The gist: Better understand and unlearn Hustle Culture by reading these books about burnout, ambition, productivity, and capitalism.
Most people who meet me figure out pretty quickly that I’m an extreme bookworm.
That means that when I’m talking about Hustle Culture and other Work Brighter stuff, I get asked pretty often what my favorite books about the topic are.
And you wanna know how much I love giving book recommendations?
So much that I spent years writing daily posts for a book blog, because I didn’t have enough opportunities to talk about and recommend books in the rest of my life, and needed an outlet for my obsession. 🙃
Basically, I love any chance to share and talk about my favorite books.
So today we’re talking about the ones that helped me understand, and then unlearn, Hustle Culture.
The idea of ranking them against each other felt like picking a favorite child, so they’re just in alphabetical order.
Note: Some of these links are affiliate links. So if you decide to buy anything, I'll receive a commission. Most creators say something like "100% of this goes back into the business," but I'm not most creators. Some months it goes into the business, others it will be used to buy inappropriate amounts of chocolate. Remember, working brighter is about balance!
All the Gold Stars: Reimagining Ambition and the Ways We Strive by Rainesford Stauffer
This book specifically looks at the role ambition plays in Hustle Culture and our obsession with productivity. I especially like how it looks at how factors other than financial necessity play into overwork.
Obviously, a lot of people work so much because they financially have to. But a lot of other left-leaning discussion around Hustle Culture acts as though financial insecurity is the only driver of overworking.
This one acknowledges that it’s so much more complicated than that, otherwise overwork would be limited to lower classes, the way it has been historically. But what’s different about the Hustle Culture we’re in the midst of is that upper classes feel just as much pressure to be productive and work all the time.
And this book talks about the social/societal factors that explain why, like acceptability, keeping up with the Joneses, and trying to “prove your worth.”
Favorite quote from All the Gold Stars:
“So much of the gospel of “being ambitious” is cemented in the idea that there is always a little something more. More we could be. More we could aspire to. More out there for us. In some ways, both good and bad, that feels like the most succinct definition of ambition: more.”
Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle by Amelia Nagoski and Emily Nagoski
I’ve talked about this book a lot in the past, because it was such a big part of my “wake up call” around Hustle Culture back in 2017-ish. It just rocked my world and explained so much that was confounding me at the time.
Burnout is all about understanding both the social and biological components of burnout. Social components like how patriarchy and other oppressive systems play into who gets burnt out and how, and biological components like why prolonged stress leads to burnout and what’s actually happening in your body when it does.
There’s also great information for coping with burnout, like understanding the difference between “dealing with stress” and “dealing with stressors,” and how to biologically complete unresolved stress cycles.
Favorite quote from Burnout:
“Most of us are walking around with decades of incomplete stress response cycles simmering away in our chemistry, just waiting for a chance to complete.”
Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown
Like All the Gold Stars, Essentialism takes a close look at the concept of “more is better” and challenges the entire premise. McKeown talks about how the “undisciplined pursuit of more” gets us stuck in Hustle Culture, and debunks the idea that more is always better.
And as an alternative, he introduces the essentialist mindset, focused on the “disciplined pursuit of less,” or remembering what’s most essential and important in your life and engineering your life around those while paying as little time and attention as possible to everything else.
Favorite quote from Essentialism
“For a type A personality, it is not hard to push oneself hard. Pushing oneself to the limit is easy! The real challenge for the person who thrives on challenges is not to work hard.”
Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman
This book looks at why we’re so obsessed with productivity (because life is short: at best four thousand weeks).
It’s focused more on theory and philosophy around how we use our time than productivity hacks and strategies.
Like, what is the point of being productive in the first place?
And why do so many of us get SO obsessed with it?
His theory (which I agree with) is that a lot of us use productivity and busyness as an emotional avoidance tactic to bypass bigger and more important things.
Favorite quote from Four Thousand Weeks:
“The world is bursting with wonder, and yet it’s the rare productivity guru who seems to have considered the possibility that the ultimate point of all our frenetic doing might be to experience more of that wonder.”
(I hope to be that kind of productivity guru, although I’d never usually use the word guru lol.)
How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy by Jenny Odell
This is another book that zooms in on a specific element of Hustle Culture, with Odell focusing on the attention economy and how capitalism has manipulated our attention over time.
It doesn’t actually have much “how to” information, it’s more of a “why to” than a “how to” book.
But that makes it a great book for anyone towards the beginning of their own Hustle Culture reckoning, who may not be fully convinced of Hustle Culture’s serious harm.
Favorite quote from How to Do Nothing:
“The point of doing nothing, as I define it, isn’t to return to work refreshed and ready to be more productive, but rather to question what we currently perceive as productive.”
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Laziness Does Not Exist by Devon Price
Laziness Does Not Exist talks about how society has taught us all lies about laziness, which Price calls “The Laziness Lie.”
He goes into how the concept of laziness has been weaponized by capitalism and productivity culture to shame people into overworking to the point of burnout and illness. What we label as laziness is usually just our body or mind's natural response to burnout, overwhelm, or unmet needs.
It also gets pretty practical in terms of ways to “be lazier” once you’ve unlearned the laziness lie.
Favorite quote from Laziness Does Not Exist:
“The Laziness Lie is a deep-seated, culturally held belief system that leads many of us to believe the following: Deep down I’m lazy and worthless. I must work incredibly hard, all the time, to overcome my inner laziness. My worth is earned through my productivity. Work is the center of life. Anyone who isn’t accomplished and driven is immoral.”
Real Self-Care: A Transformative Program for Redefining Wellness by Pooja Lakshmin MD
This book talks about how self-care has been transformed from a a radical act associated with social justice and the disability community into a commodified marketing term. It explains how the way self-care is commonly portrayed now - through expensive products and Instagram-worthy moments - actually works against true self-care by adding even more pressure and expectations to our lives.
Favorite quote from Real Self-Care:
“Faux self-care is largely full of empty calories and devoid of substance. It keeps us looking outward comparing ourselves with others or striving for a certain type of perfection—which means it's incapable of truly nourishing us in the long run.”
Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less by Alex Soojung-Kim Pang
Another one I’ve talked about before, this was another book I read early on in my own Hustle Culture reckoning and completely changed the way I thought about my life.
It’s all about rest and different elements of it, but specifically spends a lot of time busting societal myths about rest that are used to demonize it while perpetuating Hustle Culture.
It also dives into the daily routines of famous people most of us would think of as “super productive” to show us how most of them spent way less time working and more time resting and playing than we tend to assume. That was a pretty enlightening section that proves how important rest and play are for productivity and creativity.
Favorite quote from Rest:
“We need to rethink the relationship between work and rest, acknowledge their intimate connection, and rediscover the role that rest can play in helping us be creative and productive.”
Build your TBR (to be read) list
So these are the books that have been instrumental in helping me unlearn decades of Hustle Culture conditioning. Each one tackles different aspects of our society's toxic relationship with work and productivity, from ambition to laziness to rest.
These books can be helpful friends on your own unlearning journey, offering new perspectives and validating your desire to work and live brighter.
Have you read any of these books? Or do you have other recommendations for books that helped you question Hustle Culture? I'd love to hear about them!