My Content List #5, Tuesday 6/18
Opening Rant: “Sorry about that — been a hectic week!”
Have you heard someone (or yourself) say that before? I thought about starting this post with those exact words, in all seriousness, justifying my doing this post a day late than is apparently expected (thanks Kenny, Tim, and others) — as if being busy is the silver bullet of excuses. As if it elicits some sort of validation, or pity.
Or worse (and I’m guilty of all this too) — people comparing the number of they work with the early morning / late night snap from the office, or even how many fun opportunities they’re forgoing for the sake of success. What the hell is the point…why do we feel this overwhelming tendency to compare?!
That question has reverberations throughout psychology, neurobiology, sociology, and economics — but for the sake but for brevity I’ll focus on two aspects: (1) this phenomenon of “hustleporn” and, relatedly, (2) why we tend to be awe-struck by and give excessive credence to those who are “gifted” / naturally superior at certain tasks or skills. Juxtaposing the implications of these ideas reveals insights into what stokes our motivational flames.
“Hustleporn” (which I’m sure most of you have witnessed) is, put simply, an oft-millennial tendency to glamorize and glorify the grind. Some folks tend to tout how much they work, sacrifice, accomplish, how little they sleep — on social media or in person — in a boasting/holier-than-thou(/ineffably infuriating) manner. Whether this is a cause or symptom of the Burnout Epidemic, hustleporn’s effects are clearly detrimental to individual psyches of those who witness it — constant self-evaluation, snowballing feelings of inferiority…you get the picture.
I also happen to think the practice of hustleporn-ing (?) is more damaging to those who engage in such self-presentation tactics than you’d think, beyond the quantum of sacrifices they’re making in the mind-body wellness / sustainability domains. Although they may get a brief surge of endorphins from their onlookers’ or post’s reactions, it’s been documented that over-publicizing one’s progress/achievements is correlated with LOWER actual output… those hustleporners actually feel (wrongfully) closer to their goals than those who do not disclose as frequently, and (most importantly) those who over-share feel LESS motivated to continue pursuing those goals!
[…insert witty metaphor for whatever masturbation represents in this hustleporn concept…]
And what about our incessant lauding and pedestal-iziation of “God-given” talent? As Angela Duckworth (psychologist and author of Grit) puts it, that stance is essentially a cop out — if we think all top decile performance comes naturally, we trick ourselves into thinking there’s no point in working hard to try to achieve it!
Think… ‘LeBron is just too good, I shouldn’t even pick up a ball…’, or ‘Steve Jobs was just too smart(/crazy), so I shouldn’t even try to disrupt the world…’ C’mon now… DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW MUCH ‘TALENTED’ PEOPLE WORK TO REFINE AND IMPROVE THEIR SKILLS?!?
Duckworth’s well-researched perspectives on grit can be summed up by adapting some ol’ Edisonian wisdom— your performance, in more cases than not, is much closer to 1% talent + 99% effort than vice versa.
So how should we rhapsodize this phenomenon of hustleporn with Duckworth’s take on ‘natural’ talent and grit? There’s something culturally wrong here… We should be glorifying/glamorizing grit AND balance/fulfillment/relationships — but definitely not one at the expense of the other.
I’d advise the following:
Work your ass off such that *you yourself* feel proud of the effort you’re putting in — without soliciting (and eventually becoming reliant upon) external validation, and without constantly comparing yourself to some elusive conception of ‘ideal.’ As you solve problems, garner skills, and advance your own goals/careers, seek others in the moments when you actually want guidance, troubleshooting help, another perspective, etc., NOT when you ‘need’ validation. But, as I’ve stated before, progress for the sake of progress is overrated — especially if it comes at the cost of personal equanimity and close relationships.
Disclaimer: This is just a brief rant, and I acknowledge there’s a hell of a lot more I could cover on such juicy topics.
Think my reasoning is flawed? Have something to contribute? Drop me a note; I’d love to hear from you! Content list below…
My Content List #5 (Tuesday 6/18)
Where Does Working Hard End, and “HustlePorn” Begin? | Underscore VC
(Video) Reddit Co-Founder Alexis Ohanian Warns “Always-On” Work Culture Creating “Broken” People | WSJ
Comcast CEO’s Son Wants to Turn Philly Into an E-Sports Town | Bloomberg
The Worst Patients in the World | The Atlantic
- Americans are hypochondriacs, yet we skip our checkups. We demand drugs we don’t need, and fail to take the ones we do. No wonder the U.S. leads the world in health spending.
The Day the Music Burned | NYTimes
- More than a decade ago, a fire swept across a Universal Studios backlot. As it turns out, in the process, it destroyed an unprecedented collection of American music history.
What Yogi Berra Would Have Said About This Bull Market | WSJ
The Danger of Comparing Yourself to Others | Farnam Street
Billie Eilish Is Not Your Typical 17-Year-Old Pop Star. Get Used to Her. | NYTimes
How Lil Nas X’s Success Will Impact Hip Hop | Trapital
- I can’t stand this song, but I’ll admit it’s catchy.
The Hidden Variable in Opportunity Cost | Alex Cornell
- I forget where I heard/read this (most likely FarnamStreet), but I still run this thought experiment in my head. When you say ‘I don’t have time for X’, substitute ‘I am not prioritizing X’ and see how your gut and mind react to that new evaluative lens.
(Podcast) How I Built This: AllBirds | NPR
(Podcast) Why Venture Is Hard | Invest Like The Best
America’s Gun Problem, Explained | Vox
Investor Meeting Seating | Alex Cornell
- I was reminded of this article from a few months ago when, due to a logjam of meetings at my office, my 5-person meeting ended up in a boardroom that seats 20… suboptimal seating to say the least, which makes Q&A a bit tougher to choreograph. I could see the folks in worst seat whipping their head back and forth as if at the French Open.
Mary Meeker’s 2019 Internet Trends Report | Mary Meeker (via TechCrunch)
- Been reading these for a few years — always informative, always worth the time (took me 2.5 days of scrolling through during lunch breaks)
Uber Air’s Plan to Get You from a Skyport to an Airport | TechCrunch
How To Build Something That Lasts 10,000 Years | BBC
The Future of Marketing is Bespoke Everything | The Atlantic
- And while we’re on the subject of marketing, has anyone else peeped Casper’s word puzzles on the subways these last few weeks? I caught myself pacing up and down the subway cars to try to figure them all out before my trip ended. Try your luck here.
How Americans Make and Spend Their Money, By Education Level | VisualCapitalist
Social Security Is Staring at Its First Real Shortfall in Decades | NYTimes
Tech and Antitrust | Stratechery
One of my favorite Ben Thompson pieces to date — a case study of Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, and ’90s Microsoft through each of the evaluative lenses:
- (1) Whether or not they have a durable monopoly
- (2) What anticompetitive behavior they are engaging in
- (3) What remedies are available
- (4) What will happen in the future with and without regulator intervention
Upgrade Your Memory with a Surgically Implanted Chip | Bloomberg
The Secret Company Behind KKW Beauty and Kylie Cosmetics | InStyle
