Even if it were your main quest, I think the strategy you outline is worth following. Going all out is what causes burnout, and that applies to whether you are working for yourself or for someone else, and also whether you are working a job or working on your passion.
A career is like an ultra marathon -- maintain a sustainable pace, and run with people you like to spend time with.
I could retire now, if I had to, but I hope to do this for another three to five years. It is just far too interesting and fun. I had an older coworker that worked full time until he was 74. He also just enjoyed the work and the people he worked with.
It is a marathon, and change is constant, which makes it more interesting than a lot of careers in the long run. Plan for the long run, and make room to live your life all along the way.
Over time, I started putting more time into properly decompressing from work at the end of the day so I didn’t feel stressed about the next day.
I get burned out from time to time still, but it’s much more “in the moment” burn out vs systemic burn out.
Is it?
I always took "Quiet Quitting" to mean, "Lets see how long I can do nothing until I get fired", not "Work to Rule" or "work your pay", or whatever.
I've seen this "Work 5 hours a week sporadically answering slack and see how long till they notice I produce nothing" before, and it's surprising how long I've seen people get away from doing basically 0 work and continue drawing a paycheck.
I think it's largely because most companies don't properly manage a remote teams. It happens when they don't understand how to properly set results-based expectations and deadlines for remote work.
But it's also a huge middle-finger to your teammates who may still care about their work and job, and having dead-weight on the team is demoralizing.
So I imagine the percentage of role-playing in r/overemployeed is less than 50%.
That's a non-trivial number of people, and I'd bet if you work for a large company, there's a non-trivial of people doing this now. (See the thread about Experion firing contractors with multiple jobs[1])
I don't think it's "care less" but I think it's "care appropriately for 40 hours a week."
The concept of "quiet quitting" is a shameful, panicky fraud perpetuated by the power holders in the industry that see their power slipping. "Quiet quitting" has been known as "work to rule" or "fulfilling a contract." My paystub says 40 hours. My original contract says nothing about overtime. I'm not quiet quitting, I'm doing my !@#$ing job.
By being STRICTLY limited to 40 hours, I can do my job at full strength, providing consistent results and quality. And then I'm not so burned out that I go home and do whatever I please with my life. Sometimes that's more coding for me!
My job is a side quest, not a main quest.