Early Conceding While Reading and Not Starting Discussions

[Dface]

@LMD

@ActiveMind

I think “burnt out” often means that you lost motivation to keep going.

I thought burnout was more to do with exhaustion/fatigue. Like people overdoing something and not getting enough rest or space from the activity, and it affecting their ability to it and other things as well. Not so much just losing motivation to do something. That’s how I meant it. I can see motivation being part of it but perhaps a minor symptom?

Were you able to get your concerns addressed? It seems that being burnt out is a like a bigger whole and the motivation that one loses is part of the burn out.

I’m going to reply to @LMD’s earlier reply about Roark being burnt out:

@LMD

Idk though there are things I’m forgetting about Roark and I’m feeling like I’m projecting ideas of Elliot’s onto him. Like I’m thinking that Roark must’ve discovered a lot of CF stuff himself or something. But I think that’s not giving Elliot enough credit, or something. I haven’t quite formed the idea of what I mean, but I think there’s a problem there.

I think you could still practice some of what ET discovered about CF and not know much about it. Like, I think maybe Roark practiced some of ET’s ideas intuitively. I think though since he doesn’t know about them that he may not do them well. This is hard to explain for me cuz it doesn’t make sense to me to practice something that hasn’t existed yet. But I think Roark not practicing ET’s ideas well is probably why you bring up Roark being burnt out.

edit: I think by “concerns” in the beginning I meant “questions answered.” Using the word concerns sounds like @LMD is worrying about something. That doesn’t sound correct.

[Jarrod]

@Dface

Is mental block the same as a psychological blocker?

I’m not sure what mental blocks or psychological blockers are.

@Dface

Almost working himself to death means getting super tired right? Or does that mean literally on going on the brink of death? Like catch a disease or cause harm to the body?

I assume in Roark’s case it means just being very tired/frazzled. Though some people have literally worked themselves to death.

@Dface

@ActiveMind

I think “burnt out” often means that you lost motivation to keep going

I think “burnt out” does often mean that you lost motivation to keep going

I agree. I think burn out is due to doing (too much) work that one doesn’t enjoy. And/or due to a chronic lack of happiness/enjoyment in one’s life in general. Ayn Rand has a great quote about this in Our Cultural Value-Deprivation:

A chronic lack of pleasure, of any enjoyable, rewarding or stimulating experiences, produces a slow, gradual, day-by-day erosion of man’s emotional vitality, which he may ignore or repress, but which is recorded by the relentless computer of his subconscious mechanism that registers an ebbing flow, then a trickle, then a few last drops of fuel—until the day when his inner motor stops and he wonders desperately why he has no desire to go on, unable to find any definable cause of his hopeless, chronic sense of exhaustion.

She also quotes Branden:

“Pleasure, for man, is not a luxury, but a profound psychological need. … pleasure serves as the emotional fuel of man’s existence.”

I think burn out is different from being too physically tired to work properly but still loving one’s work (and still having enough spiritual fuel and happiness in one’s life in general). A bit like what ActiveMind said here (which I agree with):

@ActiveMind

I think “burnt out” often means that you lost motivation to keep going. I don’t think Roark would ever lose motivation as long as he has artistic freedom. He just got too mentally/physically tired to keep going even though he probably felt motivated to do more

[LMD]

@Dface

@LMD

I can’t remember if Roark got burnt out or not, or some equivalent, like almost working himself to death or something, it does ring a bell.

Almost working himself to death means getting super tired right? Or does that mean literally on going on the brink of death? Like catch a disease or cause harm to the body?

Yeah I meant the ‘working almost to death’ part in a casual, non-literal, exaggerated way. To sort of mean like working lots and neglecting your health and needing rest.

@ActiveMind

I’m saying there’s a different situation where someone does long-term over work, but when they burn out it’s not just merely physical exhaustion (including the brain) but when they come back physically replenished they have psychological blockers. Maybe the work feels really emotionally draining at that point. It might be that their work feels meaningless and they could bear doing meaningless work for some period, but they can’t do any more of it at some point.

That makes sense. You could get burnout and then you have problems returning the task without internal conflict, even after getting sufficient rest.

[Jarrod]

@Jarrod

She also quotes Branden:

“Pleasure, for man, is not a luxury, but a profound psychological need. … pleasure serves as the emotional fuel of man’s existence.”

This is a digression, but the idea of pleasure as emotional fuel reminded me of a quote from Cyrano de Bergerac.

LE BRET

You are not quite so gloomy.

…

LE BRET

So now, you are going to be happy.

CYRANO

Now!…

(Beside himself)

I—I am going to be a storm—a flame—

I need to fight whole armies all alone;

I have ten hearts; I have a hundred arms; I feel

Too strong to war with mortals—

(He shouts at the top of his voice.)

BRING ME GIANTS!

I think that does a good job of capturing the fortifying/invigorating power of happiness.

When people are depressed, sometimes they can’t even muster the energy to get out of bed and even small things can feel crushingly overwhelming.

Whereas when one feels very happy, all of a sudden it can feel as if one can do anything, that one could “fight whole armies all alone” and as though one has “ten hearts” and “a hundred arms” and as though mere mortals are an insufficient challenge, hence “BRING ME GIANTS!”