Answering emails at midnight and appearing fatigued at meetings are somehow taken to be more credible signals of effort than actual results.
I suppose this is not the point of the post, but I find this to be good advice in competitive settings with this belief.
Not actually getting close to burn out, but just appearing like you are about to, while pretending to be trying not to show it...
Psychology has good evidence that there is an “optimal level of effort” you need to reach to improve optimally at something. If you find something to be easy that’s good for you and means you can do what you needed to reach your goal quickly, but your brain won’t likely be improving much when you are doing it.
Usually this “optimal challenge” feeling is pretty pleasant, you get the feeling of being totally immersed in what you are doing and of having meet a tough, fun challenge.
If you are in any pain you feel discomfort about it, you’re generally past this point and I’d agree you need to turn back, I don’t think someone can genuinely confuse the two feelings, but people seem to reason “bit of pain = bit of progress, lot of pain = lot of progress.
I suppose this is not the point of the post, but I find this to be good advice in competitive settings with this belief.
Not actually getting close to burn out, but just appearing like you are about to, while pretending to be trying not to show it...
Psychology has good evidence that there is an “optimal level of effort” you need to reach to improve optimally at something. If you find something to be easy that’s good for you and means you can do what you needed to reach your goal quickly, but your brain won’t likely be improving much when you are doing it.
Usually this “optimal challenge” feeling is pretty pleasant, you get the feeling of being totally immersed in what you are doing and of having meet a tough, fun challenge.
If you are in any pain you feel discomfort about it, you’re generally past this point and I’d agree you need to turn back, I don’t think someone can genuinely confuse the two feelings, but people seem to reason “bit of pain = bit of progress, lot of pain = lot of progress.