Hustle culture is coming for those mere mortals among us.
Hustle culture has to be one of the most bizarre mainstream subscriptions the internet has doubled down on over recent years.
Without warning or so much as a heads up, we’ve crossed the threshold on self-help – slipping deeper into a genre of vacant self-ambition we weren’t ready for.
Like a weird, sycophantic fever dream where all one’s recognizable self-worth depends on an ability to predict stocks - hustle culture has taken main-stage on the internet.
Characters like Gary Veynerchuk, Tai Lopez and Lori Greiner now inundate my timeline — selling me the same soulless platitudes and “self-enrichment” strategies I’ve otherwise done well to avoid over the past few years.
But at the end of the day, the algorithms have final say.
Perhaps it comes down to my own unconscious undoing.
Maybe my search history is primed towards this type of content.
Either way, it’s ceaseless.
I wake up, check my phone, oh look! It’s Alex Hormozi telling me that I’m too complacent in my poverty!
(Thanks for that Alex, you’re the best)
But don’t be fooled, it’s potent stuff. (Asides from that whole bit about breaking “the gravity of other people’s ingrained expectations”. What a bunch of sulfuric nonsense)
I made an E-Toro account the other day, and I literally have no idea why. (Makes me think back to an article I read questioning the ability of social media and commercial algorithms to infringe on our free will — check it out below!)
I don’t know a single thing about investing, but for some reason felt compelled to put some skin into “commodities”.
What the f@*k are commodities?
It’s like the constant barrage of “do more, be better” sloganeering has taken root in my subconscious - pulling the strings on my poor-man ambition like a puppeteer and marionet.
But while most of this content comes across as stupid and brazen, other corners of the internet spin what they’re selling less conspicuously.
Like Jordan Peterson, giving me a rundown on the moral imperatives that exist within hierarchy. A roundabout way of saying, you need to hustle more, adopt more responsibility (fair enough) etc, etc.
If the internet loves anything, it’s reassuring you that you’re not doing enough, falling short of expectations and dropping the ball on this whole “life/reality thing” we’ve got going on at the minute.
I.e., Not supplementing your income streams with, you guessed it, other income streams (side hustles).
I could spend all day talking about the meme of the fabled side-hustle, so I wont.
Rant aside, I can’t help but watch the stock of hustle culture rise as people are left feeling more insecure and less satisfied than ever.
But I’d rather put the question to you.
Do you think the influencer economy is ruining our self esteem? Or is it a step in the right direction toward personal accountability?
Let me know what you think!
