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Something that has been of concern to me in recent years is the strange cult of the hustle that has been metastasizing on the web. There’s a fetishization of workaholism that a vocal group have been pushing. Whether it’s people in the tech or finance industries patting themselves on the back for working 70 hour weeks all month, or thought leaders on the podcast circuit preaching how they don’t feel complete unless they are constantly busy working on a project, there is this group of people that have an unhealthy obsession with work. I’m all for doing a good job when I’m working, but on a philosophical level, I always question why I exist as a human, and whether how I should try to spend my time while I’m here.
Certainly, businesses must love having their employees work themselves to the bone without even having to tell them. The culture is baked into the cake in some industries where people will be on social media bragging about how much they’ve worked in the past week. However, this hustle problem has spread into a number of other areas. There is a pervasive push for people to grind and grind in whatever they are doing, and that they can’t possibly be working hard unless they are doing it at the expense of sleep, personal relationships, and everything else that a well-adjusted person would think matters in life.
Realms like the much talked about gig economy have also been infected by this with food delivery people, quasi taxi services, and whatever it is that Fiver does encouraging people to grind away at their task. Regardless of the industry, this sure seems like normalized exploitation. In the past, it was the managers cracking the whip, pushing their employees way too hard. Now, the people at the top don’t even have to do this if their business sector has been overrun by a hustle porn mentality. The employees flagellate themselves and crack the whip on each other as they hold themselves and their coworkers to the unrealistic, dangerous standards that this cult has created.
What is really confusing to me is that this phenomenon is such a coin flip from what I remember being constantly told growing up: work smarter, not harder. These people hustling are often functioning in such an inefficient manner as they grind themselves to a potentially early grave. Unfortunately, they have been conditioned to never take their foot off the gas. If they actually took the time to do this, they might notice that there are better ways to do what they are doing that require less toil and yield better results. They might even notice that what they are doing is wrong and that they are being taken advantage of.
I’m just not sure how many people who bought into this cult will take that necessary look in the mirror before they suffer a catastrophic burn out. Many of them seem to be fairly young, so maybe in some cases they will come to their senses if they settle down and start a family. That tends to make most people sit and have a good think about their priorities. Maybe a few will simply have an epiphany before it’s too late. Plenty of others, though, I fear are doomed.
Nevertheless, the recruitment wing of the cult of hustle porn doesn’t show signs of slowing down. There are plenty of thought leaders in that sphere that make a lot of money selling books and charging for speaking engagements whose livelihood depends on young, ambitious, but ultimately impressionable individuals drinking the kool aid. As long as they exist, and there is a willing audience, hustle porn will continue to be a problem.
It does appear to be a predominantly American problem, though. We don’t hear about this attitude anywhere near as much in continental Europe. Meanwhile, parts of Asia have workaholism engrained in their culture to deleterious effects. Japan has been notorious for their work culture, and murmurs of China's 996 work culture (work 9am to 9pm six days per week) are starting to spread abroad. Other parts of the world don’t seem terribly interested in this grind, and have their priorities elsewhere, which is a relief. In the battle for ideas, I do hope that these places win out. American capitalism has a very unhealthy side to it that needs to be contained if not outright rejected. Hustle porn is a terrible manifestation of it in the extreme as younger generations scramble to find a way to navigate the zombie economy left in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. Unfortunately, this looks like something likely to chew up and spit out most of these people in the long run, which will make the US an even sicker country than it already is. I just hope the cancer doesn’t spread to other parts of the world.
Pennywhether
pennywhether@posteo.net
September 9, 2021