February 09, 2025

🎙️ The Myth of Hard Work – The Deeper Thinking Podcast

16 minutes

Have we been deceived into believing that effort alone defines success? What if the very idea of relentless work isn’t a path to achievement, but a carefully constructed illusion designed to keep us trapped in cycles of exhaustion?

From the Protestant work ethic that shaped Western capitalism to the modern burnout culture that thrives in corporate and entrepreneurial spaces, this episode unpacks the deep philosophical, psychological, and economic roots of our obsession with work.

🔹 Max Weber’s Protestant Work Ethic – How centuries-old religious beliefs continue to shape our understanding of labor and success.

🔹 Michel Foucault’s Disciplinary Society – Why we have internalized the pressures of productivity and turned ourselves into our own taskmasters.

🔹 Hannah Arendt’s Homo Laborans – The warning against a world where work is no longer a means, but the defining feature of human existence.

🔹 Daniel Kahneman’s Cognitive Biases – How behavioral economics reveals that effort doesn’t always translate into effectiveness.

Is our exhaustion proof of our value—or evidence that we’ve been conditioned to believe so?

What if true success isn’t found in harder work, but in breaking free from the systems that demand it?

Could rethinking work entirely be the most radical act of all?

This episode takes a deep dive into the history, philosophy, and cognitive science of labor—offering not just a critique of hustle culture, but a way forward.

#Productivity #Capitalism #Philosophy #Burnout #TheDeeperThinkingPodcast #HannahArendt #MichelFoucault #MaxWeber #WorkCulture #Psychology #DanielKahneman #SelfSurveillance #DeepThinking

📖 Further Reading & Resources

🔹 Max Weber – The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism

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🔹 Michel Foucault – Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison

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🔹 Hannah Arendt – The Human Condition

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🔹 Daniel Kahneman – Thinking, Fast and Slow

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🔹 Byung-Chul Han – The Burnout Society

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Capitalism and Work Culture

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The History of the Work Ethic

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By The Deeper Thinking Podcast

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