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Comment by rubicon33 | Hacker News Reader

The whole "stress causes burnout" thing is gravely misguided.

There's a whole sub-type of burnout which comes about even in relatively low stress environments.

Perhaps we define stress differently. How can burnout happen if you love every little second of your day and everything you do fills you with joy and energy?

You can hate what you do, yet still not be stressed.

If do continue to do something you hate, you're inducing a stress response in the body every time.

Honest question however, is that truly accurate? I'd be interested to know if that's actually the case.

I think you can give up and accept that’s what it is, too. Basically continuing doing it, but stopping hating it.

Not really. I've had jobs that I hated, but that weren't stressful at all, because it was just a thing I had to do to get money, not something that mattered.

In fact jobs I loved and cared about have often brought much more stress exactly because I cared about the outcome, and when I failed to live up to my expectations at that job it felt like a personal failing and I was letting everyone down.

I believe we have a different understanding of the term hate. Hate is a strong word, and it's something you really want to avoid if you can.

The opposite of stress isn't a rosy life. It's absence of stress.

Literally no one lives like that.

If you or anyone you know feels like that, then it's a serious outlier condition worthy of academic study.

Or drugs. That literally sounded like living being constantly high.

> Literally no one lives like that.

Why not? Let's bet a few people do. There are certainly people who live their life in a permanent joyous state, no matter what. Rare, perhaps but I wouldn't dismiss their experience as a condition.

Good point. E.g. I have never seen a wave surfer or mountaineer with a burnout, though they probably put their body and mind through a lot of stress.

Then you've never been an athlete at a high level. I don't mean that negatively, but I can assure you that even people who love every second of what they do, like many professional and even college athletes, can suffer burnout. Exhaustion and stress can cause burnout in anybody.

That kind of burnout could also be caused by the element of competition.

Michael Phelps seemed that way on his last olympics. He wasn’t really enjoying it even though he was setting historic records.

You can work in relatively low stress job, but not love it.

It can be boring, mundane, unfulfilling, uninteresting, repetitive, etc... That doesn't generally produce a traditional "stress" but does wear on you emotionally.

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