Unraveling our Cultural Obsession with Hustling
Author and Digital Anthropologist Rahaf Harfoush explains why our fanatical pursuit of productivity is hurting our creative performance.
TORONTO, Feb. 28, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- As we struggle to keep up in a knowledge economy that never sleeps, we grasp at anything that will help us work faster, push harder, and produce more. There's just one problem: most of these solutions are making things worse. Creativity is not something that you can produce on an assembly line and this endless hustle is ruining our mental and physical health, while subtracting from our creative performance. But we can't seem to stop ourselves.
Why do we act against our own creative best interests?
New York Times Best-Selling Author and Renowned Digital Anthropologist Rahaf Harfoush explores the answers to this fascinating question in her newest non-fiction work: "Hustle & Float: Reclaim Your Creativity and Thrive in a World Obsessed with Work." Harfoush launched her book at the Rotman School of Management, in conversation with Lisa Kimmel, CEO & President, Edelman Canada, earlier this month on February 19th.
Synopsis:
"We Idolize creativity but worship productivity."
Over the course of a far-reaching and comprehensive three-year research project, Rahaf Harfoush has discovered that instead of focusing on how we work, we must understand why we work-- why we believe that what we do determines who we are.
Part big idea book, part prescriptive guide, Hustle and Float, explores the ideological tensions that lie at the heart of creative performance and traces the complicated, fascinating, and messy relationship we have with work. "Hustle and Float" explores the ideological tensions that lie at the heart of creative performance. Harfoush offers a compelling mix of actions and tools that professional creatives can use to begin working better within their own creative best interest.
"Our modern-day heroes include entrepreneurs, CEOs, and celebrities who have turned their talents into financial success, usually through highly mythologized accounts of hard work. These stories share common themes including putting in long days, a lack of sleep, and a pride in outperforming competitors through sheer endurance and strength," She writes. "We treat our work as an extreme sport, where our struggles and sacrifices in the name of our job are glorified. We've fused our self-identity to our profession, within a culture that values nonstop momentum as a validator of skill and strength. It's not working."
About the author: Rahaf Harfoush is a Strategist, Digital Anthropologist, and Best-Selling Author. She is the Executive Director of the Red Thread Institute of Digital Culture. She currently teaches "Innovation & Emerging Business Models" at Sciences Po's School of Management and Innovation. Formerly, Rahaf was the Associate Director of the Technology Pioneer Program at the World Economic Forum in Geneva. Her work has been featured in the Harvard Business Review, Wired, The Globe and Mail, Fast Company, Techonomy and The Next Web. She is currently working on "Infobesity," a book that explores data, knowledge and society's relationship with knowledge.
Contact:
Patrick Nelson
Speakers Associates
[email protected]
+44 (0)7985 301942
SOURCE Rahaf Harfoush
WANT YOUR COMPANY'S NEWS FEATURED ON PRNEWSWIRE.COM?
Newsrooms &
Influencers
Digital Media
Outlets
Journalists
Opted In
Share this article