外耗wài hào

Outer drain

yǔ qí nèi hào, bù rú wài hào.与其内耗，不如外耗。Why drain myself when I can drain you?

外耗 means “outer drain”. It is the reverse of 内耗, overthinking: instead of wearing yourself out over someone else’s mistake, you hand the problem back to them.

Took off: 2024
Started in: Online slogans
Today: Current

What it means

内耗, “inner drain”, is the tiredness of replaying, worrying and blaming yourself. 外 means “outside”. The stress goes out, to the person who caused it.

It is mostly a joke. People say it when they decide to complain, push back or send a task back instead of stewing over it.

How people use it

It is current, and it is mostly self-mockery: you announce that something will not ruin your day. Said to the person you mean, it is a provocation.

琦琦

那个同事又把他的活给你了？
nà gè tóng shì yòu bǎ tā de huó gěi nǐ le?
Did that coworker dump his work on you again?
对，但这次我没内耗
duì, dàn zhè cì wǒ méi nèi hào
Yes, but this time I didn’t stew over it.
我直接还给他了
wǒ zhí jiē huán gěi tā le
I just handed it right back.
可以啊，学会外耗了
kě yǐ a, xué huì wài hào le
Nice. You’ve learned to drain them instead.

More examples

我不想内耗了，以后只外耗。
wǒ bù xiǎng nèi hào le, yǐ hòu zhǐ wài hào.
I’m done draining myself. From now on, I only drain others.
我把问题全都还给他了，外耗成功。
wǒ bǎ wèn tí quán dōu huán gěi tā le, wài hào chéng gōng.
I handed every problem back to him. Outer drain: done.

Where it came from

It grew out of 精神内耗, “mental drain”. In September 2024, Huxiu reported a popular slogan: 与其精神内耗自己，不如发疯外耗别人, “rather than drain yourself inside, go crazy and drain other people”. Users called this 精神外耗.

The article, first written for a psychology account, read the slogan as a defense: it brings quick relief, but it does not deal with the frustration underneath.

The short form 外耗 is on SmartShanghai’s 2026 slang list, with the line “Why should I 内耗 when I can 外耗?”

The original. There is no single image. Posts share the slogan about draining others instead of yourself. Huxiu discussed it in September 2024. Huxiu (in Chinese)