> you don't grow fast enough.

But what if I do not want to "grow fast enough"?

Or, more precisely, what if I question the direction of this growth? For instance, I certainly should learn more and more, discover more interesting topics, become a better father, cultivate friendships, etc. This is what I would agree to grow, and it means spending more time with kids or friends, or reading books about whatever subject I am interested in at the moment (which happens to be anthropology and history).

This is a "growth" that do not require one dangerous "one step below burn out" mantra.

Moreover, I do not believe that the very few very successful people are more happy than other. I can give two examples: I do not think Steve Jobs was happier than a "normal guy". A closer and easier example is Mojang, creator of Minecraft, which I certainly respect and admire (much more than Jobs): is he happyer now that he got the jackpot? He worked hard, was very lucky, but not that he "arrived there", maybe, just maybe, he has a lot of negative pressure from his success, maybe he has a fear to fail and would rather go back to the happy times when he was coding alone a very raw sim game for <1000 fans.

So, once the soup is assured for long enough, and despite all the essays by PG, why not just say "it is not for me"?

I agree you need to push yourself to grow.

I don't know what "fast enough" is supposed to be measured by, I guess that depends on your personal goals.

But you clearly have never experienced burnout. "One step below" is dangerously close to the precipice. If you cross the threshold (real life is too unpredictable for tight-rope walking), burnout is not a simple matter of taking that one step back. Recovery takes disproportionately more time than that. And you may not notice you've gone too far before you're already well in. You may cause long-lasting damage. You may wreck your career. You will learn an important lesson or two about what is "fast enough" for what is important in life :)

Analogy: Keeping your flammable documents exactly one degree below combustion temperature. While playing with fire.

And there is research to back this up? One step below burn-out sounds miserable to me.

I think if you're miserable, then you're actually at your burn-out.

The notion of one-step below burn-out is that you're still getting enough stuff done (with the assumption that you _like_ your work, I guess).

If its miserable, than it is burnout.