The psychology of stress and burnout • Hacker News Board

Re: The psychology of stress and burnout

#211

Post by bootload » Mon, Nov 21, 2016, 3:58 AM UTC

marknutter wrote: post #202

bootload wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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.

"It was very interesting to get into motorcycle racing, which is primarily an exercise in gauging risk."

Mark you are really out there :)

Re: The psychology of stress and burnout

#212

Post by dig1 » Mon, Nov 21, 2016, 11:43 AM UTC

lexhaynes wrote: post #133

dig1 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who's been there, it all depends how hard it was. You can recover from light burnouts quickly (by traveling, taking sports), however, hard burnouts change you for life - you'll be lucky to not end up as alcoholic or drug addict. For me, it took couple of years and few failed jobs until I got on track. Today, I'm more than happy to be my own boss as freelancer.

Hello! I'm currently on the "couple of years and a failed job" track... any advice?

* Be patient - time is the best healer. * Find a partner who understands your situation. I was lucky and my girlfriend at that time (today my wife), was in IT too. * If you are programmer and like coding, change language/environment - pickup something totally different. At that time, I adore Rails/Ruby and today I can't think myself ever touch it. However, I find joy in LISPs and C/C++ coding these days. * Sport is essential for you; it will clear your mind and improve your physical health. More demanding sport, better. Boxing, swimming, hiking, diving, pick one and be consistent.

Also, fellow commenters gave pretty good advice too.

Re: The psychology of stress and burnout

#213

Post by timje1 » Mon, Nov 21, 2016, 2:06 PM UTC

marknutter wrote: post #202

bootload wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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.

That's funny, I thought the same about skiing.

Re: The psychology of stress and burnout

#214

Post by hasbroslasher » Mon, Nov 21, 2016, 5:14 PM UTC

monksy wrote: post #180

hasbroslasher wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have the same problem. Try listening to really long (unpwards of 10 minutes) songs or albums that really flow together. You want to avoid distraction and listen to things that are repetitive and don't require you to lose focus and fiddle with your music player. Another that I can't recommend enough is listening to old video game music. Something you love and played as a kid. For me it's N64: Zelda, Mario Kart, SM64…

Doom stoner metal is really good about this. I.e. Sleep https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIw7oeZKpZc

That's awesome, I was going to recommend Sleep too in that post but opted not. Nothing kills midday stress like Dopesmoker. Electric Wizard works great too.

Re: The psychology of stress and burnout

#215

Post by Archimedes_52 » Tue, Nov 22, 2016, 4:26 AM UTC

koga-ninja wrote: post #94

Burnout happens when you're doing what you don't like. Grinding down, going against the grain. The techniques I use to deal with stress are: Zazen - Japanese Zen meditation. If it was good enough For Japanese samurai fighting duels, then my life is So easy compared to this. Painting - very relaxing and fun, but then you need to like It. Mileage may vary.

I was getting extreme, severe panic attacks and had become agoraphobic. Tai Chi and meditation changed my life.

Re: The psychology of stress and burnout

#216

Post by Stauche » Tue, Nov 29, 2016, 12:20 PM UTC

agumonkey wrote: post #74

Stauche wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stressed and burned out so he is opening a food business? What?? I operate a restaurant and I know about 50 people who do. Believe me - there is no shortage of stress and your just as likely, if not more so, to get burned out. Tell your friend to seriously think twice...

It's well known that food industry is stressful, but maybe the nature is different. It's more physical and less mental. Also more social (you interact with customers, kids, families, birthday cakes paint a different mindset) One of the hardest job I took, digging trenches (summer) which made me cry the first week, was one of the less stressful mentally too.

It's physical, it's mental, it'psychologial, it's emotional - it's everything. The social aspect is a double edge sword; dealing with customers, employees, 3rd parties is a bitch sometimes.