[brightball]

At the same time crank turning is a job where you need to do little else than show up, freeing your mind to think about things other than work.

[0xcde4c3db]

There's also a lot of variation in how that job could satisfy various psychological needs.

Is the crank well-maintained, or is it continually catching, grinding, or breaking down?

Are you rewarded for turning the crank more and provided with high-quality feedback about that reward, or is there merely an unceasing open-loop demand that you turn the crank "as fast as possible"?

Do you know the function of the crank and see value in it, or is it an opaque component of an inscrutable black box?

I'll bet one set of answers leads to a lot more burnout than the other.

[jodrellblank]

or is there merely an unceasing open-loop demand that you turn the crank "as fast as possible"?

and keep your speed constant at all times. http://www.smbc-comics.com/?id=2305

[quotemstr]

And: are you able to build a machine to turn the crank for you? A large part of the software development profession is building crank-turning machines.

[hughperkins]

Well, recently we are creating machines to build crank turning machines.