May, 2026 | Applied Cartography

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applied cartography

May, 2026

2026/06/01There are two mental models about work and fatigue which, like my brief dalliance with Roshe Runs, I have loved and outgrown:

The first is the fungibility of fatigue. Also known as the spoon theory,1To be clear, my point is with the colloquial extension of spoon theory to able-bodied people like myself, and not the chronic illness context in which it was coined. it is roughly the notion that everything we do — from the mundane (brushing one's teeth, taking a shower) to the expensive (entering flow state for four hours of incident response) — carries some vaguely quantitative measure of toil, all of it drawn from a single reservoir over the course of the day. Like a wizard spending mana to cast spells at varying levels. This model, like all models, is useful insofar as it offers some bit of truth: for everyone there is an innate drain from everything we do, even the things we don't think of as draining, and both those numbers and the size of the central reservoir vary from person to person.

The second is the idea that productive work is inherently toilsome in a way that consumptive work is not — a concept often espoused by Cal Newport, for example, generally as a kind of groundwork lemma, to then advocate against consumption in favor of productive work as a form of leisure. This, too, contains some scintilla of truth: on net, work that we would describe as productive does have characteristics distinct from work that we would describe as consumptive. But the dichotomy is fake, and with enough rigor can be made contradictory. I take quite a bit of pride in my approach to consumption; when I am watching a movie or reading a book it is the only thing receiving my attention, and I am often thinking very, very hard as I do so. And conversely, many bits of ostensibly productive work are without a doubt the easiest and most energizing parts of my day — fixing a quick bug, or cooking Lucy an omelette.

The synthesis of these two anti-revelations is probably obvious, and perhaps one that you arrived at years before I did: energy is not a trivial thing, whether in the growing or in the reaping.

May was filled with days in which I would happily and ably spend sixteen hours straight playing with Lucy and cleaning the house, then running a dozen errands, then reviewing a handful of PRs. And then suddenly it is 9pm, and for all the Café Bustelo in the world I cannot summon the energy to open Slack for the first time in twelve hours — not out of fear or dread of what may await me, but because in that moment a dozen hashtagged channels lit up and awaiting my attention feels akin to a text from my friend Colin asking whether I'd like to go on a quick eighteen-mile jog to shake the rust off.

It took time to earn the comfort of hitting CMD+Q on Slack. Two years ago, as I have written, a couple of days away from the business meant a week of lost growth, meant a week of angry customers. Now: I spent a week away and came back to one of my lovely support folks genially informing me that everything had gone great, and that I should take more time logged off. 2This conversation concluded with her daring me to stay logged out of her customer support tool forever — a dare which I happily accepted. Thanks, Anita.

How do you relax when the things that once brought you energy now demand it? One way involves a very happy dog with a newly-repaired ACL and what is frankly the most disgusting tennis ball I have ever seen or felt, its entire surface smothered in a slime-like residue of slobber and dirt from the herb garden, followed by a night in which I go to bed at 9pm, arms sore and grateful, brain too empty to entertain any thought of the days ahead.

I hope you had a lovely May. Mine was filled with rest and unanswered push notifications, and now it is time to spend a little bit of the former on a little bit of the latter.

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About the Author

I'm Justin Duke — a software engineer, writer, and founder. I<br>currently work as the CEO of<br>Buttondown, the best way to start and grow your newsletter, and as a partner<br>at<br>Third South Capital.

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