the rust project has a burnout problem
the number of people who have left the rust project due to burnout is shockingly high. the number of people in the project who are close to burnout is also shockingly high.
this post is about myself, but it's not just about myself. i'm not going to name names because either you know what i'm talking about, in which case you know at least five people matching this description, or you don't, in which case sorry but you're not the target audience. consider, though, that the project has been around for 15 years, and compare that to the average time a maintainer has been active ...
(i apologize in advance if this story does not match your experience; hopefully the suggestions on what to do about burnout will still be helpful to you.)
guess what you've already learned at this point: work in this project doesn't happen unless you personally drive it forward. that issue you fixed was opened for years; the majority of issues you will work on as you start will have been open for months.
"it won't get done if i don't do it" and "i need to review everything or stuff will slip through" is exactly the mindset of my own burnout from rust. it doesn't matter if it's true, it will cause you pain. if the project cannot survive without you personally putting in unpaid overtime, perhaps it does not deserve to survive.
