Hustle Culture is Dead

And we have killed it

Hustle culture is dying, and the world is better for it.

Working hard is good. Having work consume your life, no matter how important your work, is bad.

Even five years ago, the whole "rise and grind, sleep when you're dead thing" was appealing.

Now, you look silly if you live that way.

Why?



1️⃣ It was always a caricature of hard work


It glorified the grind and what the money would do for you, but we all knew it was empty. It was work for work's sake.

Sure, there are some appealing parts of it. Insofar as hustle culture represented the positive parts of good, dignified work, it was appealing. Everything else, though, was incongruent with a full, well-ordered life.



2️⃣ Cultural shift


Hustle culture, I'd argue, was the last bastion of the Greatest Generation/Boomer work mentality of "harder/more work is better than easier/less work, unilaterally." I realize that's an oversimplification, but it's certainly not off the mark.

There's a lot to be said about desiring harder and more work. Disciplining your body and mind through difficult work can absolutely provide spiritual benefits.

Since the Industrial Revolution, though, profit has become our God and work its archangel.

Work is good, ethical profit is good. To be very clear.

Still, the excess of a virtue is always a vice.



3️⃣ People are starting to jump off the hedonic treadmill.


There's an upper limit to happiness. Ask any miserable millionaire. There are probably more miserable ones than happy ones.

Money can buy happiness. The cliche to the contrary is wrong. You need some amount of money to be happy, because you need some amount of money to live. Though that number will look different for everyone (and is probably lower than you think)

At some point, though, you can't purchase more happiness.



Points of economic downturn, like the one we've been living in for the past 4-5 years, offer opportunities for personal and spiritual growth.

When times are tough, we get to re-evaluate what we really need to fulfill us. The suffering when we have less than we need (or at least think we need) can bring the greatest spiritual fruit, even as painful as it is.


Can we learn the wrong lesson from tough times? Absolutely

❌ Why should I work harder? There's no dignity in my work

❌ God isn't providing me with what I need. He doesn't care about me

❌ I might as well give up on discipline, no matter the consequences later on


The opposite of hustle culture isn't a lack of work - it's work that's ordered and draws us closer to God.

Thanks for reading,

Joe