I enjoyed this (especially the Kapwing watermark, thx)!
I think this shift towards “self-care porn” is partly related to the pandemic. So much public discourse and language was about taking a break from work, prioritizing public health over businesses, being generous to the unemployed, and staying in. Businesses advertised how their products could be used to better yourself at home, and those ads often glorified self-care. “Sacrifice for a greater good” became staying home and doing nothing vs starting businesses, building things, competing in sports, etc.
I would guess this will recede over the next few years as the public health situation has improved, because I do think some humans naturally want to achieve, compete, hustle, and build things.
one aspect of the discussion that i think is important to include is *who* the effort is in service of... i believe that one criticism of 'hustle culture' was the idea that it's mostly capital telling labor to work hard in service of capital. An empowered individual acting freely in the market on behalf of themselves, in a system that allows them to capture the output of their productivity is a wonderful thing. And healthy and sustainable. Hustling for oneself, vs hustling for others!
I enjoyed this (especially the Kapwing watermark, thx)!
I think this shift towards “self-care porn” is partly related to the pandemic. So much public discourse and language was about taking a break from work, prioritizing public health over businesses, being generous to the unemployed, and staying in. Businesses advertised how their products could be used to better yourself at home, and those ads often glorified self-care. “Sacrifice for a greater good” became staying home and doing nothing vs starting businesses, building things, competing in sports, etc.
I would guess this will recede over the next few years as the public health situation has improved, because I do think some humans naturally want to achieve, compete, hustle, and build things.
one aspect of the discussion that i think is important to include is *who* the effort is in service of... i believe that one criticism of 'hustle culture' was the idea that it's mostly capital telling labor to work hard in service of capital. An empowered individual acting freely in the market on behalf of themselves, in a system that allows them to capture the output of their productivity is a wonderful thing. And healthy and sustainable. Hustling for oneself, vs hustling for others!
Hey Erik, thanks for sharing your thoughts. Your posts are among the most effective for me to make my thinking clearer and sharper! 🙏
“ Tis true without lying, certain & most true.
That which is below is like that which is above & that which
is above is like that which is below to do the miracles of one
only thing
And as all things have been & arose from one by the
mediation of one: so all things have their birth from this
one thing by adaptation.”
— Tabula Smaragdina
Hermetis Trismegistri
Philosophorum patris
As translated
By Sir Isaac Newton.
http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/newton/mss/norm/ALCH00017