New survey data suggests young adults are reevaluating the value of ambition, with emotional sustainability taking precedence over career advancement.
A growing share of young adults no longer see ambition as a defining virtue, according to new internal research from the Hint App, reflecting a broader cultural retreat from hustle-driven identity and an intensifying backlash against burnout. In a survey conducted by the Hint App among 2,137 users aged 18 to 34 across the United States and the United Kingdom, 46% said they no longer identify as ambitious, while a further 31% said ambition now feels emotionally unsafe or unsustainable.
The findings arrive amid sustained debate around anti-work movements, “soft life” culture, and the visible mental health toll of productivity-maximisation narratives. While previous generations often framed ambition as a moral good or social obligation, the Hint App’s data suggests younger cohorts increasingly associate it with anxiety, exhaustion, and loss of personal agency.
When asked directly whether they still felt ambitious, only 23% of respondents answered unambiguously yes. By contrast, 52% said they prioritise emotional stability over career progression, and 41% said they would actively choose a lower-paying role if it offered predictable hours and psychological safety. According to the Hint App’s analysis, this shift appears less about disengagement and more about redefining success away from external validation.
User behaviour within the Hint App platform mirrors these attitudes. Over the past twelve months, engagement with career-related insights declined by 18% among users under 30, while sessions tagged to burnout, emotional exhaustion, and decision paralysis increased by 34%. Relationship and life-alignment readings now dominate usage in this age group, suggesting a turn inward rather than upward.
Kirill Liakh, managing director of the Hint App, views the trend as a rational response to structural pressure rather than generational apathy. “What we are seeing is not a loss of drive, but a recalibration,” he said. “Many young people grew up watching ambition lead to chronic stress, unstable employment, and emotional depletion. Rejecting that model is not laziness. It is self-preservation.”
The data also challenge assumptions that anti-ambition equates to disengagement from work altogether. In the same survey, 67% of respondents said they still care deeply about doing meaningful work, but 58% said traditional career ladders feel incompatible with long-term wellbeing. The disconnect, the Hint App suggests, lies between personal values and economic structures that reward constant acceleration.
Kirill noted that symbolic and reflective tools have gained relevance precisely because they operate outside performance metrics. “When people stop measuring their worth through output, they look for other frameworks to understand timing, direction, and emotional readiness,” he said. “That does not replace work or responsibility, but it reframes how people relate to them.”
Culturally, the findings align with the visibility of burnout discourse across social platforms and the normalisation of slower, less extractive lifestyles. Unlike earlier workplace rebellions focused on salary or perks, the current shift appears more existential, questioning whether ambition itself should remain central to identity formation.
The Hint App’s research suggests this perspective is unlikely to be short-lived. Among respondents who identified as non-ambitious, 71% said they did not expect their attitude to change, even if economic conditions improved. For editors tracking generational narratives, the data points to a durable redefinition of success that challenges long-standing assumptions about motivation, productivity, and progress.
As Kirill put it, “This generation is not opting out of life. It is opting out of a version of ambition that no longer feels human.”
The implications extend beyond career culture into how younger adults make decisions, form relationships, and imagine the future. If ambition once structured adult life, the Hint App’s data indicates that emotional sustainability may now be taking its place.
About Hint App:
Hint App is a symbolic, emotional insight platform with over 1.2 million users that combines ancient practices such as astrology, palmistry, and visual soulmate interpretations with modern technology, including artificial intelligence and NASA astronomical data, to deliver highly personalized reports based on a user’s exact birth details. Rather than offering predictions or quick fixes, Hint App serves as a reflective framework, helping individuals map emotional patterns, understand the deeper timing behind personal and relationship decisions, and reconnect with their inner clarity.
Hint App is a symbolic, emotional insight platform with over 1.2 million users that combines ancient practices such as astrology, palmistry, and visual soulmate interpretations with modern technology, including artificial intelligence and NASA astronomical data, to deliver highly personalized reports based on a user’s exact birth details. Rather than offering predictions or quick fixes, Hint App serves as a reflective framework, helping individuals map emotional patterns, understand the deeper timing behind personal and relationship decisions, and reconnect with their inner clarity.
Media Contact:
Hint America Inc.
pr@hint.app
Leigh Roberts
PR manager
Hint America Inc.
pr@hint.app
Leigh Roberts
PR manager