I think smoking is a much more concrete relationship though, because you’re inhaling something which directly and physically damages your body. The tie to death

I think smoking is a much more concrete relationship though, because you’re inhaling something which directly and physically damages your body. The tie to death is also more obvious because there aren’t other factors which could make a difference. If you smoke a lot, you’ll get lung cancer —- eating a good diet or exercising won’t stop the bad effects. Whereas with overwork, maybe if you have excellent routines like getting good sleep, exercise a lot, meditate, hydrate, etc, you’ll be able to combat the stress level. So you’re probably not quite as doomed as you might be with smoking. Like, with smoking, it is the actual thing you consume which kills you. But with overwork, it’s not that you’re working $x hours too many, but that you’re super stressed out. (Even achieving low stress levels with normal work hours can be hard!) I think phrasing it as stress makes the tie more obvious to me because high stress levels are more obviously damaging.