I thought it was "ask a busy person", because they just fit in your task with everything else as they are conditioned to do so. Asking a lazy person wouldn't work - they'd just ignore it!
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[Misc] "You're only lazy.."
- Thread starter Swansman
- Start date
You do actually need to want to achieve things but it is entirely healthy to find the quickest and easiest way of doing it involving the minimum of effort. I work in IT and too many people spend their working lives trying to make everyone around them know how busy they are rather than just getting on with it.
- Thread starter
- #45
Plenty of interesting ideas / thoughts / suggestions in this thread. Thanks all, I will try some of it.
I'm not really happy being lazy. I'm able to devote massive amounts of time and energy to things I'm interested in but to do necessary things... there's when the lazyness comes in.
Hah yes. I actually felt "this is a bit heavy so **** this shit for now..." and did indeed go for a little walk.
I dont know if I'm depressed. How do you know such a thing? Sounds awfully inconvenient and workloaded to be depressed though so I dont label myself as such. I'm also not doing a lot of drugs these days but it appears to help **** all.
I'm not really happy being lazy. I'm able to devote massive amounts of time and energy to things I'm interested in but to do necessary things... there's when the lazyness comes in.
Hah yes. I actually felt "this is a bit heavy so **** this shit for now..." and did indeed go for a little walk.
Tom Hark Preston Park
Will Post For Cash
- Jul 6, 2003
- 72,321
At least this site provides our resident Swedish oddball with a reason to get out of bed in the morning. Or at least to wake up and/or login. Bless. Further proof, should any be needed, that NSC can be a force for good as well as evil
It’s a thought provoking thread this, and I do sympathise with you as some of your comments do strike a chord with me.
I’m 36 and to be frank, the career I’ve had to date has totally transcended my academic achievements. I’ve transcended people a lot more academically inclined and well educated than me, including several Oxbridge graduates in my organisation, but it’s not been a conventional ride. I have a few modest GCSE’s to my name, two modest A-levels and though I did initially go to university, I only ever went to a couple of lectures, spending an entire year soaking what I could out of my student loan and playing GTA Vice City. I eventually got a job knocking on doors for British Gas, but would spend most of my days sat in my car doing crosswords as I wasn’t really fussed about the commission. Naturally, that job didn’t last me long.
Sounds lazy, right? And of course it is - but my biggest challenge in life is that I simply cannot concentrate on or motivate myself to do things that I don’t find interesting. This was my problem at school; if I didn’t enjoy a particular subject I would drift off, utterly disinterested. If I had to do work on those subjects, it would be done to the minimum standard just to get by without too much of a telling off. In many cases, doing lines was less laborious than the work itself, so it almost became my strategy in the end.
I’ve never been diagnosed with it, but I suspect I have some form of ADHD. Even as an adult, I can’t sit still for long and have no interest in long running Netflix series’ as I simply don’t have the attention span. My parents had me checked out for both ADHD and autism as a kid, on the advice of my primary school, but the specialist felt otherwise so it was just left there. This was the early 90s though, so who knows. If you met me in a pub, I think you’d probably see me as a pretty ‘normal’ guy (whatever that is), but I do have some character quirks that I do well to obscure and only the people who know me very well, such as my mum or my wife, would ever be aware of. Nothing particularly weird or dark, just unique little ways of doing things, or struggling with some very basic aspects of adult life.
So that’s me - selectively lazy I suppose. I absolutely hate jobs like tidying the house. My brain struggles with where to start, or with the open ended nature of where the things could be put. I’ll avoid chores like that like the plague. Gardening is different - I’ll do the garden because I enjoy it and I see it as more of a linear task. Cut the grass, pull out the weeds, trim the bushes. There’s only one way of doing things.
Generally, in life, if I enjoy something I will absolutely pour my heart into it. Laziness doesn’t come into it - it’s stuff I WANT to do. At school, one thing I did enjoy as a kid was writing stories, and so it follows that I have a reasonable command of the written word which has put me in good stead in my line of business when submitting proposal documents, writing white papers etc. Even today, I do those kind of business related chores very much through the medium of story telling - and it works.
When I was 12, we got the internet and I was fascinated by it. Soon I became obsessed with building my own website, one about Grimsby Town, and from there I began to learn how to build them myself - something not many adolescent kids could do in the 90s. It was basic, but I started early. I threw myself into that over the years - I still did everything other teenagers did in those days like played footy, drank cheap booze with my mates and smoked weed. It was just something I used to fill my downtime with, rather than just watching telly. It also happened that my house at the time was a hotbed of domestic abuse, so it gave me a reason to keep out of the way or take my mind off things that had just happened.
When I left that job with British Gas in the summer of 2004, having become equally sick of academia, unemployment and dead end jobs, I decided to reprise my interest in web design. I uploaded all of the best bits of my work over the years, and sent my CV, almost to no avail, to marketing and design companies all over the north east where I was living at the time. I must have sent my CV to at least 500 businesses. Only one showed any interest, but that was it - my career had begun in earnest. In the 17 years since, I’ve veered away from the design side of things (though it helps I can make a PowerPoint slide prettier than most), but ultimately I’ve very much meandered my way down a path doing things that for the most part I thoroughly enjoy. Without that, I’d have never got this far.
Of course, there are always aspects of my work I don’t enjoy - the slightest thought of admin makes my blood turn cold. But I manage that side of things by writing long lists, and wherever possible tick those jobs off first, in the same way that I still eat all my greens first as I don’t like the taste of them, but once they’re out of the way I can enjoy my meal. Perversely, you get an endorphin response when completing tasks you didn’t enjoy because you know that it’s now done.
Long-winded, I’m sorry. But I think my story is one not so much of overcoming laziness, but rather circumventing it, and I thought it might be helpful. Pursue a path doing things you really enjoy and pour every ounce of energy you have into it - do that, and lethargy doesn’t really come into it. Sounds basic and a little cliche but it’s absolutely true.
Do that, and then do what you have to to compensate for your misgivings, such as laziness. Lists, as basic as they are, are a wonderful thing.
I wish you all the best.
I’m 36 and to be frank, the career I’ve had to date has totally transcended my academic achievements. I’ve transcended people a lot more academically inclined and well educated than me, including several Oxbridge graduates in my organisation, but it’s not been a conventional ride. I have a few modest GCSE’s to my name, two modest A-levels and though I did initially go to university, I only ever went to a couple of lectures, spending an entire year soaking what I could out of my student loan and playing GTA Vice City. I eventually got a job knocking on doors for British Gas, but would spend most of my days sat in my car doing crosswords as I wasn’t really fussed about the commission. Naturally, that job didn’t last me long.
Sounds lazy, right? And of course it is - but my biggest challenge in life is that I simply cannot concentrate on or motivate myself to do things that I don’t find interesting. This was my problem at school; if I didn’t enjoy a particular subject I would drift off, utterly disinterested. If I had to do work on those subjects, it would be done to the minimum standard just to get by without too much of a telling off. In many cases, doing lines was less laborious than the work itself, so it almost became my strategy in the end.
I’ve never been diagnosed with it, but I suspect I have some form of ADHD. Even as an adult, I can’t sit still for long and have no interest in long running Netflix series’ as I simply don’t have the attention span. My parents had me checked out for both ADHD and autism as a kid, on the advice of my primary school, but the specialist felt otherwise so it was just left there. This was the early 90s though, so who knows. If you met me in a pub, I think you’d probably see me as a pretty ‘normal’ guy (whatever that is), but I do have some character quirks that I do well to obscure and only the people who know me very well, such as my mum or my wife, would ever be aware of. Nothing particularly weird or dark, just unique little ways of doing things, or struggling with some very basic aspects of adult life.
So that’s me - selectively lazy I suppose. I absolutely hate jobs like tidying the house. My brain struggles with where to start, or with the open ended nature of where the things could be put. I’ll avoid chores like that like the plague. Gardening is different - I’ll do the garden because I enjoy it and I see it as more of a linear task. Cut the grass, pull out the weeds, trim the bushes. There’s only one way of doing things.
Generally, in life, if I enjoy something I will absolutely pour my heart into it. Laziness doesn’t come into it - it’s stuff I WANT to do. At school, one thing I did enjoy as a kid was writing stories, and so it follows that I have a reasonable command of the written word which has put me in good stead in my line of business when submitting proposal documents, writing white papers etc. Even today, I do those kind of business related chores very much through the medium of story telling - and it works.
When I was 12, we got the internet and I was fascinated by it. Soon I became obsessed with building my own website, one about Grimsby Town, and from there I began to learn how to build them myself - something not many adolescent kids could do in the 90s. It was basic, but I started early. I threw myself into that over the years - I still did everything other teenagers did in those days like played footy, drank cheap booze with my mates and smoked weed. It was just something I used to fill my downtime with, rather than just watching telly. It also happened that my house at the time was a hotbed of domestic abuse, so it gave me a reason to keep out of the way or take my mind off things that had just happened.
When I left that job with British Gas in the summer of 2004, having become equally sick of academia, unemployment and dead end jobs, I decided to reprise my interest in web design. I uploaded all of the best bits of my work over the years, and sent my CV, almost to no avail, to marketing and design companies all over the north east where I was living at the time. I must have sent my CV to at least 500 businesses. Only one showed any interest, but that was it - my career had begun in earnest. In the 17 years since, I’ve veered away from the design side of things (though it helps I can make a PowerPoint slide prettier than most), but ultimately I’ve very much meandered my way down a path doing things that for the most part I thoroughly enjoy. Without that, I’d have never got this far.
Of course, there are always aspects of my work I don’t enjoy - the slightest thought of admin makes my blood turn cold. But I manage that side of things by writing long lists, and wherever possible tick those jobs off first, in the same way that I still eat all my greens first as I don’t like the taste of them, but once they’re out of the way I can enjoy my meal. Perversely, you get an endorphin response when completing tasks you didn’t enjoy because you know that it’s now done.
Long-winded, I’m sorry. But I think my story is one not so much of overcoming laziness, but rather circumventing it, and I thought it might be helpful. Pursue a path doing things you really enjoy and pour every ounce of energy you have into it - do that, and lethargy doesn’t really come into it. Sounds basic and a little cliche but it’s absolutely true.
Do that, and then do what you have to to compensate for your misgivings, such as laziness. Lists, as basic as they are, are a wonderful thing.
I wish you all the best.
Last edited:
StonehamPark
#Brighton-Nil
Cheeky Monkey
Well-known member
- Jul 17, 2003
- 23,868
I'm wicked and I'm lazy
Oh oh, don't you wanna save me
I'm lazy when I'm lovin', I'm lazy when I play
I'm lazy with my girlfriend a thousand times a day
I'm lazy when I'm speaking, I'm lazy when I walk
I'm lazy when I'm dancin' and I'm lazy when I talk
I open up my mouth, it comes rushin' out
Nothin', doin' nadda, never, how you like me now?
Wouldn't it be mad, wouldn't it be fine
Lazy, lucky lady, dancin', lovin' all the time
I'm wicked and I'm lazy
Oh oh, don't you wanna save me
Some folks they got money an' some folks lives are sweet
Some folks make decisions an' some folks clean the streets, now
Imagine what it feels like, imagine how it sounds
Imagine life is perfect an' everything works out
No tears are fallin' from my eyes
I'm keepin' all the pain inside
Now don't you wanna live with me?
I'm lazy as a man can be!
I'm wicked and I'm lazy
Oh oh, don't you wanna save me
Imagine there's a girlfriend, imagine there's a job
Imagine there's an answer, imagine there's a God
Imagine I'm a Devil, imagine I'm a Saint
Lazy money, lazy sexy, lazy outta space!
No tears are fallin' from my eyes
I'm keepin' all the pain inside
Now don't you wanna live with me?
I'm lazy as a man can be!
I'm wicked and I'm lazy
Oh oh, don't you wanna save me
Lazy when I work, lazy on the bed
Screamin' all you like, but it only fades away
I'm lazy when I'm prayin', lazy on the job
Got a lazy mind, a lazy eye, a lazy lazy father
Hard men, hard lives
Hard keepin' it all inside
Good times, good God
I'm so lazy I almost stop!
I'm wicked and I'm lazy
Oh oh, don't you wanna save me
I'm wicked and I'm lazy
Oh oh, don't you wanna save me
Oh oh, don't you wanna save me
I'm lazy when I'm lovin', I'm lazy when I play
I'm lazy with my girlfriend a thousand times a day
I'm lazy when I'm speaking, I'm lazy when I walk
I'm lazy when I'm dancin' and I'm lazy when I talk
I open up my mouth, it comes rushin' out
Nothin', doin' nadda, never, how you like me now?
Wouldn't it be mad, wouldn't it be fine
Lazy, lucky lady, dancin', lovin' all the time
I'm wicked and I'm lazy
Oh oh, don't you wanna save me
Some folks they got money an' some folks lives are sweet
Some folks make decisions an' some folks clean the streets, now
Imagine what it feels like, imagine how it sounds
Imagine life is perfect an' everything works out
No tears are fallin' from my eyes
I'm keepin' all the pain inside
Now don't you wanna live with me?
I'm lazy as a man can be!
I'm wicked and I'm lazy
Oh oh, don't you wanna save me
Imagine there's a girlfriend, imagine there's a job
Imagine there's an answer, imagine there's a God
Imagine I'm a Devil, imagine I'm a Saint
Lazy money, lazy sexy, lazy outta space!
No tears are fallin' from my eyes
I'm keepin' all the pain inside
Now don't you wanna live with me?
I'm lazy as a man can be!
I'm wicked and I'm lazy
Oh oh, don't you wanna save me
Lazy when I work, lazy on the bed
Screamin' all you like, but it only fades away
I'm lazy when I'm prayin', lazy on the job
Got a lazy mind, a lazy eye, a lazy lazy father
Hard men, hard lives
Hard keepin' it all inside
Good times, good God
I'm so lazy I almost stop!
I'm wicked and I'm lazy
Oh oh, don't you wanna save me
I'm wicked and I'm lazy
Oh oh, don't you wanna save me
1066familyman
Radio User
- Jan 15, 2008
- 15,233
As long as you're healthy and happy, is there anything intrinsically wrong with laziness? Of course, I'm not advocating staying in bed all day and wasting your life away. But if you're seeing friends, having fun and spending time doing what you enjoy, that's not a bad way to live.
I agree with my man Bertrand (disclaimer: I read this almost 20 years ago so can't say for sure that I fully support all views expressed)
In Praise of Idleness
By Bertrand Russell
Like most of my generation, I was brought up on the saying “Satan finds some mischief still for idle hands to do.” Being a highly virtuous child, I believed all that I was told and acquired a conscience which has kept me working hard down to the present moment. But although my conscience has controlled my actions, my opinions have undergone a revolution. I think that there is far too much work done in the world, that immense harm is caused by the belief that work is virtuous, and that what needs to be preached in modern industrial countries is quite different from what always has been preached.
https://harpers.org/archive/1932/10/in-praise-of-idleness/
This is also one of my favourite books. Antiquated language in many of the essays, but his philosophy in the essay, In Praise of Idleness, is spot on for me.
It should be noted that The Protestant Work Ethic that gave birth to the Capitalist shitstem that we all live under has a lot to answer for.
[MENTION=17745]Poojah[/MENTION], your post is brilliant. Lots to empathise and agree with there, notably the idea of managing the jobs you absolutely hate. You tap into some ideas that have already been touted and I think are the key to successfully managing your life - those that certainly work for me: write lists, learn to attack the items on the list you least enjoy, first. The remainder then takes care of itself.