Burnout = Conditioning your brain to associate work with failure

Very insightful comment (and slightly less insightful replies) about the root of burnout. It makes a lot of sense and should be obvious, but isn't at all. I can easily see how this would be backed up by many of the neuro books I've read.

I instantly started to wonder how this definition of burnout dovetails with hobby or sideprojects. Are sideprojects a way of fighting the negative association?

Burnout is caused when you repeatedly make large amounts of sacrifice and or effort into high-risk problems that fail. It's the result of a negative prediction error in the nucleus accumbens. You effectively condition your brain to associate work with failure.