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Comment by wallflow3r | Hacker News Reader

"What I learned is that burning out isn’t just about work load, it’s about work load being greater than the motivation to do work." https://thetech.com/2010/04/09/dubai-v130-n18

I recommend reading the whole section on burnout. Although burnout isn't really the topic of the article this is the most enlightening writing I have ever read on it. Hoping it might serve you.

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I enjoyed the article a lot. Not only the burnout part but also to enlighten me why free marketeers true believers incorporate as their moral ground on it.

This quote brought to me how naive that view can be:

> I’m a free marketeer. I believe that voluntary exchange is not just a good method of incentivizing people to provide their labor and talents to society, but a robust moral system — goods and services represent tangible benefit to people, market prices represent the true value of goods in society, and wages represent the value that a worker provides to others. Absent negative externalities or monopoly effects, a man receives from the free market what he gives to it, his material worth is a running tally of the net benefit that he has provided to his fellow man. A high income is not only justified, but there is nobility to it.

Truly believing that free markets have some inherent morality in its mechanisms was not something I considered before, probably because I came from a poor background and have seen how flawed that assumption is in reality.

Thanks for sharing it, definitely worth the read much more than just the burnout section.

> Absent negative externalities or monopoly effects, a man receives from the free market what he gives to it,

Naive almost doesn’t capture the essence of this for me… Willful blindness maybe? I’m a pretty free market kind of guy, not because I believe it is the ultimate expression of human morality, but because I think for most industries it produces the best practical results of the various economic systems that have been tried at scale. But, here on this particular planet, negative externalities and monopolies are ubiquitous. I don’t get how people can’t see that. I also came from a poor background - by USA standards anyway - but found financial success in my adult life, so maybe that has something to do with it?

Free market believers aren't wrong on their belief that a free market has a kind of morality. Instead, they are wrong on their belief that free markets exist.

This disclaimer carries a lot of weight, and puts yourself into pure theoretical modeling:

> Absent negative externalities or monopoly effects

Anyway, we are biologically inclined into doing commerce. So you will find out that people have a great deal of easiness into adopting pro-market beliefs.

In addition to the ubiquity of monopolies and negative externalities mentioned, public goods are also a way in which free markets don’t properly reward people’s contributions to society. The classic textbook example is a public park, whose price in the market will typically be far under the value it creates for the community it is in.

I know a lot of teachers who give much more to humanity than e.g., the CEO of Equifax. People in the marketing department at Phillip Morris undoubtedly make more money than people working for doctors without boarders. This is severely flawed logic, people get from the free market what a series of pricing mechanics based on numerous factors like supply & demand and underlying business segment margins produce. It has nothing to do with positive impacts on humanity.

It's an interesting point about motivation and work load. My experience with burnout occurred at a time where I was regularly doing 60 hours / week, and enjoying it! The motivation hit came when a new manager moved into the team, and he suddenly wanted to shift my role in a career direction I did not agree to. Prior to him joining, I felt my path was progressing in the direction I wanted, with the blessing of my previous management.

It's amazing how fast a single person can flip that motivation versus work load into the wrong direction.

Thanks, that was worth reading and the writer has a clear writing style which I envy.

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