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Re:The Burnout Machine by namaria on Saturday March 22, 2025 @03:36AM (#43444194)
Turns out when your work is thinking, you end up thinking a lot about the alienation of your labor's fruits.

Burnout isn't about pace of work of ability to take vacations. Burnout is about a disconnect between effort, meaning, and rewards.

Re:The Burnout Machine by MichaelZuo on Saturday March 22, 2025 @11:42PM (#43450751)
What is “the alienation of your labor's fruits.”?

I haven’t heard of any way for objectively measuring the value of anything, or whether that is even a logically coherent concept.

Re:The Burnout Machine by namaria on Sunday March 23, 2025 @07:33AM (#43452264)
> I haven’t heard of any way for objectively measuring the value of anything

Really?

Re:The Burnout Machine by MichaelZuo on Sunday March 23, 2025 @10:27AM (#43453165)
If you know of some way that is logically coherent, and can demonstrate it via standard proof notation, then you should definitely publish it.

And become the most famous human being to have ever existed…

Re:The Burnout Machine by namaria on Monday March 24, 2025 @04:03AM (#43458511)
There's no need to be snarky. The values of things can most definitely be objectively measured, otherwise there would be no transactions. Objective is not absolute, the objective evaluation might change when the agents involved have new information.

I also don't thing it contentious that the stockholders pocket some of the results of the workers labor. That is the whole point of employing people isn't it?

Re:The Burnout Machine by MichaelZuo on Monday March 24, 2025 @02:28PM (#43463994)
Why do you think I am being “snarky”?

I meant it literally. I genuinely believe that if you could demonstrate the proof and publish it… then you would become so.

Re:The Burnout Machine by rhubarbtree on Sunday March 23, 2025 @02:48PM (#43454883)
I disagree.

Burnout is caused by your body running on adrenaline and cortisol for too long as you’re pushing past what is sustainable. Eventually your body says - enough! And it forces you to stop.

The _symptom_ of burnout are as you describe: essentially you no long see the point of what you’re doing.

Speculatively, I believe the drop in motivation is your body’s way of stopping you pushing it any further. It’s a defence mechanism.

Re:The Burnout Machine by namaria on Monday March 24, 2025 @03:59AM (#43458503)
Hm I see. You have a point that the causality is not necessarily how I described. But I am not convinced it is the opposite.

What causes the workplace to make you have high adrenaline and cortisol for too long? Stress is perceived by the body as a threat and it subsidizes when the body perceives that the threat is overcome. If we exert ourselves for a while but then we have a good outcome and we celebrate with our colleagues, we will have dopamine and oxytocin levels rise and adrenaline and cortisol subsidize. Something one might say makes the exertion meaningful.

So I hear what you're saying but I think we're both describing the same thing from two perspectives and not actually different causality directions. I described the subjective interpretation and you described the biochemical process underlying it.