Brain Energy Economics: Willpower Can’t Solve the Physical Deadlock

Overwork in tech isn’t a willpower problem—it’s a cognitive systems failure. High-load roles exhaust the brain’s executive capacity, triggering “recovery lockout,” where rest no longer restores. Modern workplaces often respond with empathy and wellness language—the “Kindness UI”—while leaving workload design unchanged. The result is burnout framed as personal failure instead of an engineering problem.