When Googling someone’s name, you’re often directed to social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn for more information about this individual. But what do these platforms actually tell you? They reveal plenty about achievements, job titles, educational backgrounds, and the number of people they know. They showcase numerous photos of the cool places they visited, with the individual usually disproportionally in the foreground. Let’s also consider the carefully curated collection of technologically enhanced selfies. These might reveal something about the levels of narcissism in these individuals; however, beyond that, they provide little insight into the kind of person we’re actually dealing with. Our focus, and sometimes obsession, with status, accomplishments, and work—rather than with people and their characters and actual well-being—reflects what we value as a society. We’re obsessed with achievement, trapped in a cycle where one’s latest success measures

personal worth. This fixation raises a crucial 
question: Have we stopped recognizing each   other’s inherent value, seeing ourselves merely 
as products of our accomplishments? And if so,   how does this impact our behavior and well-being?
This video explores the predicament of basing our   self-worth on our achievements, and if there’s 
anything we can do to escape this cycle. We are all human beings, aren’t we? We’re 
humans because we are, meaning our innate   humanness makes us human. So why does society 
often dehumanize those who don’t meet expected   performance standards, labeling them as ‘losers’ 
or ‘failures’? Why does it seem that human value   is based not on our humanity, but on how well 
we meet society’s expectations? To be human,   being human isn’t enough these days. To be 
human, we have to achieve, conform, and display   ourselves doing so. Thus, we could say that we’ve 
stopped seeing each other as human beings and

started regarding each other as ‘human doings.’
A ‘human doing’ has little or no inherent worth. Its value depends on what it achieves. It doesn’t
derive its identity from being but from doing, or better, from conforming to what its surroundings
deem worthy of doing. Current society is very much geared toward achievement, especially in the
material sense. We tend to admire people who make a lot of money, are successful in their
careers, and have fancy job titles attached to their LinkedIn profiles. We judge others and
ourselves based on what we achieve. Hence, when meeting someone, the cardinal question
is: “So, what do you do?” Of course, this question doesn’t refer to what we do in
our leisure time, our spiritual development, our social life, and how we treat others. No,
this question almost always points to what we do for a living: our position among the working,
our rank within the career-pursuing masses.

Funnily enough, as this question is often asked, 
most people have their elevator pitches ready as if they are regurgitating their own personal 
product summaries, concisely demonstrating their usefulness. The asker of the question 
must view one’s position as valuable or, at least, interesting, as one’s estimation 
in the asker’s eyes depends on it. So, you’re cleaning toilets? Okay, your rank 
is somewhere between the unemployed and a McDonald’s cook. I’m sure you’ll get along well. 
Ah, you’re a product manager? Now, we’re talking. You can sit at the cool kid’s table between 
the senior marketing employee and the startup entrepreneur. So, you’re a YouTuber? How’s that 
going for you? Oh, do you mean full-time? Wait, two million followers? Ahh, I’m not sure which 
table I should assign you to. How much money do

you make a month? And is YouTube an actual career?
We’re constantly estimating each other’s worth. And the common denominator is achievement.
In a society like this, which bases one’s value so heavily on one’s accomplishments,
many start to base their self-worth on them. American psychologist Leon Festinger proposed the
‘Social comparison theory,’ which explains that individuals compare themselves to others as a form
of measurement and self-assessment to determine where they stand. We can see this happen on
social media, for example, when it comes to beauty standards, the ongoing cycle of comparison, and
the effects of this on self-esteem and self-worth. We can also apply this to achievement. The
so-called ‘rat race’ is an example; it’s a glorified pursuit of status, money, and material
objects. Today’s hustle culture is a rat race on steroids: always achieving, never enough, always
being on one’s ‘purpose,’ which often refers to

someone earning a fortune by dropshipping,
or selling overpriced courses on YouTube. And those who promote this hustle culture the
loudest often profit just by selling that idea: their hustle is selling you the dream of hustling.
As a culture, we don’t seem to understand the irony of all this madness: that we’re willing to
spend our already hard-earned money on courses teaching us a lifestyle of endless, self-defeating
toil. We’re eager to become slaves and even willing to pay for it. And so, many young men
and women desperately seek out some internet guru who’s making bank just by dictating them to work
their asses off and constantly ‘crush it.’ But for what? For the ‘clacking of tongues’ as the ancient
Romans would say. We do it because society then perceives us as valuable, and our worth in other
people’s eyes increases as our achievements surge.

In his book ‘Burnout Society,’ South Korean-born German philosopher Byung-Chul Han describes how we’ve transitioned from a disciplinary society to an achievement society, saying: Twenty-first-century society is no longer a disciplinary society, but rather an achievement society. Also, its inhabitants are no longer “obedience-subjects” but “achievement-subjects.” They are entrepreneurs of themselves. End quote. According to Han, a disciplinary society mainly tells people what they cannot do, while an achievement society emphasizes what people can do. Therefore, the disciplinary society has a negative orientation, while the achievement society has a positive orientation. The affirmation “Yes, we can” is the central tenet of this society. It tells us about all the things we can do and achieve, the great things we can become, all the material stuff we can have, the status we can attain and

the praise we can get from that. It’s the dream 
of ‘unlimited can’ that we can become everything   we want if we work hard. While a disciplinary 
society imposes work ethic on the people by   means of force and penalties, an achievement 
society does it by selling a dream and incentives.  Surprisingly, perhaps, the positive approach 
is more effective and efficient. We not only   work harder, but we’re also intrinsically 
motivated to work ourselves into an early   grave. We’re more effective slaves that 
don’t need masters, as we’re constantly   whipping ourselves. At most, we hand the 
whips to these motivational gurus and let   them whip some ‘grinding’ and ‘hustling’ in us.
The harmful effects of the achievement society are   also apparent. Aside from the psychological strain 
and, eventually, burnout, this ongoing pursuit of   achievement leads to (according to Han) could 
also undermine one’s self-worth. When society’s

relentless positivity tells us we should all constantly strive to be happy and successful, when people measure each other based on productivity and success, what does that mean for those who don’t conform to these ideals? Let’s quote another passage from Han’s book, saying: Disciplinary society is still governed by no. Its negativity produces madmen and criminals. In contrast, achievement society creates depressives and losers. End quote. Not achieving in an achievement society is akin to societal blasphemy. The losers and failures are the ultimate sinners. Of course, you’ll feel bad about yourself when considered a modern-day untouchable. And so, it’s not just the dream that motivates us to achieve; it’s also the nightmare of being perceived as less, for example, the neck-bearded loser living in his mom’s basement playing video games, being the meme representing more or less the bottom you can reach as a man.

The desire to outshine others, the emphasis on self-optimization, and the constant showcasing of ourselves on social media align with the sickness of our age: narcissism. ‘Narcissism’ is today’s buzzword for a reason: it’s because people across the board have indeed been becoming increasingly narcissistic. We often demonize these people for being narcissists, but to what extent can we blame them? In environments that push people into becoming personal ‘brands,’ always busy spotlighting themselves and competing for admiration, isn’t the emergence of widespread narcissism understandable? There’s a difference between narcissistic tendencies and Narcissistic Personality Disorder (or NPD). I’ll focus on narcissistic tendencies, such as a grandiose sense of self-importance, self-absorption, and the need for excessive admiration. So, with ‘narcissist,’ I refer to someone with such tendencies. That said, I think

we can consider the narcissist the ultimate hero of the achievement society. After all, his (or her) self almost entirely depends on how others perceive them in terms of status, importance, value, et cetera. Their estimation in the eyes of others (or at least, how they think others see them) is their sense of self. And so, the only way for this sense of self to survive is by fully engaging in the achievement society: to be the fastest rat in the rat race, outshine all in terms of beauty, or simply put, achieve the most in any chosen area. And they don’t shun exploiting others without remorse, as the goal is what counts, regardless of the means. The narcissist lives in a bubble: they’re the absolute centers of their microcosms, and others serve mainly to admire or to be used. Sadly enough, our current culture hardly

penalizes the behavior of these people. On the 
contrary, we tend to celebrate the braggadocious, pompous go-getter who often lacks morals or the 
self-obsessed Instagram model amassing likes and comments. Today, being a narcissist pays.
According to Han, it’s not that these narcissists have created the achievement society; it’s the 
achievement society that breeds narcissists, as it rewards behaviors that 
align with narcissistic traits. When your self-worth depends on what you achieve, 
you’ll feel worthy when you accomplish what you think you need to but unworthy when you 
don’t. We love ourselves based on our performance because the world loves us based 
on our performance. And so, maintaining our self-worth requires constant striving for success.
Achievement isn’t a bad thing in itself. Humanity enjoys many of its past achievements today. 
But the “positivity” of constant success and

achievement is only one side of life.
We can’t be successful all the time. We can’t be constantly achieving. If we try, we’ll eventually pay the price. Life also consists of failure, achieving nothing, and basically anything else that doesn’t entail success and accomplishment. Also, for a significant part, achievement and success lie outside of our control, meaning that our ‘worth’ largely depends on circumstances not up to us. But basing our self-worth on circumstances we have such limited control over puts us in an unreliable position. After all, as long as circumstances allow us to attain societal standards and people acknowledge our achievements, we feel good about ourselves. But if we cannot comply for reasons not in our control, people see us as losers nonetheless, and our self-worth goes down the drain as well. But what’s ‘worth’ anyway? Isn’t someone’s or something’s value subjective? Don’t we consider

something valuable because we deem it so? Of 
course, it’s challenging not to chase what society demands. And it’s probably even more difficult 
to deal with the consequences of doing so. However, won’t generating self-worth from 
something more stable and attainable make it more healthy and robust? What about an 
inherent sense of value based on the fact we’re human beings, not just ‘human doings?’ 
What about self-worth based on pursuing what we (not others) deem important in life?
We could find fulfillment in other sources. However, tapping into these sources 
requires the strength and courage to deviate from the world’s opinion. And for 
most of us, that’s easier said than done. Thank you for watching.

When your self-worth depends on what you achieve

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