07/11/2026
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For a lot of office workers—OK, mostly middle-aged male office workers—a manicured lawn is as much a status symbol as a luxury car in the driveway.
Excelling at work and yardwork fits the modern professional’s fixation on optimizing everything. The office biohacker who won’t shut up about his sleep score may also blab about nitrogen levels in his soil.
Like a killer golf swing or rock-hard glutes, a perfect lawn is a way for people who make a living with their minds to prove they are good at something physical too.
And there’s a hidden financial flex. Hiring landscapers can achieve the same aesthetic and flash disposable income. But a trendy personal-finance axiom is that there are three levels of wealth: mowing your own lawn, paying someone else to do it, then…mowing your own lawn.
🔗 Read more from columnist Callum Borchers: https://on.wsj.com/3R0wxtu
