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Comment by parpfish | Hacker News Reader

One thing that I always try to bring up in these discussions is that “burnout” and “overwork” are two different problems, and I think this author would agree with me.

If your problem could be fixed with a raise or a nice vacation, that’s overwork. 996 schedules, crunch time, and a high cost of living make overwork.

Burnout is when you stat asking yourself “what’s the point of doing any of this?” and your life is overwhelmed with apathy and anhedonia. Closer to a career-induced bout of major depression.

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> Burnout is when you stat asking yourself “what’s the point of doing any of this?” and your life is overwhelmed with apathy and anhedonia

I know I'm burnt out (increasingly severe burnout at that) and I ask myself that question daily. The truth is there is no point and I can't motivate myself anymore. I don't see any solution to the problem and I expect I will lose my job sooner or later at which point I'm not sure what I'll do.

I've largely come to the conclusion that what I need to be mentally healthy and what society needs from me are fundamentally incompatible things.

No answers here, but I feel you. Looking to switch careers to teaching, I hope that will help. Ill lyk

I think you need to rework some definitions or vocabulary if "overwork" is solved by "raise".

Maybe in extreme cases where a raise translates into big time savers like a maid, but those are not the type of raises you while keeping the same job.

For tech folks that are making comfortable salaries, a raise won’t help.

But if you’re in a position where there is difficulty affording your living expenses, a raise can make a huge quality of life change. It can remove enough stress from your life that the stress of your job goes from pushing you over the edge to staying within your limits

For sure. That's why I focused on the Monday morning meaning problem.

Dreading work is very different than overwork.

I'm arguing we replace the "what's the point?" question with a "what's my highest purpose? exploration.

In that second answer is the solution to what many are calling burnout.

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