… it’s possible to work too hard, and if you do that you’ll find you get diminishing returns: fatigue will make you stupid, and eventually even damage your health. The point at which work yields diminishing returns depends on the type.
— Paul Graham
And so being stupid begets Burnout.
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If you believe that both:
- Burnout happens when your inputs do not produce enough output to keep the flywheel of your internal momentum narrative spinning.
- The reward-levels for your efforts are inversely correlated with stupidness.
It follows that being fatigued and therefore stupid will lead to burnout.
The reward-level is supposed to compound positively, not trend toward zero.
The trend towards zero never gets to zero, though. Burnout kills you first.