Stop externalizing your hustle culture on to me. Stop documenting your journey to creating a startup, or your day in the lives, or whatever it may be. I don’t want to see it nor do I care for it. Stop making me feel behind or worse off for not grinding away my twenties. Stop fear mongering a potential future techno feudalism as fuel to work a hundred hour weeks building a “industry changing” AI product. Stop telling me to work harder, compare more, and compete. I’m not interested and I don’t want to see that.
Everything now a days is a competition to an absurd level. These things we once observed and let go are now internalized as deficiencies on a day to day basis. Earlier this year, we had “looksmaxxers” entering into the mainstream. They made popular the lense of comparing ones looks to others in a direct and abrasive way. To “mog” and “accend” – to look way better than the rest of the group. Even coming up with rankings to sort their fellow man from just a glance (Chud, LTN, MTN, HTN, Chad lite, Chad…). Women became characterized as enemies with derogatory language entering the mainstream. This isn’t just blatant misogyny spreading, it’s a culture of comparison. To think that comparing the external beauty of others was reserved to models, celebrities, and pageants. Now every teen and young adult is, on a daily basis, aware of their looks and their peers. Uses these terms to rank each other, and pushes ways to improve their rankings.
You may argue about the magnitude of this and if its really happening, but isn’t it entrenching our cultural zeitgeist enough to throw red flags.
We have LinkedIn increasingly taking off as a way to flex career and professional accomplishments. Repeatedly, we see innate comparison here and competition laid out directly in a engaging and addicting format. What’s more is social media. What was once a place to post entirely novel, entertaining, and quirky content has quickly devolved into a singular strain of the same slop. The same formats, topics, and irregularities to maximize engagement and minimize actual thought. What makes it different now is that starting a social media or posting content feels less like a creative endeavor and more of another box to tick off on the long list of activities to further one’s career. You see people now promote starting a page as a way to build a personal brand, put your name out there, and help you find opportunities (as well as maximizing money from monetization). It may have been creative and different before but now there’s a prevalence of the same engagement gold repetitive content that dissolves one of the individuality that was supposed to come from posting in the first place. And the reason behind this “sloppification” is inherently a capitalistic one.
Capitalism breeds inherent competition and comparison. As a worker you will be replaced immediately either by a new technology or worker who is more productive than you. What we’re seeing now is this manifesting itself in different ways. Young adults at the top schools shilling AI study tools, posting the same day in the lifes, and even working at the same prestigious companies.
Marx has this utopia of us sitting back, relaxing, and being free to pursue different things. “to hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, criticise after dinner.” Sounds like a nice life. I think the inherent fervor behind all this hustle is an innate fear of the future. These students my age probably think that now is the time to work hard to secure their future. Maybe some of this is fear of a permanent technocratic overclass subjecting those who don’t make it into a life time of serfdom. Maybe it’s a justifiable fear of a recession. It could be imposter syndrome, insecurity, and inadequacy fueling one to take a course of action not necessarily aligned with their inner values and beliefs. But whatever the reason may be, don’t make me feel bad for not pushing as hard as you or working as hard as you. I’m completely fine with the pace of my life and I want nothing to do with yours. I don’t believe in selling my life for a potential future where I have more money than I’d need. Not for a decade, or a year, or a month.
