Jason Lengstorf warns that if you’re working crazy hours, “You’re no longer a free member of society. You’ve been lured into the Overkill Cult.”
The insidious thing about the Overkill Cult is that it masquerades as all the things we like most about ourselves: dedication, ambition, follow-through, responsibility.
It tells us to push harder, stay later, sleep when we’re dead. It tells us we’re never going to get ahead if we don’t show up first and go home last.
Cleverly, wickedly, the Overkill Cult persuades us to hang ourselves with our own strengths.
And if we don’t break free, we’re all going to die.
Later, he says, “We’re doing what we think is best for the future. But the Overkill Cult doesn’t plan for survivors.” Which may be my favorite two sentences of 2015.