Hustle Culture

https://youtu.be/JU9TouRnO84?t=30

No hobbies, just side hustles

Do you like writing? Start a blog (but monetize it; don't tell anyone). Enjoy Art? Post it on Instagram and sell prints. Like cooking? Make some reels or start a YouTube channel. Music? Make TikToks

Welcome to the hustle culture, But where does this thinking come form?

Comparison/Decoupling

With the rise of the internet and especially social media platforms, current generations are exposed to hyperrealistic realities. They seem so real that they have to be fake. You compare yourself to them, and at the same time, are still able to see your current state. This comparison can aswell be seen as a feedback loop of todays modern capitalism. There is another phenomenon going on where wages are Decoupling from productivity

The GDP is further going up while wages stay the same resulting in better living standards, but fewer people can afford them → the middle class gets squeezed. As well Millennials, who started to work around 2000 and after that were raised by Boomers, where at that time you could buy a house with a good job and hard work, which isn't possible today anymore. It made sense now it doesn't. An advanced degree won't translate to employers screaming for your attention, and huge student debts are arising.

So millennials have to work more for less and still feel more like it's not enough. Maybe starting a side hustle will help to cope with this feeling?

Pay the bills

So in my opinion, I think the two most common factors for starting a side hustle or falling into the hustle culture are:

Part of the problem lies in the fact that these people don't do these side hustles for creative expression or personal development, but only to pay the bills. Around half of American state that they have a side hustle

It's almost like it's rooted in the boomer optimism that you can work hard at something, make money, and make up the deficiency in what you earn against what you want. And now these scrambling, frantic remains of this dying optimism don't have anywhere to go except this type of culture.

"Here we must run as fast as we can, just to stay in place. And if you wish to go anywhere you must run twice as fast as that."

Productive vs Unproductive

I don't like the term hustle culture, i think it should be retired. I think you should rather focus if what you are doing is productive, while this may be aswell again a Motte and Bailey fallacy (i get back to this later). A productive culture fosters working hard, exercising, spending time with non-monetary outcomes, family, sleeping, thinking, and reflecting.

A Motte and Bailey problem is when you make a bold statement, somebody challanges it and you retreat to the Motte (top of the hill, easier to defend and harder to attack) with a uncontroversial statement and say that you meant this all along, that you are clearly right and that they are dumb for challenging you, just to go back to the Bailey when the argument is over.

another example

Hustling for oneself, vs hustling for others

I think it is as well a big difference for who you "hustle" and if you do it for yourself and capture the output of your own productivity, which is a wonderful thing, or for someone else

Some thoughts

If you ask a writer about their process of how they come up with they novels, they most of the time cannot answer this question. They often times take several years of writing for a new book to be published with seems quites uncommon in todays economy. "Its like forcing yourself to piss before having the urge to do so" - Umberto Eco, It's not about quality anymore; it's about consistency.

In today society its about "can" It's not about that people have to tell you to do things; today nobody is forcing you to do anything so the achievement is to do as much as possible. You become a self-motivating subject and do not suffer from negative power but a excess of positivity. "Prohibitions, commandments, and the law are replaced by projects, initiatives, and motivation" - Byuan-Chul Han. You get addicted to motivation or "Work ethics" and punish yourself if you dont comply. "We have turned out society into a labor camp where one is simultaneously prisoner and guard, victim and perpetrator." - Byuan-Chul Han

It's a vicious cycle; everybody is creating more content to motivate you to create more content. We are consuming the very thing we have created; we favor multitasking, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8s7yXNZUsE, to many stimuli.

Productivity addiction implies turning out constantly stuff, whereas good work is about spending more time on one task at hand and deferring the pleasure of completion

We have to subject ourself to boredom!

"Boredom to the mind is what sleep is to the body", not enough boredom leads to burnout, repetetive work, medicore work

Relax the mind for new ideas

I think with this post I still haven't really answered the question, but I think there isn't an answer. It's more about you having enough introspection and self-awareness to notice if you are just hustling for the hustle or because you are genuinely enjoying it and are as well doing different things if you want to and not feel bad

Thanks,

Finn