I think the answer for everyone is different. Never pushing yourself enough that you don't know how you respond to that type of stress is clearly too conservat

I think the answer for everyone is different. Never pushing yourself enough that you don't know how you respond to that type of stress is clearly too conservative if you're hoping to accomplish things that require hard work and dedication. Once you know how you respond it's important that you account for that. If your stress response is extreme, it's important that you dial things back. If your stress response is quite manageable then you can probably push yourself harder than others. There is a lot of individual variation in how people respond to stress so the right answer is different for everyone. For instance, if you respond to stress by becoming paranoid you may want to dial things back dramatically as you might be at risk of developing mental illness from prolonged stress. Similarly, if you respond to stress by having illnesses become hard to shake you might want to dial things back or at least design your environment where you can turn off the stress when you get sick and focus on getting better. Being self-aware is an important skill and I think it's probably the most relevant variable in stress management.