The short answer is no. You don’t need a side hustle. You need enough money to pay your bills and enough time to not want to scream into a pillow every Tuesday morning. If your main job covers the bills and you actually enjoy having a hobby that doesn’t involve a spreadsheet, feel free to close this tab and go take a nap. You’ve earned it.

The short answer is no, the side hustle isn’t dead, but the version of it you see on TikTok, where a 22-year-old in a rented Lamborghini tells you to "just drop-ship" your way to freedom, is a steaming pile of nonsense.