Hustle culture is a lifestyle that prioritizes work over self. In hustle culture, even hobbies must be done for profit.
Enjoy knitting? You should be selling your creations online. Like to bake? Find a way to sell your culinary creations.
But increasingly, people are realizing how toxic hustle culture is. A life where enjoyment is not a consideration makes for an environment of unhappiness.
The push to profit off every action in one's life is getting pushback.
Reddit user hogw33d asked:
"What's a random skill you have that you could probably make decent money doing, but you just don't want to?"
Salesperson
" Sales. I hate it, hate people, but somehow I seem very good at it."
~ Equal-Train-4459
Ice Cream Maker
"Making ice cream."
"My dad taught me how to do it the right way, and I've just kept going with slight adjustments to his recipe and added more flavor variants. When I've brought ice cream to work or shared with friends, I always get glowing reviews."
"But I do it because I like to do it, and I wouldn't want to lose passion for it by making it a job."
~ Kris_Third_Account
Nail Technician
"I’m really good at doing nails, but I would hate to go to school and get licensed just to find out I don’t like doing other people’s nails or building up a clientele."
"Where I live there's a huge market for solo nail technicians that give specialized services/nail art—not what they offer at typical nail salons. They also can charge upwards of $100 per appointment."
~ cruuelsummer
Tech Advisor
"Advising customers about laptop and mobile specs and helping them choose."
~ myself_reddit_user_
Game Designer
"Making games. I used to enjoy it, but worked with a terrrrrible team for a couple years and it completely ruined game development. It was over 6 years ago that we parted ways, and only in the last month or so have I even started trying to like it again."
"I am going back to my roots, the first game engine I really learned, and making the games I want to play, instead of chasing sales on Steam."
"It wasn't the money, it was the daily, sometimes hourly, changing of what they wanted with almost no documentation and refusal to commit to any. They also seemed to find romance in struggle, and I do not."
~ Willy-of-the-Alley
HVACR Technician
"Commercial HVACR [heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration]—15 years experience in bidding, service, commercial installation, kitchen hoods and stainless installation. Could be making 45 an hour, with company vehicle."
"Paid from when I start the vehicle to when I pull back into the driveway. Top-notch benefits, such as health, vision, life, short- and long-term disability insurance, 401k, and profit sharing, among a few other things."
"Got tired of working all day, all night, and spending absolutely zero time with my daughter. But with all the overtime, I would bring in about 20k a month, sometimes more."
~ Slight-Grade-9132
"This was me when I was a younger man. I started my own small business and could have made it grow, but I was spending so much time on the road doing service calls."
"Sometimes it was an easy one (flipping a breaker and having to explain why I'm still charging them $75 for showing up). Other times I would find a unit that had some specific issue that I needed to drive across town, buy the part, drive back to install it, and now it's dinner time and I'm too tired to cook anything."
"I got into IT instead."
~ BaconReceptacle
Meal Planner
"Creating healthy and tasty meal plans for people."
"I’ve become very good at making nutritious meals that end up tasting really good. It’s like I can look at a picture of something and make my own version."
"With that being said, I’m too lazy to do this for other people. I’d have to not be lazy and write up the recipes."
~ tinkywinkles
Quilter
"Sewing quilts. My grandmother taught me."
"I’ll make one for friends or family when they have a baby (and I made a big queen size for my bed)."
"Not sure I could even make money on it right now, the price of fabric is ridiculous!"
~ Witty_Direction6175
Case Manager
"Case management. I am the dumb@ss that wants to help people for free instead."
"Let me know if you wanna help me bang my head off a wall."
~ dragonfly_1985
Efficiency Expert
"Operational efficiency. I don't want to do it for any organization because it ultimately means eliminating positions."
"Even if you come up with an elegant multi-year plan that allows people in positions that are slated to be eliminated to advance in their careers, there will always be some internal political interest or middle manager that mucks it up."
"Or someone above those middle managers who won't stomach cutting them because they've demonstrated some sort of loyalty to the organization. Even though the inefficiencies plaguing the organizations operations are likely the fault of those middle managers who made poor resource allocation decisions in the first place."
"Maybe there are companies that are in the midst of explosive growth where positions wouldn't need to be eliminated, but then you have to convince people not to over hire."
~ lokey_convo
Linguist
"I speak 8 languages fluently due to my time travelling as a cybersecurity consultant."
"But I hate talking to people."
~ Able_Vegetable_4362
Bartender
"I am a great bartender (as in socially, I am average at mixing/pouring aspect), but I am just so tired of dealing with drunks, I can't do it anymore."
~ middleagethreat
Singer
"Singing. Get told I could do sets at bars or restaurants or that I should submit a demo tape to some place."
Singing is something I do for me. I have no desire to turn it into something I do for money, it would take all the joy out of it."
~ LadyFeen
Visual Design Instructor
"Teaching visual design. Just today had some kid email about my old YouTube vids."
"I stopped a few years ago because marketing that stuff lands somewhere between gross and boring."
"If you're dedicated, and you love marketing, them sh*ts scale real hard."
~ goodtalk
Writer
"I could probably make decent cash as a freelance writer, but honestly, it feels more like a chore than fun for me."
~ GorgeousLoverr
"It's poetry for me. I've written a number of humorous poems, either for friends on request, or because I was randomly motivated."
"I'm technically a published poet, since one of my efforts was read out on an episode of Wheel of Fortune."
"But, like you, I find it too onerous to do it regularly."
"In my case, I obsess over meter and rhyme structure. I won't repeat a rhyme, even in a lengthy poem (say 64 lines), which makes the whole process much harder."
~ chmath80
What's something you do that could yield a profit, but you don't want to monetize it?
