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The Self-Help Paradox - by Edward - Chop Wood, Carry Water

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Something which has been running in the back of my mind for a little while is the modern take on the idea of self-improvement. At a certain point in time, social media became saturated with the mimetic motivational idea of constant grinding and development, an idea which caught fire very quickly in a society which was eagerly looking for ways to feel better about itself. Initially, this mainly took the form of memes about getting up at 5am to go to the gym, Jocko Willink style, but gradually became more pervasive and subtly integrated into more general self-development, in both professional and personal realms. This concept more or less morphed into the idea of grinding, the ‘grindset’, or always working hard on yourself. Nowadays, it’s common to hear young people talking about developing their side-hustles, working hard on their 5k time, or building towards ‘financial freedom’ and, even more recently, this attitude has now permeated so deeply into society that ‘doing therapy’ is now r

Gentle Reader, Something which has been running in the back of my mind for a little while is the modern take on the idea of self-improvement. At a certain point in time, social media became saturated with the mimetic motivational idea of constant grinding and development, an idea which caught fire very quickly in a society which was eagerly looking for ways to feel better about itself. Initially, this mainly took the form of memes about getting up at 5am to go to the gym, Jocko Willink style, but gradually became more pervasive and subtly integrated into more general self-development, in…

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