
The Contrarians on Stress: It Can Be Good for You - prostoalex
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/04/your-money/the-contrarians-on-stress-it-can-be-good-for-you-.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur&bicmp=AD&bicmlukp=WT.mc_id&bicmst=1409232722000&bicmet=1419773522000&_r=0
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joe_the_user
This seems like an exercise in apologetics for a regime of constant layoffs.

Notice that no direct evidence is provided that stress is actually good for
you - one study they cite merely shows that the suggestion that stress could
be beneficial seems to make a person perform better under stress
(demonstrating the power of suggestion rather than the benefits of stress)
while another study shows that boredom can also be bad for you. Elsewhere,
they cite how a study showing the ills of stress was misused. Nothing here
seems to back the conclusion that stress is beneficial.

Work, of course, is not war, but this Paul Fussell[1] quote comes to mind as a
demonstration that everyone has a finite tolerance for stress: _" In war it is
not just the weak soldiers, or the sensitive ones, or the highly imaginative
or cowardly ones, who will break down. All will break down if in combat long
enough. "Long enough" is now defined by physicians and psychiatrists as
between 200 and 240 days."_

[1]
[http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/unbound/bookauth/battle...](http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/unbound/bookauth/battle/fussell.htm)

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serve_yay
> This seems like an exercise in apologetics for a regime of constant layoffs.

Well, except for all the stuff about how not having enough work is stressful.

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cpncrunch
A good explanation of this is the Job Demands Model of Burnout:

[http://www.researchgate.net/publication/11920243_The_job_dem...](http://www.researchgate.net/publication/11920243_The_job_demands-
resources_model_of_burnout/file/9fcfd5062e0a181c1d.pdf)

In summary, you will suffer from burnout if you have high job demands (i.e.
high workload) and low resources (i.e. support from management, etc.)

Having suffered from severe burnout (and subsequent chronic fatigue syndrome),
I can definitely say that boredom at work and lack of motivation in work is a
large factor in triggering burnout. Emotional conflicts at home/work also
contribute to burnout. In my case it was a combination of these factors that
resulted in burnout/CFS.

In my own case the burnout was actually useful, as it prompted me to leave
boring crappy contract jobs and concentrate on building my own business.

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MAGZine
Kelly McGonigal, cited in the article, actually did a TED talk[0] on managing
stress. I watched it last year during finals and found it gave me some extra
techniques for dealing with stress. A good watch, to be certain.

[0]
[http://www.ted.com/talks/kelly_mcgonigal_how_to_make_stress_...](http://www.ted.com/talks/kelly_mcgonigal_how_to_make_stress_your_friend?language=en)

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mattxxx
Stress can be useful, if you use it correctly.

Even simply being put in a stressful situation, and then thinking "why is this
stressful?" or "what in this system is causing stress?" can be useful. This
can really motivate positive life changes.

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jeffreyrogers
This reminds me a lot of Nassim Taleb's thinking in the book _Antifragile_.

