Boreout Burnout

When to explore and when to exploit

Anna Katharina Schaffner | Psychology Today

This article was originally published on 27 March 2025 on Psychology Today/The Art of Self-Improvement

When we think of burnout and exhaustion, we tend to associate the two with chronic stress, overwhelm, and simply way too much to do in too short a time frame. We pay much less attention to another major cause of burnout, which is boredom, or understimulation. We can also lose our energy and motivation when we are trapped in situations in which we no longer learn anything; don’t encounter new ideas, people, or stimuli; and can’t grow. Forced stagnation of that kind can deplete us just as much as overwhelm can.

Burnout can also be caused by developmental paralysis—an absence of the right level of challenge—as well as a lack of passion, surprise, autonomy, and curiosity. Theologians in the Middle Ages were well aware of the dangers of understimulation and what it can do to our minds and bodies. They talked not about burnout but about "acedia," a weariness of the heart—a lukewarm mindset that causes our faith and passion to grow weak and our minds to wander, making us easy prey for noonday demons and temptation of all kinds.

It is true that in our age, we are, superficially at least, predominantly afflicted with the negative effects of overstimulation. But underneath all the urgency, fast-paced busyness, and constant assault with highly sensually seductive but mostly pointless information via social media can also lurk serious understimulation. An absence of wrestling with real, sustained difficulty and complexity and a lack of opportunities to discover genuinely new things about ourselves and others can make us wilt like potted plants without water. Why? Because novelty and learning are two core human needs. If we can’t learn and explore, we are in trouble.

I was reminded of all that by Alex Hutchinson's new book The Explorer’s Gene: Why We Seek Big Challenges, New Flavors, and the Blank Spots on the Map. Hutchinson investigates the psychological and neurological mechanisms that drive exploration. Why do some of us feel an irresistible urge to push beyond the boundaries of the known, while others find solace in the familiar? These questions intrigue me because I am both: Intellectually, I am very curious and always driven to explore new territory; I love learning and exploring new ideas. But in terms of my daily routines, I am a total creature of habit, really boring and predictable, seldom venturing out of my comfort zone. In that sense, I am the exact opposite of an explorer. And when I do try something new, I immediately establish new routines around it.

The Adjacent Possible: The Edge of Innovation

Hutchinson introduces an intriguing concept that immediately resonated with me: the "adjacent possible." Coined by biologist Stuart Kauffman, the adjacent possible describes the realm of innovations and discoveries that lie just beyond our current knowledge. It is a liminal space in which the conceivable is within reach but still requires bold action to attain it. Those who push boundaries are adept at sensing these nearby possibilities and ready to pursue them.

Translated into the psychological realm, we can only truly develop if we venture into the adjacent possible that waits for us just outside our comfort zone. The adjacent possible is the growth zone in which we can challenge ourselves and explore new ways of being, doing, feeling, and thinking. What might that be for you? What is a small but brave step you can take out of your comfort zone, into the unknown? If you are stuck in a job in which you stagnate, what is your adjacent possible realm of discovery?

The Drive to Reduce Uncertainty: The Paradox of Risk and Security

A paradoxical tension in human cognition is our desire both for stability and our urge to confront the unknown. While we are wired to seek predictability, under the right conditions, we are equally drawn to novelty and risk. Partly, that is because we wish to reduce uncertainty, not because we love dwelling in it; we want to know what is behind the closed door, where a country road may lead to, or whether the Earth is really flat and we can fall off it if we just keep sailing on.

Another reason why we may seek novelty and risk is dopamine—a neurotransmitter central to motivation and reward. The pursuit of novelty and encountering positive surprises, in the form of better-than-expected phenomena, activates our brain’s reward circuits. It is why curiosity itself can become addictive.

Explore or Exploit?: The Perpetual Decision-Making Dilemma

I was also intrigued by Hutchinson's discussion of the "explore or exploit" dilemma. It is a crucial cognitive trade-off that governs decision-makingacross many different domains. Should we stick with known resources and strategies (exploit) or take a gamble on untested options that might yield greater rewards (explore)? Hutchinson argues that true explorers resist the psychological pull of immediate certainty in favour of long-term discovery.

A good illustration of this can be found in the culinary world. Celebrated chefs like Ferran Adrià of El Bulli revolutionized gastronomy by refusing to settle for the familiar. Rather than perfecting classical techniques, Adrià closed his wildly successful restaurant each year to engage in radical experimentation, and it was in that way that he discovered molecular gastronomy. This willingness to explore new frontiers rather than exploit past success is a defining feature of innovation across fields, from venture capitalists who fund unproven startups to artists who continuously reinvent their styles.

Explore or exploit can be a great question to ask ourselves, too: When is it better to stay in our comfort zone and reap the rewards of certainty and predictability, and when is it better to risk exploring new, uncertain roads not yet taken? Exploit always seems the safer option, but it has a cost, too: If we languish in understimulating jobs, for example, the cost is stagnation and "boreout."

The Effort Paradox: Why Struggle Is the Source of Meaning

One of Hutchinson’s other insights concerns the "effort paradox"—the counterintuitive idea that the most meaningful human experiences often emerge from struggle. We are naturally inclined to conserve energy and avoid unnecessary exertion, but it is, in fact, those activities that demand significant effort that frequently provide the deepest satisfaction.

That is one of the reasons why boreout burnout can be so dangerous: It deprives us of the opportunity to exercise real effort and to reap the demands of the satisfaction it can bring. Neuroscientific research supports this idea: Effort triggers the release of dopamine, reinforcing our drive to pursue difficult but rewarding tasks. More broadly, this paradox explains why we derive lasting fulfilment from mastering an instrument, writing a novel, learning a language, or solving complex mathematical problems: They are all tasks that require sustained, often painful, long-term effort.

Boreout Burnout as Lack of Exploration Opportunities

While we all live somewhere on the broad spectrum between safety-loving house cats and high-risk-taking mountaineers, we will all have at least some of the traits that define explorers—openness to the adjacent possible, tolerance for uncertainty, a bias toward exploration, and an embrace of effort. If we are in jobs that don’t allow us to pursue any of them, we will find it hard to thrive and stay motivated.

Image: Joshua Earle @Unsplash