This could be my favorite thing of yours of all time; it has the same issue as the last one —twenty lines that could be whole pieces, that are just hard-perfect, stainless-steel-perfect— but that’s only a problem for a fan trying to make judicious promotional choices. I cannot believe how good this is. Rehab *is* a prefab collab!!! Jesus Christ! I’m going to ask people I hire to read this; it’s important to understand what this is all summing to, even if those of us working in the infrastructure of it have no real influence or control over anything at all.
MILLS this is so nice, thank you! I think hustle culture is a real mind fuck in part because it's so pervasive, exhausting, exhaustive and we ALL feel like we have no real influence or control over anything at all! Anyway none of my choices are judicious as you can tell.
This isn’t an essay—it’s an exorcism. You just pulled the curtain back on the stage and found a thousand influencers trapped inside the same mirror maze, all chasing their own reflections, mistaking collapse for content.
“Hustle is surrender” needs to be carved into every ring light and embossed on the back of every brand deal. You named it: the soul isn’t sold all at once—it’s leased out in trinkets, hashtags, and curated breakdowns.
Thank you for singing the lost song. Even if we only remember the chorus, it might be enough to break the spell.
Capitalism turns people into objects until the people are objects that exploit themselves.
The market kills the soul of the individual and the individual rises above the collective but it isn't the real individual at all because they lost their soul, became a doll, a plastic shell with a tape recorder inside, and their task is to push all the other dolls down.
The market exploits. The market makes us believe the lie they sold us so that we sell ourselves.
Underneath, sometimes, we find something real.
We will find that glimmer, nurse it, nurture it, bathe it in nature - in the natural. Join with others who are real, who resist and who rebel.
All of modern life feels like a performance now. You must commercialize your uniqueness or be punished for your silence. I just want the freedom to BE MYSELF without judgement or this massive pressure to commercialize my very soul. I hate AI but know the longer I refuse to use it the further behind I fall from the ones that do. I desperately need a job but every listing is flooded with AI applications and I am drowned out. Its so depressing. Meanwhile a demented fascist is destroying the country further every day and theres nothing I can do about it. Im so tired. This is not the world I was promised when I was younger. All I wanted was a few more decent years before climate change destroyed society, but then the idiots of the nation re-elected Trump, the billionaires are waging war on the rest of us and now its looking like I will never have a moments peace ever again. Good luck to you all, the future is bleak.
I also find all of the above horrifying and deeply depressing. Now we have to learn a very specific skill: How to throw our energy behind worthy causes while detaching ourselves enough to savor small delights in the present like never before. Use darkness as contrast to amplify brilliance, light, joy, rage, absurd humor, sweetness. You can still be yourself. Self-crafted artisanal humans will be more rare and precious than ever.
Thank you for your kind reply. I keep having these dark moods where I can't see past my own bitterness but this made me feel a little better. I am trying so hard to see the positive in life but I am realizing I am still struggling because I feel it is fundamentally unfair that so much pain is being caused by ignorance when we have all the tools already to solve most of our problems, but we are being held back as a species by a few thousand mentally ill evil people at the top who perpetuate this system to satiate their own bottomless greed. If we as a species cannot overcome the worship of selfishness and greed then I guess we deserve to fail. I just havent fully reckoned with this yet.
I think it's important to remember that we all have a lot more power than Trump and his racist henchmen. And historically pushing back against power always works. So many devastating and horrifying things have happened, and not just recently (look at US's history, etc etc etc) but for a while. And yeah it feels quite bleak, the tide is shifting.
My favorite qualities in people! And good one! But yeah, misogyny runs broad and deep. Unfortunately, our appy world taps into anything that runs broad and deep to mine it for attention. I'm starting to tap out - I'm always starting to tap out and that's my new problem.
This is both indictment and elegy. Not just for culture, but for selfhood. You’ve named what few are willing to see: that identity has been restructured to serve content loops, and intimacy is now indistinguishable from strategy.
What gets missed in all this clever commentary about “the game” is that the game costs you your nervous system. Your capacity to feel yourself in real time. Your ability to orient without consulting the algorithm. And your right to exist without broadcasting proof.
The hustle isn’t just surrender—it’s dissociation sold as ambition.
And the tragedy is, many don’t realize they’ve vanished until there’s nothing left to monetize.
This could be my favorite thing of yours of all time; it has the same issue as the last one —twenty lines that could be whole pieces, that are just hard-perfect, stainless-steel-perfect— but that’s only a problem for a fan trying to make judicious promotional choices. I cannot believe how good this is. Rehab *is* a prefab collab!!! Jesus Christ! I’m going to ask people I hire to read this; it’s important to understand what this is all summing to, even if those of us working in the infrastructure of it have no real influence or control over anything at all.
MILLS this is so nice, thank you! I think hustle culture is a real mind fuck in part because it's so pervasive, exhausting, exhaustive and we ALL feel like we have no real influence or control over anything at all! Anyway none of my choices are judicious as you can tell.
Your writing leaves me stunned with admiration- every - single - time!
Same!
This isn’t an essay—it’s an exorcism. You just pulled the curtain back on the stage and found a thousand influencers trapped inside the same mirror maze, all chasing their own reflections, mistaking collapse for content.
“Hustle is surrender” needs to be carved into every ring light and embossed on the back of every brand deal. You named it: the soul isn’t sold all at once—it’s leased out in trinkets, hashtags, and curated breakdowns.
Thank you for singing the lost song. Even if we only remember the chorus, it might be enough to break the spell.
This is a great piece Heather.
Capitalism turns people into objects until the people are objects that exploit themselves.
The market kills the soul of the individual and the individual rises above the collective but it isn't the real individual at all because they lost their soul, became a doll, a plastic shell with a tape recorder inside, and their task is to push all the other dolls down.
The market exploits. The market makes us believe the lie they sold us so that we sell ourselves.
Underneath, sometimes, we find something real.
We will find that glimmer, nurse it, nurture it, bathe it in nature - in the natural. Join with others who are real, who resist and who rebel.
Holy crap, this was good. Holy CRAP.
This is equal parts beautiful and horrifying. Thank you 🤍
Brilliant writing, thank you for this.
GOAT.
All of modern life feels like a performance now. You must commercialize your uniqueness or be punished for your silence. I just want the freedom to BE MYSELF without judgement or this massive pressure to commercialize my very soul. I hate AI but know the longer I refuse to use it the further behind I fall from the ones that do. I desperately need a job but every listing is flooded with AI applications and I am drowned out. Its so depressing. Meanwhile a demented fascist is destroying the country further every day and theres nothing I can do about it. Im so tired. This is not the world I was promised when I was younger. All I wanted was a few more decent years before climate change destroyed society, but then the idiots of the nation re-elected Trump, the billionaires are waging war on the rest of us and now its looking like I will never have a moments peace ever again. Good luck to you all, the future is bleak.
I also find all of the above horrifying and deeply depressing. Now we have to learn a very specific skill: How to throw our energy behind worthy causes while detaching ourselves enough to savor small delights in the present like never before. Use darkness as contrast to amplify brilliance, light, joy, rage, absurd humor, sweetness. You can still be yourself. Self-crafted artisanal humans will be more rare and precious than ever.
Thank you for your kind reply. I keep having these dark moods where I can't see past my own bitterness but this made me feel a little better. I am trying so hard to see the positive in life but I am realizing I am still struggling because I feel it is fundamentally unfair that so much pain is being caused by ignorance when we have all the tools already to solve most of our problems, but we are being held back as a species by a few thousand mentally ill evil people at the top who perpetuate this system to satiate their own bottomless greed. If we as a species cannot overcome the worship of selfishness and greed then I guess we deserve to fail. I just havent fully reckoned with this yet.
I think it's important to remember that we all have a lot more power than Trump and his racist henchmen. And historically pushing back against power always works. So many devastating and horrifying things have happened, and not just recently (look at US's history, etc etc etc) but for a while. And yeah it feels quite bleak, the tide is shifting.
Preach Molly
Amen, amen, amen.
Oh snap
And you can add, if you're Jameela Jamil, never agree to be interviewed by a woman.
It's a great question, how did we come to this?
Are there no more sharks to jump so that we can be over this and start anew?
Women: Too curious, too smart, too relentless, don't let them near you!
My favorite qualities in people! And good one! But yeah, misogyny runs broad and deep. Unfortunately, our appy world taps into anything that runs broad and deep to mine it for attention. I'm starting to tap out - I'm always starting to tap out and that's my new problem.
Damn, girl.
Also, thank you.
This is both indictment and elegy. Not just for culture, but for selfhood. You’ve named what few are willing to see: that identity has been restructured to serve content loops, and intimacy is now indistinguishable from strategy.
What gets missed in all this clever commentary about “the game” is that the game costs you your nervous system. Your capacity to feel yourself in real time. Your ability to orient without consulting the algorithm. And your right to exist without broadcasting proof.
The hustle isn’t just surrender—it’s dissociation sold as ambition.
And the tragedy is, many don’t realize they’ve vanished until there’s nothing left to monetize.
Fucking hell, YES. GOD. AGH!