There Is No Musk Without Murthy
Elon Musk sleeping on the factory floor? Genius.
Narayana Murthy suggesting a 70-hour workweek? Exploitation.
This is modern hypocrisy at its finest! A world that worships success but recoils at the suffering required to achieve it. We glorify billionaires, we fetishize “grind culture,” yet the moment someone exposes the brutal path that builds empires, we revolt.
Musk’s work ethic is a legend because it exists at a distance - wrapped in Silicon Valley glamour. Murthy’s is offensive because it demands something from you.
The difference? One is entertainment. The other is expectation.
The soft generation wants success, but only if it’s convenient. They flood social media with Musk quotes, yet the moment they are told to put in the hours, they whine about burnout. They don’t want to work harder; they just want to post about it.
Musk’s 120-hour weeks are aspirational because they aren’t real to them, just another aesthetic, another narrative. Murthy’s 70-hour weeks are real, and that makes them intolerable.
The lie of our time is that “smart work” has replaced hard work. It hasn’t. It never will. Every illusion of ease exists because someone, somewhere, worked like a maniac to create it.
Optimized workflows? Built by those who burned through 100-hour weeks.
AI efficiency? Engineered by people who had no “off switch.”
Every so-called "genius" who made it without grinding? Look deeper. Either they worked like lunatics or stood on the backs of those who did.
The West glorifies its workaholics. India ridicules them.
Musk’s madness is excused as “visionary drive.” Murthy’s is framed as “toxic expectations.”
The work is the same. The double standard is the disease. The same people who praise Musk for sleeping in a factory call Murthy’s work ethic exploitative. It’s not about the hours. It’s about where the story is coming from.
This generation wants the rewards of sacrifice without the sacrifice itself. They want billion-dollar startups, but also their weekends free. They want wealth, but not exhaustion. They call themselves "burnt out" after 40-hour weeks. They demand "mental health breaks" from lives of convenience.
They aren’t overworked. They’re just unprepared for reality.
Murthy didn’t say anything radical. He simply stated what has always been true. Every empire, every breakthrough, every revolution was built on hours most people wouldn’t survive. The modern worker’s biggest delusion is thinking they can cheat this equation.
The biggest scam of our time is selling the idea that success can be achieved without suffering for it.
Everyone wants to be Musk. No one wants to be Murthy. One is idolized; the other is resented. But without the Murthys, there would be no Musks. Without the 70-hour workweeks, there would be nothing.
So, keep pretending hard work is outdated.
The ones who don’t will own everything.