In Praise of Underachieving: Why Low Expectations Rule
Saturday, March 22, 2025
If ambition is the espresso shot of capitalism, underachievement is the warm cup of chamomile tea you sip while everyone else is bouncing off the walls and sweating through their dress shirts.
You are not racing. You are not optimizing. You are simply vibing. And contrary to popular belief, vibing can be virtuous.
Welcome to the gentle, rebellious philosophy of underachieving—where mediocrity isn’t a failure, but a survival tactic wrapped in a soft hoodie of wisdom.
Chapter 1: The Tyranny of Potential
From the moment you could hold a crayon, someone probably looked at you and said, “You’ve got so much potential.” Which is a lovely compliment, until it becomes a life sentence.
Suddenly, every test score, every extracurricular, every summer camp is an audition for an imagined future where you cure cancer and launch a wellness app and marry someone with a high IQ and delicious cheekbones.
But you didn’t ask for that. You were just really into dinosaurs and macaroni art.
“Potential” is ambition in disguise. It’s a beautiful way to say, “You could be more.” And when that’s all you hear, eventually, being enough starts to feel like failure.
Underachievers know this. They say, “Thanks, but I think I’ll sit this one out.” And then they go home to bake banana bread.
Chapter 2: The Science of Not Trying So Hard
Let’s get this out of the way: underachieving does not mean doing nothing. It means doing just enough to meet your needs—and refusing to light yourself on fire to warm your boss’s yacht.
Studies in positive psychology show that hedonic adaptation—our tendency to return to a stable level of happiness regardless of external achievements—makes the relentless pursuit of success feel a lot like a treadmill: sweaty, repetitive, and ultimately going nowhere (Brickman & Campbell, 1971).
Meanwhile, people who focus on intrinsic goals—connection, meaning, autonomy—report higher levels of life satisfaction than those chasing status or wealth (Kasser & Ryan, 1996).
Underachievers are simply playing the long game. While everyone else is burning out, they’re burning incense.
Chapter 3: Productivity Is a Scam (Sorry, Not Sorry)
Let’s talk about “productivity,” the golden calf of the modern workplace.
Time-tracking apps. Bullet journals. 5 a.m. cold plunges. All designed to turn you into a machine that smiles. But machines break. And unlike your laptop, you can’t be fixed by turning yourself off and on again.
Underachievers understand that doing less doesn’t mean caring less. It means prioritizing sanity over spreadsheets.
In fact, economist John Pencavel (2014) found that working more than 50 hours a week actually reduces productivity. After 55 hours, it’s basically just cosplay.
The underachiever’s motto? “I could do more—but why?”
Chapter 4: The Joy of Low Expectations
There’s a strange, underrated superpower in expecting very little.
When you don’t assume the party will be amazing, the chips will be salty and the conversation tolerable.
When you don’t assume your job will fulfill you, a decent paycheck and non-lethal coworkers feel like a miracle.
It’s not cynicism—it’s freedom.
It allows you to stop chasing glittering outcomes and start noticing small, quiet pleasures: the smell of toast, the feel of sunlight on your neck, the sound of a friend laughing at your dumb joke about yogurt.
Underachievers have discovered that contentment is not the consolation prize—it’s the whole damn game.
Chapter 5: Rewriting the Résumé of a Life
Let’s reframe what success might look like for an intentional underachiever:
Made a good sandwich and enjoyed it.
Never went viral, but once got 17 likes from real friends.
Took care of their plants and their mental health.
Said no to things they didn’t want to do, including networking brunches.
Had a nervous system that didn’t need six hours of decompression every night.
That résumé won’t get you into a Fortune 500 company. But it might get you into a life that doesn’t feel like punishment.
Chapter 6: The Future Belongs to the Softly Defiant
Here’s the big twist: underachievers might just be the evolutionary vanguard.
They’re conserving energy during uncertain and even treacherous times, building lives of resilience and joy.
They’re immune to the false gods of performance metrics. And in a world lurching toward climate collapse, economic precarity, and attention fragmentation, perhaps the most revolutionary thing you can do is not be just another hustling fool..
To underachieve is to opt out of the game without leaving the field. It’s to play by rules no one taught you—because they’re based on what actually matters.
Tell Your Inner Overachiever to Go Lie Down
You will not be the most impressive person in the room.
You will not write a novel and raise backyard chickens and run a nonprofit on your lunch break.
You might never own a home. You may never own a decent lawn.
But you will be alive. Breathing. Laughing.
Making slightly burnt grilled cheese sandwiches for you and your beloved and feeling oddly proud of them.
You will be human, if not heroic. And that might be the best achievement of all.
Be Well, Stay Kind, and Godspeed.
REFERENCES:
Brickman, P., & Campbell, D. T. (1971). Hedonic relativism and planning the good society. In M.H. Appley (Ed.), Adaptation-level theory (pp. 287-302). Academic Press.
Kasser, T., & Ryan, R. M. (1996). Further examining the American dream: Differential correlates of intrinsic and extrinsic goals. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 22(3), 280–287. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167296223006
Pencavel, J. (2014). The productivity of working hours. The Economic Journal, 125(589), 2052–2076. https://doi.org/10.1111/ecoj.12166