was actually quite receptive, and others have shared that they feel more empowered to address their own issues when they see other people willing to share more about their own struggles."

This is a powerful reflection. Vulnerability often feels like weakness to us but looks like courage to others. IMO real change is contingent on a deeper cultural shift that begins with leaders like yourself being willing to step into honest conversations about their inner + outer struggles.

And really great to hear that you have someone experienced working with you to help navigate the coming weeks. Please do reach out if you have curiosities or further questions about any of the emotional regulation activities listed in the wiki (or wish to contribute suggestions of your own).

Thanks Leo, we have you to thank for introducing us to the concept of 'emotional debt'. I totally agree that for the majority of us, navigating the inner-world + increasing self-awareness has an absurdly high ROI on success/fulfillment.

What I also find fascinating is how running a company or leading a team appear to be an incredibly efficient vehicle for surfacing one's own sh*t—and once this new perspective is adopted—it becomes more potent than any self-help program out there for one's own personal growth.

There is a delicate balance between what the author of Reboot Jerry Colonna describes as 'Foolish Grit' vs. 'Healthy Drive + Ambition'. In my own experience I find it helpful to enquire into the underlying motivations for the work.

i.e am I driving myself from a place of fear? How does my body feel when I begin working on this? What is the source of the resistance? Whilst fear can certainly be a powerful motivator in the short term, it is not a sustainable fuel source.

Jonny (one of the report co-authors) here, thanks for sharing this—I entirely agree that normalising this conversation around mental health is essential, yet often requires courage to do so, especially in a work context. Yet, as our research illustrated, you are very much not alone in experiencing pre-existing mental health challenges that were amplified by the events of 2020.

re: 'telling the difference between work burnout vs. residual issues from a traumatic history', this is a nuanced topic but from the perspective of your nervous system, there really isn't a difference—the emotional debt (which could also be labelled as 'micro-trauma') that accumulates doesn't neatly distinguish between work + life as we have a tendency to do (the RED framework in the report was our attempt to describe this process in more detail).

Taking an initial 4-week break is really important step—I would encourage you not to commit (at this point) with a date for when you will return but see how the coming weeks unfold. It's also critical to seek help during the recovery process, ideally from someone trained in a form of therapy that addresses the body (Somatic Experiencing Therapy being a good example). Did you notice the [Resilience Wiki](http://resilient.wiki/) that we've started towards the end of the report? Hopefully some of those resources are useful. Also, please feel free to get in touch directly: jonnymiller[at]mac.com

This resonates with my own experience: "Although most people look forward to vacations and days off, most successful people I know dread them."—working more hours was a socially acceptable route to not dealing with my own sh*t.

It’s pretty clear that the melting ice is bringing significant changes to Russia’s far north – the questions are: Why is the perennial ice melting? How far will that melting go? And with what ecological consequences?

"As I slipped open the sunshade of my spacesuit, I could see that the sky above was black. The curved white and blue Earth fell away below the horizon. Sailing like Icarus past 70,000 feet, I was now the 11th highest human on Earth. Soaring in a U-2 at the edge of space, this moment was one of the highlights of my life." – amazing... no amount of money could buy an experience like this.

We were still building v1.0 of our product and so weren't looking to hire during that early stage. However we did connect with a group of Moroccan entrepreneurs who travelled all the way from Tiznit, Marrakech and Agadir and have kept in touch ever since. It definitely feels like there is a passionate startup community growing over there.

Jonny (a Maptia co-founder) here. Thanks and yes we know that it is incredibly important to get this aspect of Maptia right (having a sustainable way to grow will enable us to have more of an impact) and we also believe in being 100% transparent.

We have felt comfortable supporting Maptia ourselves for now. However, it is our long-term aim to grow Maptia into a sustainable organisation whose primary aim is to re-invest in its community to directly fund and support talented photographers and writers to tell impact-driven stories.

We are currently in the process of deciding whether to convert to a non-profit foundation or to another similar structure of organisation that is better suited to our long-term mission and our values. At the very least, over the next two years, we are committed to launching a non-profit sister organisation for Maptia, and are already working on a number of storytelling partnerships with non-profit organisations (like charity: water) from all over the world.

As a first step towards our goal of becoming sustainable, we are investigating a small number of partnerships with inspiring brands and organisations who share our values, who believe in our vision, and who will add value and engage with the storytelling process.

Our primary aim is to be able to start compensating some of the talented storytellers on our site for their work, and to be able to cover the running costs of the Maptia platform. We pledge never to stick logos or other branding on (or anywhere near) Maptia stories unless the authors are being well compensated and are fully on-board with the idea, and furthermore, we will only partner with authentic organisations who believe in the power of storytelling as much as we do.

If our persistence over the last few years is anything to go by, we will figure it out... and even if all else fails, then Dean (our CTO and also a talented musician) has promised to busk part time to cover our costs. In other words, we will do everything humanely possible to make sure that Maptia will be around for many years to come!

Thanks Jared – it has been a crazy journey since Startup Chile back in 2012!