The psychology of stress and burnout • Hacker News Board

Re: The psychology of stress and burnout

#201

Post by dilemma » Sat, Nov 19, 2016, 1:37 PM UTC

toast_coder wrote: post #98

CocaKoala wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's plenty of mental stress working in a bakery. You have a 100# mix of french bread, and it isn't rising properly. Will it continue to rise if you leave it in the proofer long enough, because the water it was mixed with was too cold? Maybe the guy doing the mix forgot the salt, or the yeast (because trust me, unless you're doing the mixes yourself, those things are going to happen). If the mix will rise eventual…

Point taken, but.... Humans have been baking bread for thousands of years. At this very moment I could find 100 sources of information, free and for sale about the specifics of baking bread. I could get these in the context of baking at home, baking for a group, or baking for commerce. Contrast that with the poster's problem of implementing an architecture for an identity access management system. (I have experience…

I'm sure IBM couldn't set up a single profitable bakery.

Re: The psychology of stress and burnout

#202

Post by marknutter » Sat, Nov 19, 2016, 2:43 PM UTC

bootload wrote: post #181

marknutter wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would be careful. I got into extreme sports (motorcycle road racing) when stress became overwhelming for me and it turned out to be a manifestation of my BPD. It was therapeutic for the reasons you give, but also because I had a death wish. As a result, I came very close to dying or permanently injuring myself on a couple different occasions – and I am the sole provider for my family with a one and four year old. I…

"It was therapeutic for the reasons you give, but also because I had a death wish." This is a problem. High sensation seeker, (dopamine seeker) with low perception of risk. Understanding risk is a skill. You can improve it through training and applying conscious decision making. Risk management is trying to mitigate the "unknown, unknowns." If you do not understand the risks, you cannot avoid the pitfalls until it st…

It was very interesting to get into motorcycle racing, which is primarily an exercise in gauging risk. The more risk you're willing to take, the faster you go. But the less experience you have, the more often you will end up crashing. So I found myself doing very well as a novice racer, but I also crashed or had near crashes much more often.

Re: The psychology of stress and burnout

#203

Post by eeZah7Ux » Sat, Nov 19, 2016, 4:17 PM UTC

simosx wrote: post #96

eeZah7Ux wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Acute stress is good (adrenaline -> fight or flight) citation needed

The purpose of stress is to quickly adapt the body to survive a fight. A set of changes happen to the body. For example, the blood becomes thicker in order to clot faster when you are bleeding. However, with chronic stress, this can cause thrombosis. Under stress, the stomach stops the digestion so that the energy goes into running to flee the danger. With chronic stress, your stomach is messed up and you get all sor…

In the context of the article it looked like "Acute stress is good" was referring to episodes of acute stress on the workplace.

Re: The psychology of stress and burnout

#204

Post by freelancezombie » Sat, Nov 19, 2016, 4:26 PM UTC

manmal wrote: post #101

freelancezombie wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good to hear you found your way. I'm getting burned out on freelance.

What is it that burns you out most? (fellow freelancer here)

Thanks for asking. For me, the issue is not the quality of clients and work. I tend to keep my prices high which seems to filter many junk jobs. I'm also lucky in a sense that many jobs find me and not the other way around. I suppose what burns me out is the instability in income. I try to mix it up as much as possible with fixed cost and hourly jobs but most good thing eventually come to an end. Some days I'm lucky and good projects find me and we come to a mutual agreement quickly but occasionally I have a time gap in my daily schedule that needs to be filled. I'm not a developer or I'd work on a side project to fill my time. I typically spend any extra time on making a new, more thorough portfolio but then I'm reminded that the clock isn't running and I can't bill myself. Is anyone in the same shoes or have some advice?

Re: The psychology of stress and burnout

#205

Post by freelancezombie » Sat, Nov 19, 2016, 4:29 PM UTC

icc97 wrote: post #147

reflexive wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing that burns me out about freelance is the client just views you as a cost center. Always want more work in less time. I start to fantasize about the "camaraderie" of being on a team. Maybe there needs to be a Freelancer's Local Union.

It's gone quiet of late but The Remote Together Slack group [1] is a great place to chat if you're working on your own. [1]: https://remotetogether.slack.com

Thanks, will check it out!

Re: The psychology of stress and burnout

#206

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Nov 19, 2016, 4:29 PM UTC

icc97 wrote: post #147

reflexive wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing that burns me out about freelance is the client just views you as a cost center. Always want more work in less time. I start to fantasize about the "camaraderie" of being on a team. Maybe there needs to be a Freelancer's Local Union.

It's gone quiet of late but The Remote Together Slack group [1] is a great place to chat if you're working on your own. [1]: https://remotetogether.slack.com

[deleted]

Re: The psychology of stress and burnout

#207

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Nov 19, 2016, 4:29 PM UTC

icc97 wrote: post #147

reflexive wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing that burns me out about freelance is the client just views you as a cost center. Always want more work in less time. I start to fantasize about the "camaraderie" of being on a team. Maybe there needs to be a Freelancer's Local Union.

It's gone quiet of late but The Remote Together Slack group [1] is a great place to chat if you're working on your own. [1]: https://remotetogether.slack.com

[deleted]

Re: The psychology of stress and burnout

#208

Post by toomanybeersies » Sun, Nov 20, 2016, 1:13 AM UTC

mjevans wrote: post #198

tonyedgecombe wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think you would need to do much due diligence to rise above most restaurateurs.

What strikes me as recurring problems from the things that make it on to shows like Kitchen Nightmares are the following. * Can't or won't keep the accounting books in order. * Micro-management of staff that want to do the job. * Under-management of staff that aren't doing the job. * I /suspect/ not paying the staff enough (in money/respect/etc) to keep good staff and keep the motivated.

Unfortunately the real world is not like Kitchen Nightmares. Often restaurants with good management still fail due to other reasons, the margins in hospo are razor thin, it doesn't take a lot going wrong to go out of business.

Re: The psychology of stress and burnout

#209

Post by prirun » Sun, Nov 20, 2016, 3:31 PM UTC

wott wrote: post #169

amelius wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sleeping (like 9+ hours a night) can also help a lot.

Except that you may not be able to sleep more than 5 or 6 hours, exactly because of stress / burnout/ depression. I haven't scored a 9 hours night in many years, not because I don't have time for it, not because I would be the kind of people who only need short nights, but because I cannot, even after a sleep deprivation period.

As I've gotten older I can't sleep 9 hours straight like I used to. On days where I only sleep 5-6 hours, I get up to pee and go back to bed and rest for another hour or 2. Sometimes I go back to sleep, sometimes not. But it's interesting, because the days I don't go back to sleep, I spend that hour or 2 half asleep and think about my work (HashBackup). I just let my mind wander to whatever it wants. It's sort of the same thing that happens when I have a programming problem I can't easily figure out, go take a shower or a walk outside, and the answer comes to me. This reduces stress because instead of pounding on a problem, you let your mind solve it more slowly in the background while you are focused on other things.

Re: The psychology of stress and burnout

#210

Post by prirun » Sun, Nov 20, 2016, 3:50 PM UTC

alexgotoi wrote: post #40

emilburzo wrote: post #7

It's all in your head, for better or worse. Extreme sports or intense physical exertion have been key, for me, in dealing with daily stress. And no, I'm not some superstar adrenaline pumped athlete, just an amateur that loves skydiving/paragliding/fast motorcycles/hiking/etc over the weekend. I didn't realize how much these activities help me, until I had to take a break from them for whatever reason (e.g.: winter wh…

What if you are afraid of extreme sports? What alternatives would you recommend?

Take up a musical instrument. Music can be insanely difficult and challenging. You have to be 100% focused on the activity, it has a physical aspect to it, and successes are very rewarding. It's not as physical as extreme sports of course, but is similar to sports in that the more effort you put in to practice (workout) every day, the greater the rewards. IMO it's also good for keeping things like carpal tunnel at bay (I play piano, but most instruments have finger/hand things going on).

Like sports, you are never "there", you are always just getting better. You can take a break and play easier pieces just for fun, challenge yourself and practice difficult pieces, or focus on one specific area for improvement like rhythm/counting, switching from classical to jazz for a while, playing crazy orchestra reductions with way too many notes, improving your ear by trying to play along with pop music, etc.

The other nice thing about music is it's convenient to take a half-hour break from work, play/practice a while, then go back to work. It's funny: while I love playing music, I don't much like listening to it when others are playing it. I can spend 2 hours working on Chopin, but am bored after about 15 minutes listening to classical music, even if it's with someone at a concert. Just doesn't do it for me to listen. Played Fr Horn in a band and that was a lot of fun too, lead to friendships, etc.

If you're into it, music is a huge field that you'll never outgrow, even on a single instrument.