The grindcore culture is back and grindier than ever. At least that’s what Are Kharazian, an economist at fintech startup Ramp, says. (Disclosure: I’m an investor in Ramp through the Innovation Fund.) For those unfamiliar, Ramp is a corporate card company that makes doing expenses easier.
But here’s the fascinating part: according to Kharazian, usage of Ramp’s product spikes on Saturdays. Not at 9 a.m. when people are finishing their morning latte. But starting around noon and going all the way until midnight. Employees are buying Chipotle and other food items as they work.
Think about that. Twelve hours straight on a Saturday – hours normally reserved for tennis in the park, family lunch, or dinner and drinks with friends – are instead being logged into corporate systems. If that isn’t grindcore culture, I don’t know what is.
And it’s not happening everywhere. Kharazian says Ramp doesn’t see the same behavior in New York, Miami, Austin, or Seattle. Nope. It’s happening only in San Francisco so far. He calls it the city’s version of “996,” a term popularized in China in the early 2010s to describe employees working from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week.
San Francisco may have its problems, but its work-hard-or-die-trying culture is alive and well.
Appreciating The Grindcore Culture Even More
Now, I know some of you who value “work-life balance” are probably grimacing right now. Why would anyone romanticize grindcore culture when life is meant to be enjoyed?
Here’s why: because I’ve lived it, and I know the rewards. It’s worth grinding until you can’t take it anymore. Because eventually, you will burn out.
I worked in finance from 1999 – 2012. During this window, I also helped kickstart the modern-day FIRE movement in 2009 with Financial Samurai so I could get the hell out. But in order to retire early, I had to work many more hours than normal. Grinding hard in your 20s and 30s while saving and investing aggressively is the single best way to set yourself up for freedom in your 40s and beyond. In other words, grindcore culture and FIRE go hand in hand.
I’ve been free from full-time employment for over 13 years now. My conclusion? The long hours and sacrifices were worth it. It’s not even close when compared to YOLOing in your 20s and then relying on your parents, as an adult, robbing them of their own financial freedom, because you never figured out how to launch on your own.
Grind when you’re young. Because one day, your health, energy, and motivation will fade. To keep that edge alive later in life, you’ll even have to play tricks on yourself—like pretending you’re broke—just to get out of bed with the same fire.
Falling In Love With The Grind
Looking back on my archive of 2,500+ Financial Samurai posts, I realize I’ve been a grindcore believer for a long time. Some classics include:
I can feel some of you steaming right now. Why? The beauty of hard work is that it doesn’t last forever. Work intensely, save aggressively, invest wisely, and eventually, you’ll reap the benefits for years, if not decades.
At the time, it might feel punishing. But in retrospect, you’ll look back fondly. You’ll laugh at how you used to arrive before 6 a.m. and stay past 7 p.m. just to snag the free dinner perk. You’ll shake your head and wonder: How did I ever put in those hours and deal with being told what to do by people I despise for so long?
The answer is simple: purpose and necessity. When you don’t have money, don’t have status, and desperately want a better life, grinding feels natural. What other choice is there?
Careful Listening To The Leisure Class
Don’t be fooled by the rich and privileged who already have it all and then preach about taking it easy. Some with multi-generational wealth love to virtue signal with what is sometimes called luxury beliefs.
It’s the trust-fund artist living in a $4 million SoHo loft telling everyone to “fight the power.” Or the politician who praises socioeconomic diversity in public schools while quietly sending their own kids to private school. Or the CEO who champions reformative justice and insists on letting 10X repeat offenders roam free, while living in a gated community with 24/7 private security.
Uh huh, sure. Go on now.
Always consider the incentives behind the message. If someone is already wealthy, their incentive to tell you to “chill out” is often self-serving. They’ve already extracted their pound of flesh from the system and now want to look virtuous while reducing competition.
So if you’re going to proclaim that hard work is overrated because you have a cushy trust fund job, and that health and happiness are everything, at least be transparent. Tell us your income, net worth, trust fund size, and how many nannies and housekeepers are on the payroll. Own your good fortune! Otherwise, your advice rings hollow.
Still Grinding After FIRE
Without grindcore culture, I would never have kept my streak of publishing three posts a week for ten straight years – from July 2009 to July 2019. Ten years is the amount of time I believe it takes to gain credibility in any field. But I did so because I made a promise, and I wanted to feel productive and generate supplemental income during a highly uncertain time.
When the anniversary arrived, I told myself, Why stop? Like Forrest Gump, I just kept running, except in my case, writing. By then, the habit was ingrained. And habits, especially the grindy ones, die hard. I’m now 16 years in.
But here’s the reality check: my health isn’t what it used to be.
My left eye gets uncomfortably dry after one or two hours on the laptop or phone. If I keep staring at a screen, I develop headaches, especially when looking side to side. I’m literally closing my eyes right now as I type this. Even if I wanted to publish five days a week, I couldn’t. To preserve my vision, I should probably cut down to two.
Aging is humbling. At some point, all of us will face physical decline. And that’s when we’ll be grateful for the passive income streams we built during our prime.
The Solution: Profit From Other People’s Grind
So what do you do when you can’t grind as hard anymore?
You invest in companies and people who still can.
Take Amazon, Google, and Meta. When they forced employees back into the office in 2023, many tech workers revolted. “How dare you take away my flexibility!” they cried.
Me? I bought more stock. Management was signaling they valued grindcore productivity over cushy perks. Meanwhile, I trimmed exposure to companies that clung to a fully remote model because their leaders clearly wanted the easier lifestyle. That’s totally rational! But I also made the rational decision of investing my money elsewhere.
I’ve been working from home since 2012. And let me tell you: during the pandemic, it was comically obvious how little some people were working. I’d play pickleball at 11 a.m. on a Tuesday and bump into software engineers “on a break” for three hours! At one point, I strongly considered taking a day job just to get paid to play like they were.
The lesson? Don’t invest in cushy cultures. Invest in the grinders. It’s your money. Allocate it wisely.
Careful, Work Ethic Fades The Richer You Get
Intelligence and connections matter, sure. But those are often innate or luck-based. Work ethic, however, is a choice.
As an investor, capital allocation is also a choice. If you can’t grind yourself, put your money into the people and companies who will. These are the ones who understand the race to market share is brutal, and they’ll outwork everyone to win.
The problem? Grindcore fades as you get older and wealthier. Spend a decade in Big Tech, pocket a few million, and suddenly your Friday meetings are from the slopes in Tahoe and your Monday calls from the Hamptons. Productivity tanks. Shareholders lose.
The real edge is finding the insecure, status-hungry, slightly narcissistic founders and employees who still have something to prove. I had that fire right out of college, and many of us do. But some people are simply wired to push harder than others.
These are the ones who keep grinding long after wealth should have made them soft. The catch? Over time, it gets harder to find people who would rather be in the office than at home with their kids.
Invest in Younger Companies and Hungrier Founders
The best bet may be to back younger, hungrier founders with nothing to lose and everything to gain. Private startups are where the grind is purest, survival demands it. These founders push themselves to make a name so they don’t have to work this hard forever, often fueled by an idealistic mission that keeps them going well past the breaking point.
Take Ramp, for example—a startup aiming to disrupt Visa, Mastercard, and Amex with better rewards and easier expense management. Their Saturday usage data shows customers working while others are relaxing. The founders themselves are in their early 30s, unmarried, and child-free – an ideal profile for heroic hours of focus.
That’s why a growing share of my capital is flowing into startups through venture capital funds. I want to invest in people with the capacity to grind 60+ hours a week without hesitation. For them, success isn’t optional, it’s survival.
Grind Now, Profit Later
The grindcore culture isn’t for everyone. It’s exhausting, sometimes unhealthy, and often ridiculed by those who prefer balance. But if you embrace it early in your career—when energy is high and responsibilities are lower—you can buy yourself decades of freedom later.
Going to business school part-time for 20 hours a week and then working 60 hours a week for three years was brutal. But I’m glad I did it.
When your body inevitably slows down, you don’t have to abandon grindcore altogether. You can profit from it by investing in those who still have the fire. Because no matter how much the world talks about balance, the biggest wins still go to the hungriest players.
If you’re not already wealthy, grind now so you can enjoy the grind later, even if only vicariously through your portfolio. But if you’re happy with your life and finances, then don’t grind. Embrace the work-life balance you value. Just stay consistent, and resist complaining or growing envious when others pull ahead due to their stronger work ethic.
Readers, what are your thoughts on grindcore culture? Why is there such a strong emphasis on labeling it as unhealthy, when working hard and investing aggressively can set you up for a far better life down the road? By pushing work-life balance so strongly, are we serving younger adults—or holding them back?
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