> That's when I learned the difference between burnout and disillusionment. Burnout drains your body; disillusionment erases your purpose.

That isn’t quite right, burnout is generally connected to a lack of perceived purpose. It’s not just overworking.

I’m also not sure about the claim of creating meaningfulness out of thin air. Surely the author is learning Sumerian because they find somehing interesting about it. And while one can find something interesting in many things, you can’t force yourself to find any arbitrary thing interesting if you just don’t.