I think it’s the healthiest mindset and most humanitarian direction for our society to stop glamorizing “the grind” and instead change the focus to living a full life that includes pursuit of passions that contribute to society as well as leisure and enjoyment and relationships.
That said- there is a bit of privilege to the concept. There are many who simply surviving requires that they grind. I think that’s the disconnect- wealth and gratitude. Working multiple jobs and doing gigs, investing and having a profit focussed mindset are the primary tools of people “trying to get ahead” and have more wealth. There tends to be “escalation” in these things- there may be a relatively small number of jobs with high pay requiring a specific specialist type or degree. If very few people have degrees, that somewhat works out and worst case you have high demand but for most other jobs you wouldn’t need a degree to be competitive and the shortness of experts tends to foster the growth of experts..
Once the competitive advantage of a degree is known, people who want to be successful will tend to seek degrees and as the number of degrees increase it reaches a point where much like the high school diploma- the degree becomes almost ubiquitous and it is less a general advantage in formerly in specialized roles to have a degree as it is a general disadvantage NOT to have one. A point of saturation can occur where it becomes so ubiquitous that it loses most value at all- in the USA for example many “tech jobs” and nursing positions paid well with an academic component that could be somewhat circumvented and you ended up with huge numbers of people with the right resume for positions but a huge variance in quality of skills between people and no single way to tell who was competent. So in those fields certain changes have occurred to try and mitigate that issue.
So as having a degree becomes less of an advantage people seeking an advantage seek other ways- who doesn’t know someone who isn’t currently or didn’t somewhat recently go for or complete a masters degree? Few professionals now days who remain employed aren’t out sharpening tool sets and gaining education through seminars and certifications or professional events etc; unless they are the sorts who reply on the nepotism of networking and professional branding to get by.
And so we see that escalation all over- the first time someone goes from “broke to balling” and makes some huge fortune- trading stocks or renting properties or whatever- their peers and neighbors are going to generally notice and likely think “I want to be rich too!” So they get involved and that spreads because their success draws others looking for success. As more get involved and the pie is cut smaller the wealth becomes smaller- but you get to a point as we largely are today where for most people by majority even maintaining a “middle class” lifestyle into old age all but requires that you trade stocks on the market or through instruments like a 401k, that you invest in property or operate rentals or such things that once upon a time were largely the purview of the wealthy.
The advantage tends to become the requirement- we can see this in evolution- where species evolutions tend to follow paths that while many branch strategies for adapting advantages may exist within a species, those lines of the species which don’t adapt to new advantages and find a niche in an increasingly competitive environment tend to go extinct or be diminished (not always, but most of the time). So when enough people practice “hustle culture” to try and get ahead, that level of “hustle” is no longer the extra bit to gain advantage, it becomes the expected default norm and to get ahead requires more “hustle” or new strategies.
To illustrate the point simply- if you work at a job where every other of your peers works 14 hours a day and doesn’t take breaks but you take breaks and work 8 hours a day- you’ll probably not be there long because that 14 hours isn’t seen as special. No One can try to brag how committed they are for working 14hrs, you need to work 20 to impress.
Many might say: “I’d be the example! I’d still work 8 hours and do my job well and they wouldn’t fire me!” Really? You would? So then right now you get a full time living wage with benefits and work only 4 hours a day? No? How is that different? The general “standard” US work day is 8 hours. Many work more but few get “full time” level compensation and work less. So wether the standard is 6 or 8 or 14 hours, most people don’t get to “finish their job and go home” when they have produced X amount of work. Certain full time jobs like delivery services or small businesses etc. MAY allow that- but if you and most others are able to do that regularly it’s more likely that management would simply change the workload to require more work of you since you obviously can be more productive in their eyes.
So there’s a rub there too because while so many “hustlers” are trying to cram as much work into a day as possible to afford a nicer car or a new phone or whatever else- there are TONS of people who lack very basic needs and have little or no security at all financially. There are tons of unemployed people. So we don’t really NEED more people doing more work, we have more people than we are able to utilize and pay a living a wage as is. And that’s where wealth disparity comes in. We don’t NEED a lot of what we have and may say we NEED, but we are used to it and enjoy it. As many try to get a better car, there are plenty without a car at all. Things like this. But that’s what it is- aspirational. A new thing like the NFT comes out and “hustlers” all jump on to make small fortunes before it is too late. To join the ranks of the wealthy. Most people are generally trying to “level up,” to go from a room to an apartment, an apartment to a rental home, a rental home to an owned property,
So that’s a whole thing. But sadly morality and wellness wishes and privileged thinking are often a disservice to those in worse situations. “Take some you time..” “your mental well being is more important than a pay check” etc etc. these sorts of things are easier to say and do when you don’t actually NEED more. When you’re living decently comfortably and securely and you’d be hustling” to earn the gravy for your steak and potatoes or the potatoes to go with your steak- but when someone has an empty plate or a slice of beet on their plate- hustling is probably the only way they’ll even be able to taste some chicken let alone a 6oz sirloin.
And there is some truth there. Often our morals are enforced poverty- values that are stressed and the entire concept to “be better as a person even if it costs you everything..” well… the people who largely shape the world and how the rest of us live are rich and powerful. Look at the majority of the rich and powerful- do they exemplify “loyalty above all else”? “Family above all else”? “Honesty” “fairness” “sharing” “moderation” “humility” “doing what’s right even when it sets you back”? No. If they did then most of them wouldn’t be ahead would they? Am I saying we should all be terrible people? I don’t think so. Personally I don’t think we should reward terrible behavior. That said- so long as someone is willing to do what must be done to succeed we will have that. So it goes deeper into culture and into the rails which both guide culture and are guided by it. Culture is unwritten rules, laws and regulations are the rules we wrote down because they are too important to assume about.
So ask yourself why we live in a society where We allow people to benefit from horrible behaviors and destructive practices and selfish greed? Wether you want to “hustle” or not you are caught up in the wake. Look- you don’t have to own a gun or smoke cigarettes to see and experience effects of it if others do right? It doesn’t matter if you choose to put yourself in a position if some other person can just force you into that position because they feel like it. So why is “hustle culture” allowed? Why are there industries like the tech industry etc. where you can have workers specified by class who can be made to work hours and conditions that are illegal in any other similar job? Why do we have such lax laws about how many hours a person can work?
Why aren’t things like a right to housing and a path to home ownership for personal use not better protected? Why are we putting “want” before “need” and giving out seconds of steak for some when people haven’t had any meat at all yet?
In most countries, pilots, truck drivers, etc. can only work a maximum of so many hours because for their health and public well being it becomes dangerous to work them longer- but you can work 12 hours at your office while trading personal stocks and multitasking your job, get off work and then drive ride share or gig delivery for another full shift and get 4 hours of sleep before being back at it? Your job might not be able to make you work from 12pm to 8am and then schedule your next days shift from 8am to 12pm- but if you work two jobs your second job can start you at 8am even if you got off your first job at 8am no? These are the things that fall between the cracks and shape the grossness of the world and feed the meat grinder if modern commerce.
“Minimum wage” and employee health care laws started to gain traction and we started to see pathetic but appreciated moves to helping to set back the erosion of care and compensation that had prevailed- but then “disrupters” trading in human currency began to outpace legislation and introduce all manner of “gig work” that then became the default for being able to profit from labor without having to place any value on the worker. So if we remember that the people who eschew morality and humanitarianism to focus coldly on the “hustle” tend to be the ones who make the most, and the ones who make the most tend to have the most say in the rules- it doesn’t seem so surprising that the rules tend to favor the ones who “hustle” does it?
In the end though it is overall good advice in my mind. I will say that if more people were willing to reject not just the “hustle culture” but the trappings of it in material form- the money starts to become less powerful since money only has power when people want it. The catch is that enough people need to all reject the value of such things or else the system self perpetuates and among those who reject money arise those who want more and will reject simple living to “hustle” into the ranks of the “haves” which then just feeds the beast.
Well- all things in balance I suppose. It really comes down to your own priorities. The world is a mirror that reflects our desires back at us and shows us how truly noble or twisted they are.
That said- there is a bit of privilege to the concept. There are many who simply surviving requires that they grind. I think that’s the disconnect- wealth and gratitude. Working multiple jobs and doing gigs, investing and having a profit focussed mindset are the primary tools of people “trying to get ahead” and have more wealth. There tends to be “escalation” in these things- there may be a relatively small number of jobs with high pay requiring a specific specialist type or degree. If very few people have degrees, that somewhat works out and worst case you have high demand but for most other jobs you wouldn’t need a degree to be competitive and the shortness of experts tends to foster the growth of experts..
To illustrate the point simply- if you work at a job where every other of your peers works 14 hours a day and doesn’t take breaks but you take breaks and work 8 hours a day- you’ll probably not be there long because that 14 hours isn’t seen as special. No One can try to brag how committed they are for working 14hrs, you need to work 20 to impress.
Why aren’t things like a right to housing and a path to home ownership for personal use not better protected? Why are we putting “want” before “need” and giving out seconds of steak for some when people haven’t had any meat at all yet?
Well- all things in balance I suppose. It really comes down to your own priorities. The world is a mirror that reflects our desires back at us and shows us how truly noble or twisted they are.