Thank you for expressing so well what I try to practice and teach as someone who works with learners. This is a landmark piece. Trevor Noah once remarked that “context [rather than content] is king.” You’ve provided an expanded and comprehensible explanation of what lies beyond that statement.
I struggled through high school, and then struggled through my bachelor's degree. Some teachers were empathetic and understanding, others were not. After getting my bachelor's degree, I struggled to find work in my field and eventually gave up. I found that the jobs where I did best were jobs others looked down on--minimum wage, heavy manual labor. People told me I was wasting my degree and my potential... and yet, the manual labor actually made me happy. Recently, I found out I've been dealing with undiagnosed, untreated ADHD all my life... and got my degree in spite of it. The manual labor works for me so well because it works my body and mind in ways that overcome executive dysfunction.... what I've thought of as "laziness" almost all my life. I still wish I felt more able to function in better-paying jobs, but at least now, I don't look down on MYSELF, regardless of what other people think.
I just got stuck into this book and it's as eye-opening to me as when I read Big Magic. It's not that the ideas in Big Magic were new to me, I just thought I was alone in believing them.
That's how I feel reading your book. And it's so clear that the lie is propagated because of our failure as a society to address the damage done by slavery. And therefore we all continue to be enslaved and indentured.
Found you on Amie and James' podcast and I'm so glad. Thank you for this book!
I confess that I've just started reading the book, but I guess that the idea is: if I react so weird that I just do nothing for hours and, in my case, for many years (not working), it means that my workload or burden is too high. And it is my responsibility that I do not do any change. In my case, this is how I participate in the life of my Mom, which makes me unable to function.
Vlad, not necessarily. Finish the book, it's an important work. And I encourage you to continue looking into what laziness means (or doesn't mean).
I don't believe people are lazy, because children will spend 12 hours in a day playing lego or whatever calls to them. Retired people are similar, they get so involved and energized by devoting themselves to something when there is no need for an income from it.
There is nobility in what we do, but our association with effort and work and duty has been twisted by society under-valuing art, overvaluing production, and putting heroes on a pedestal (the famous artist, athletes, scientists, etc.)
We in the West have a distorted view of work because of the unspoken messaging around it. Hard work means you don't want to do it, so why are we doing it? If you like something, you don't do it hard, to quote Sadhguru. You do it with intensity, there is a difference. Find it.
Andrew, thank you so much for your reply, so beautiful. I have so much to get done… I want to try now to recall two words, as often as I can: “financial freedom”. Why am I doing this, or that?… [Because this is a way to a] financial freedom…
Vlad, I don't know about you, but the first 2 chapters of the book hit me the hardest. I finished the whole thing, but they really resonated the most. I know you have (or feel like you have) a lot to do but I highly recommend you get that far in the book. Come back to it later if you have to. You can do it in an afternoon on the weekend or an evening after work
I've been writing my own dissection of social attitudes around laziness as part of a larger piece critiquing work from an anticapitalist environmentalist perspective and just wanted to let you know that your writing has played a big influence on my own. When "Laziness Does Not Exist" was published I was extremely excited - I was already doing my best to refute these attitudes on the job when I encountered them every day, but the book gave me a direction to point people towards. Thanks for your valuable work.
Me too. It's become clear to me since the 2024 election that this corrupt idea of work and productivity has roots in fascism. On the gates of Auschwitz was written, (the English translation) "work shall set you free". That was a lie.
Thank you for this. I had started to come to this line of thought, but reading your explanation really helped. It's a struggle to not only receive the negative judgements of others, but to impose that same criticism on yourself.
I wonder why this essay doesn't didn't get more attention! I loved the idea you've defended here; it gave me a boost to keep doing my things, despite the insecurity and guilt 🤗 Thank you for this!
Thank you for expressing so well what I try to practice and teach as someone who works with learners. This is a landmark piece. Trevor Noah once remarked that “context [rather than content] is king.” You’ve provided an expanded and comprehensible explanation of what lies beyond that statement.
I struggled through high school, and then struggled through my bachelor's degree. Some teachers were empathetic and understanding, others were not. After getting my bachelor's degree, I struggled to find work in my field and eventually gave up. I found that the jobs where I did best were jobs others looked down on--minimum wage, heavy manual labor. People told me I was wasting my degree and my potential... and yet, the manual labor actually made me happy. Recently, I found out I've been dealing with undiagnosed, untreated ADHD all my life... and got my degree in spite of it. The manual labor works for me so well because it works my body and mind in ways that overcome executive dysfunction.... what I've thought of as "laziness" almost all my life. I still wish I felt more able to function in better-paying jobs, but at least now, I don't look down on MYSELF, regardless of what other people think.
I just got stuck into this book and it's as eye-opening to me as when I read Big Magic. It's not that the ideas in Big Magic were new to me, I just thought I was alone in believing them.
That's how I feel reading your book. And it's so clear that the lie is propagated because of our failure as a society to address the damage done by slavery. And therefore we all continue to be enslaved and indentured.
Found you on Amie and James' podcast and I'm so glad. Thank you for this book!
I confess that I've just started reading the book, but I guess that the idea is: if I react so weird that I just do nothing for hours and, in my case, for many years (not working), it means that my workload or burden is too high. And it is my responsibility that I do not do any change. In my case, this is how I participate in the life of my Mom, which makes me unable to function.
Vlad, not necessarily. Finish the book, it's an important work. And I encourage you to continue looking into what laziness means (or doesn't mean).
I don't believe people are lazy, because children will spend 12 hours in a day playing lego or whatever calls to them. Retired people are similar, they get so involved and energized by devoting themselves to something when there is no need for an income from it.
There is nobility in what we do, but our association with effort and work and duty has been twisted by society under-valuing art, overvaluing production, and putting heroes on a pedestal (the famous artist, athletes, scientists, etc.)
We in the West have a distorted view of work because of the unspoken messaging around it. Hard work means you don't want to do it, so why are we doing it? If you like something, you don't do it hard, to quote Sadhguru. You do it with intensity, there is a difference. Find it.
Andrew, thank you so much for your reply, so beautiful. I have so much to get done… I want to try now to recall two words, as often as I can: “financial freedom”. Why am I doing this, or that?… [Because this is a way to a] financial freedom…
Vlad, I don't know about you, but the first 2 chapters of the book hit me the hardest. I finished the whole thing, but they really resonated the most. I know you have (or feel like you have) a lot to do but I highly recommend you get that far in the book. Come back to it later if you have to. You can do it in an afternoon on the weekend or an evening after work
I've been writing my own dissection of social attitudes around laziness as part of a larger piece critiquing work from an anticapitalist environmentalist perspective and just wanted to let you know that your writing has played a big influence on my own. When "Laziness Does Not Exist" was published I was extremely excited - I was already doing my best to refute these attitudes on the job when I encountered them every day, but the book gave me a direction to point people towards. Thanks for your valuable work.
Me too. It's become clear to me since the 2024 election that this corrupt idea of work and productivity has roots in fascism. On the gates of Auschwitz was written, (the English translation) "work shall set you free". That was a lie.
Thank you for this. I had started to come to this line of thought, but reading your explanation really helped. It's a struggle to not only receive the negative judgements of others, but to impose that same criticism on yourself.
I wonder why this essay doesn't didn't get more attention! I loved the idea you've defended here; it gave me a boost to keep doing my things, despite the insecurity and guilt 🤗 Thank you for this!