The anti-hustle hustlers club

Years ago, my wife handed me (literally, she printed the thing on paper, in 2021) Bertrand Russell’s In Praise of Idleness. A classic essay lamenting the erosion of inner life after the Industrial Revolution. I smiled and enjoyed the read. It was hard to not sympathize as a techie flirting with burnout and re-discovering naps.

The “move fast, break things” ethos is still alive. I’ve heard it dressed up as “blitz” and sprints, usually to excuse shortcuts and compromises. More recently, I hear of “Kaizen”, supposedly gentler. While more philosophical, it features a typically Japanese violent discipline.

Then came the rise of sleep optimization. I blame Matthew Walker, or the cultural moment that followed him. Since roughly 2016, products, podcasts, gurus, and studies have piled up. I briefly considered things no sane person should, like multi-thousand-dollar sleep systems. The stuff is easy to sell to despairing millennials. 2 years of co-sleeping with my two baby boys brought some needed perspective. Wack sleep schedule and deep emotional bonding revealed how sleep reaches far beyond health metrics.

Not being much of a reader shielded me from the voluminous anti-work literature. One came on my radar, and being decently short, I read “The Burnout Society” by Byung-Chul Han. Unlike the usual “work is bad and makes us sick,” Han argues that the real pressure today is internal. We exploit ourselves. We optimize willingly. I sympathize with Han and many authors of the genre. My own refusal of optimization is less rebellion than humility. Life is messy. Letting it unfold makes rest meaningful. Han suggests that the antidote to burnout is to cultivate deep attention, embrace boredom, and slow down. On paper, I’m with him.

However, regardless of work or no work or less work, we have to do something. Find a balance. Pointing out that there might be a bit too much Yin or Yang has limited value in the grand scheme of things. Hearing Han speak, confirmed: many concerns, few (realistic) suggestions. To which I’d reply: “so do I, dude”.

I don’t think Capitalism is the root of my restlessness. Consumer society is a poor habitat for it, perhaps not even the worst, but certainly not ideal. My read of history suggests the problem predates capitalism by a long shot. We’ve been busy, violent, creatively distracted since the Stone Age. We do fascinating things with that restlessness. Some of us philosophize, like Han. Others want to colonize Mars. Sitting versus doing. The debate becomes an infinite perspectivist tautology, plain self-contradicting nonsense. And yet we should debate what is worth doing or not. Ideally on a well-rested mind.

From heated arguments at the dinner table to the cultural monuments, all narratives rest upon empty definitions. We might as well pick poetic ones. I crave aesthetics, the “good life”. It’s a different kind of mental gymnastics. To that extent, I sit well with Han and the Ram Dass of the world.

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Notes:

1: This is not accurately reflecting authors opinions

2: I’m way overstimulated by reading, that’s why I don’t read much, nor write book reviews

3: This is therapy, not writing, nor philosophy. If being a manly man is finding meaning in every action, then I need this kind of writing to cope.