"Home Is For 7 Hours Of Sleep And That's It": Professor Says Young People Should Not Spend Their Time At Home, Gets A Reality Check Online

Young people who are starting to live on their own these days face an uphill battle. Inordinate rent, entry-level jobs that require five years of experience, and a global recession. At the very least, it’s easy to imagine all the reasons someone might want to just chill on a workday evening, maybe take a nap or watch some TV.

However, this is, apparently, terrible, according to Professor Scott Galloway. He made some waves when he claimed that young people should never be at home for any reason but sleep if they want to be successful, in a TikTok that went viral. Unsurprisingly, the internet had a pretty strong reaction to his hot take.

More info: TikTok

Workaholism is a mental disorder where a person feels compelled to not take breaks and basically loses all free time in exchange for some perceived professional “success.” It’s an ultimately unhealthy and unproductive way to interact with the world that leads to burnout, diminishing returns, and sometimes even major health issues due to exhaustion and stress. While in some cultures it’s unfortunately celebrated, these days the concept carries with it a stigma of office drones slaving away for intangible benefits. As a result, some workaholics try to create scenarios where their behavior is considered admirable instead of getting professional help. Statements like “You should never be home” try to paint a picture of a world where healthy relaxation is somehow a sin and detriment, not vital for a person's long-term health.

In case it’s not clear, overworking oneself and not taking time to rest has measurable and proven long-term negative effects on a person. In the video, Professor Scott Galloway mentions seven hours of sleep a night. This is the bare minimum for a healthy adult, and, presumably, someone working themselves to the bone would need more. The consequences of sleep deprivation are well-documented and result in slowly diminishing brain function and productivity. So even if we take the Professor at his word, this advice will lead to a young person losing all their cognitive abilities early in a career, which will likely cause more professional harm in the long run. So even if one's goal is to reach the pinnacle of career success at the cost of everything else, having zero downtime or rest is just self-sabotage.

Professor Scott Galloway does feel quite strongly about using people’s talent over anything else. He has publicly recommended that people ignore their passions and focus on what they are talented at. From a purely emotionless perspective, this does make some sense, as a person with natural talent would do better at some jobs, allowing them to progress faster and, presumably, have a better income and career. But if we stop and take a step back to think about it, what is the point of a career? This is not a trick question, the answer may vary. Some people are driven by improving their status, some people want positions that come with power, but many ultimately just want to improve their quality of life. This often manifests as more free time and money to, you guessed it, pursue a passion. From video games to clay, for pottery, hobbies are generally not free.

While the comments are mostly mocking, Professor Scott Galloway is not a dumb man by any stretch. But being an expert in one field can make you blind to others. His advice might be well suited for a specific kind of young person, but in this economic climate, most people don’t want to be featured in 30-under-30, they just want to get by. Even more importantly, people often just do not know what they want. This is particularly true of young people and Gen Z in particular. With the average job tenure being around two years now, young people are jumping industries and positions rapidly, all in pursuit of self-understanding. So spending your twenties rushing through work and social interactions at a break-neck pace might lead to the realization in one's thirties that a lot of time and energy was wasted without a second thought.