Burnout has a startling knack for sneaking up on us. We're stressed and tired but still functioning at a high level, and then suddenly our capacity to keep going collapses. We are no longer able to function no matter how much we (or others) cajole us. We've burned out and there are no quick, easy fixes. We have to slowly rebuild our lives to function at a much more leisurely pace and with far lighter loads of stress and much less systemic fragility.

This process is the subject of my recent book When You Can't Go On: Burnout, Reckoning and Renewal ( sample chapter).

Economies can burn out, too. In other words, burnout is scale-invariant: we understand individuals burn out, but enterprises, cities and economies can burn out, too, for the same reasons individuals burn out.

University of California-Berkeley professor Christina Malasch pioneered research on what causes burnout. Her focus was on workplace burnout, but the dynamics she identified in toxic workplaces can also be constructively applied to all human systems, right up to the entire hyper-globalized, hyper-financialized global economy.

1. An overwhelming load of systemic stress from multiple sources (overwork, environmental damage, drought, debt, corruption, depletion, etc.)

2. A loss of control of the sources of systemic stress (workers have no control over their work, central banks can print money but they can't print water, etc.)

3. Declining rewards for effort (workers not compensated for extra effort, positive policy initiatives thwarted by vested interests, etc.)

4. The network is toxic (the workplace is toxic, the political circus is toxic, the supply chain is toxic, etc.)

5. Injustice / unfairness is the order of the day (insiders rig the system to benefit their self-interests, "justice" is reserved for the rich and well-connected, show trials and execution by social media slander abound, etc.)

6. The system demands adhering to corrupt, destructive, venal values (the primacy of greed and self-interest, short-term gains outweigh long-term social / environmental costs, sleazy self-serving PR is the dominant form of communication, etc.)