Visible effort is the new 'reply all.' If you do it in public, everyone looks at you with a mixture of pity and secondhand embarrassment, wondering why you didn't have the decency to hide your struggle in a dark basement like a normal person. We have reached a point in the digital timeline where 'trying' is synonymous with 'failing to be cool,' and frankly, it's making us all act like very stressed-out ducks who are paddling frantically underwater while trying to maintain the facial expression of a bored Victorian ghost.
The recent viral resurgence of that 2009 essay 'On Really Trying' is a cry for help from a generation that has spent the last decade perfecting the art of the 'Casual Masterpiece.' We live in the era of the 'photo dump'—a carefully curated selection of twenty images that took three hours to edit but are captioned 'random stuff from July' to ensure nobody thinks we actually care about our digital footprint. It’s a psychological defense mechanism that says: 'If I fail, it’s because I wasn't even trying, so it doesn't count.'
The Cult of the Effortless Genius
Modern status isn't built on what you can do; it’s built on how little you appear to do to get there. If you spend eighteen months writing a novel, you’re supposed to tell people you 'just sort of jotted some notes down between yoga sessions' and then accidentally hit 'publish' on a 400-page manuscript. To admit you sat in a stained bathrobe crying over a character arc for three weeks is to admit you are mortal, and mortality is very bad for your personal brand.
This 'effort-signaling' paradox creates a world where high-performers are basically high-stakes gamblers who refuse to show their cards. We’ve turned competence into a magic trick. If the magician shows you the trap door, the trick is ruined. If a tech founder admits they worked 100-hour weeks and missed their sister's wedding to secure a $2 million seed round, they’re 'grinding.' But if they pretend they just 'had a vision' while eating avocado toast, they’re a visionary. We prefer the lie of the visionary because it implies they have a secret cheat code we don't.
Photo by NUDE Nahum on Pexels
Think about the 'I woke up like this' trope. Nobody wakes up like that. Most of us wake up looking like a slightly damp gargoyle that just lost a fight with a lawnmower. But the social mandate requires us to pretend that beauty, intelligence, and success are just things that happen to us while we’re looking the other way. It’s a competitive sport where the only way to win is to look like you aren't even playing.
The Radical Act of Genuinely Giving a Crap
To 'really try'—to put your heart, soul, and a significant amount of sweat into something and then show it to the world—is basically walking into a room naked. It’s vulnerable because if you give 100% and you still suck, you have no excuses left. You can’t say, 'Oh, I just threw that together.' You have to say, 'I gave this everything I have, and it’s still mediocre.' That is a terrifying sentence. Most people would rather jump into a cactus patch than utter those words.
This is why the 2009 essay is hitting so hard right now. In 2009, we were still allowed to be earnest. We were still posting blurry photos of our lunch on Facebook without irony. Now, sincerity is treated like a biological hazard. We’ve built these elaborate digital shells of sarcasm and 'post-ironic' distance to protect ourselves from the shame of being perceived as someone who actually cares about their life.
If you start a YouTube channel and it fails, you can tell your friends you were 'just experimenting with the medium.' If you actually tell them, 'I want this more than anything and I’m terrified of failing,' they’ll look at you like you just confessed to a crime. We have pathologized passion because passion is messy, and the algorithm prefers things that are polished, shiny, and suspiciously easy.
Why We Are All Exhausted Dancers
This constant 'fake-trying' is exhausting. It takes twice as much energy to do something well while pretending you aren't doing it at all. It’s like trying to run a marathon while wearing a weighted vest and pretending you’re just out for a casual stroll to the mailbox. We are a society of people who are desperate to be seen as talented, but horrified of being seen as hardworking.
- The 'Natural' Athlete: Spends 4 hours at the gym but tells everyone they 'just have good genes.'
- The 'Accidental' Influencer: Takes 400 selfies to get one that looks 'candid.'
- The 'Intuitive' Cook: Follows a 12-page French recipe but claims they 'just threw some stuff in a pan.'
When we stop acknowledging the work, we stop valuing the result. We start thinking that if something is hard, we must be doing it wrong. We’ve turned 'effort' into a symptom of inadequacy rather than a prerequisite for excellence. It’s a collective delusion that suggests the only things worth having are the things that fall into your lap while you’re busy being unimpressed.
What This Actually Means
The return to 'really trying' isn't just a retro trend like cargo pants or being mean to waiters; it’s a necessary correction. We are starving for sincerity. The reason that old essay is circulating is that people are tired of the mask. They’re tired of pretending that they don’t want things, that they don’t work for things, and that they aren't terrified of losing things.
If we keep treating effort as an embarrassment, we’re going to end up in a world where nobody builds anything difficult because the social cost of failing is too high. We need to bring back the 'Tryhard.' We need to celebrate the person who is sweating through their shirt because they’re actually doing the work. Sincerity is the only real rebellion left in a world that’s addicted to the 'effortless' lie.
Go ahead and care about something. Be the person who tries too hard at the office party. Be the person who spends six months learning to bake a loaf of bread that looks like a brick. The risk of looking like a loser is a small price to pay for the privilege of actually living your life instead of just performing it for an audience of people who are also pretending not to care.
Quick Answers
Is it okay to admit I worked hard on something?
Only if you want to be a functional human being; otherwise, keep lying and tell everyone a bird flew into your house and accidentally typed your dissertation.
Why is everyone so obsessed with looking 'chill'?
Because 'chill' is a shield that protects you from the judgment of others—if you don't care, they can't hurt you, which is a great strategy for middle school and a terrible one for life.
Can I still use the 'photo dump' format?
Yes, but at least once, include a photo of yourself crying over an Excel spreadsheet so we know you're actually a person and not a highly-advanced marketing bot.
