moridinamael comments on What's the best way to rest? - Less Wrong
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I've always been fascinated by people who are unendingly engaged in creative and/or productive activity. I've known a couple of individuals who do not appear to rest, ever, who hated sleeping. I've long wondered if these rare people were simply resting in some secret super-effective way for brief spurts, or if it they were innately superpowered. You could say one of my obsessions is to try to understand the Infinite Energy Hack so that I can implement it, if it is learnable.
It might just be superpowers: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703712504576242701752957910.html
My personal experience is that these people are unhappy (self reported and observation). But that's kind of a stereotype and I think there are probably plenty of workaholics whom are quite happy.
This is interesting; my model predicts the exact opposite.
My model is that mental work does not make you tired, it makes you frustrated. There is a difference, because "tired" is related to how difficult the work is, while "frustrated" is more context-dependent -- a simple but time-consuming meaningless task can be very frustrating, while solving a difficult but interesting problem, if you believe that you can do it, is not frustrating. Even expecting a work with unpleasant connotations can make you feel tired.
When I have a lot of free time and something very interesting to do, I can do it for hours and feel happy, at the evening I go to bed thinking about the task, and the next morning I jump out of the bed looking forward to the task. On the other hand, when the task is unpleasant, I try to avoid it by whatever means possible, and in the morning I can't get out of the bed. At least for myself, when I have no problem working, I am happy; when I am avoiding work, I am unhappy.
Of course a larger context can change this. A person happy at work could be using the work as a way to escape from real-world problems. The problem is not with being productive at work per se, but with failing in the larger context.
At least some of the people who get a lot done are bipolar-- I believe this because some of the people whose livejournals I read eventually mention the diagnosis.