Yes, I do think people today — particularly in the last decade or so — are becoming less patient when it comes to achieving success, and the evidence points to a noticeable cultural shift in that direction.
The core driver is the rise of instant gratification culture, heavily amplified by social media, apps, on-demand services, and the constant stream of highlight-reel success stories (overnight entrepreneurs, viral creators, lottery-like crypto/NFT wins, etc.). This creates an illusion that meaningful success can (and should) arrive quickly, often within months rather than years or decades.
Many recent articles and expert opinions describe this as a growing problem:
Instant gratification is seen as hindering long-term progress by reducing tolerance for slow, consistent effort.
People increasingly quit pursuits before the real rewards compound because results don’t come fast enough.
Patience is frequently called a “lost virtue” or “superpower” in the 2020s, with delayed gratification still strongly linked to actual success (echoing classic studies like the Marshmallow Test, but now framed against modern tech-driven impatience).
Social media plays a huge role here. It redefines success around visible, material markers (followers, luxury lifestyles, rapid career jumps) and shows only the end results — rarely the years of unseen grinding. This warps expectations, especially for younger people, leading to dissatisfaction, higher anxiety about “falling behind,” and a sense that if success isn’t happening quickly, something’s wrong.
Gen Z, in particular, enters the workforce with pragmatic but accelerated timelines: strong emphasis on work-life balance, purpose, and financial security early on, but often with shorter expected tenures in roles and less willingness to “pay dues” for decades like previous generations. Studies show they prioritize career achievement highly but are also more anxious about money and timelines, partly because constant exposure to curated “success” raises the bar unrealistically.
That said, it’s not universal. Many high-achievers still explicitly value long-term consistency, discipline, and patience — and research continues to show those traits predict better outcomes in careers, wealth, and well-being. The people who succeed sustainably often deliberately resist the instant-gratification trap.
Overall, society has tilted toward less patience for success because the environment rewards (and trains us for) speed and visibility. But the people who buck that trend — by embracing longer horizons — tend to come out ahead in the end. The data and commentary from the mid-2020s suggest this impatience is real and worsening, even if the antidote (patience + compound effort) hasn’t changed.
Always detailed, indeed. Well ❤️ done