Talk Description
⚠️ Content warning: This conversation includes discussion of burnout, mental health struggles, grief, and loss.
In this Cosmic Conversation, Viv Richards and Dan Billing talk about what happens when burnout shifts your relationship with work, community, and yourself.
The conversation starts from Viv’s article After the pause: Rediscovering the feeling of belonging in tech and moves into shared reflections on stepping back, losing momentum, and realising that burnout is not always about workload or skills. Instead, they explore how losing connection to people, curiosity, and purpose can quietly drain energy over time.
Viv and Dan draw on personal experiences of community building, COVID, family life, grief, and mental health. They talk about what it feels like when comfort becomes numbing, why confidence can fade even as experience grows, and how pressure to “get back to normal” often misses the point.
Rather than offering fixes or advice, the conversation focuses on noticing what has changed and finding small, sustainable ways to reconnect. That might be through learning something new, rejoining community at a gentler pace, or simply giving yourself permission not to return to who you were before.
You will hear about:
• How burnout can show up as loss of connection rather than exhaustion
• The role community plays in confidence, learning, and career direction
• Why slowing down can reveal what was no longer sustainable
• How curiosity and small experiments can help you find a way forward
• What sustainable reconnection can look like when life, work, and priorities have changed
This conversation is for anyone who has stepped back from community, feels disconnected from their work, quietly figuring out what comes next after a period of change, and how to move forward without repeating the same patterns.
As you watch, consider: where have you lost connection over time, and what small step might help you reconnect in a way that feels sustainable?
Dan is a tester, software engineering coach, and trainer with 25 years experience in tech. He’s an active community member, event organiser, speaker, and co-host of the Screen Testing podcast.
Not the cricketer! I am the Lead QA consultant at Rubber Duck Consulting, an International speaker, conference organiser and facilitator. In my spare time I enjoy teaching children to code as a CodeClub volunteer as well as spending time with my wife and 5 children.
Dan is a tester, software engineering coach, and trainer with 25 years experience in tech. He’s an active community member, event organiser, speaker, and co-host of the Screen Testing podcast.
Not the cricketer! I am the Lead QA consultant at Rubber Duck Consulting, an International speaker, conference organiser and facilitator. In my spare time I enjoy teaching children to code as a CodeClub volunteer as well as spending time with my wife and 5 children.
