Mumbai-based Soshals app founder, Kritarth Mittal, recently revealed that a health scare led him to hospitalisation due to the “hustle culture” and blamed “poor lifestyle choices”. The 25-year-old founder took it to X, formerly known as Twitter, to reveal the “ugly side” of hustle culture that is glorified among the youth.
He wrote, “Hustle culture comes with a cost — some you incur right away and some over decades. Choice is yours, I'm just here to show you the ugly side of it so you don't get swayed easy. This is me after pulling all-nighters, sleeping for
For the unversed, hustle culture glorifies relentless work and constant productivity, often at the cost of personal well-being and work-life balance. While it can drive achievement, it risks leading to burnout and stress.
Responding to a user on X who asked for his symptoms, Mittal explained, “I have struggled to maintain a healthy routine, diet or sleep cycle. Hence, constant body pain, dark circles, etc.”
Many users on the platform responded to the post sympathising with Mittal and suggesting how he should manage his work. These suggestions included not responding to work calls after 10 pm and early morning, taking out time for personal care and family, mandatory sleep of 7–8 hours, make a diet plan and so on.
One user wrote, “Lately I've learnt it too, as much as hustle is important-same goes for personal health and family time too :) I've strictly spared a few 2-3 hours dedicated to personal care and family time-these can't be traded off for anything :)” while another wrote, “All bodies are not equal. You need to understand the signals your body is giving and take it slowly. I had to go through the same. I stopped responding to the after 10 PM and early morning phone calls.”
A user on X responded to the post saying, “You should never pull all-nighters. Sleeping for at least 7–8 hours a day and not drinking or smoking has made me sustain this long. The code that we write during the all-nighters can be always written in the morning after a nice sleep. This is the strategy I use."