Ask HN: How do you care, not too much or too little, just enough?

[rootsofallevil]

I normally really care about work, about doing things right, or at least my version of right, anyway, but something odd happened last year, I moved companies just as the lockdown started and the onboarding process was a mess, to cut a very long story short, expectations were set very low with my manager apologising to me almost on a daily basis and I just went along with it and realized that I didn't care. I didn't argue, to the point of, if somebody suggested that I do things differently, I'd change them even if it didn't think it was a great idea, on the basis of it not being worth the hassle.

Now I'm sort of back to my normal self where I do care, where I argue, where you have to provide compelling arguments for me to do things differently and I find it exhausting but at the same time, I can't just go back to not caring, I've tried but I find myself reverting to my old caring self.

So I just wonder how people care the right amount

Note, I do realize that the right amount is entirely subjective and my level of care might be the right amount, it just doesn't feel that way.

Thanks