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by systemvoltage 1209 days ago
The entire concept of burnout and "mental health" is ill-defined. How do you know the difference between working on a hard problem or a burnout? I get exhausted after working all day on a hard problem. Also, are there any quantifiable tests you can perform to see if someone isn't just lying about a burnout?

> feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion

Feelings are subjective and what may feel like exhaustion to person X may be a piece of cake for person Y.

I am curious, why aren't we more critical about this mental health movement and at least demand that we have a real diagnosis/quantitative take on it? It's just so unsettlingly strange.

1 comments

Uh, well, if by "mental health" you mean psychiatric or psychological disorders I don't think it's accurate to say it's ill-defined: https://www.psychiatry.org/psychiatrists/practice/dsm

OTOH if you mean the vague "mental health" of the HR or clickbait blog variety, then, yeah...