Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
Quote of the Day: Are You Lazy?
“They say I’m lazy but it takes all my time.” — Joe Walsh, Life’s Been Good to Me So Far
“Progress isn’t made by early risers. It’s made by lazy men trying to find easier ways to do something.” — Robert Heinlein, Time Enough for Love
Heinlein’s quote had an early effect on me. In the story of the lazy man from Time Enough for Love, I came to appreciate the idea that if one did less work and accomplished more, that was a good thing. Productivity, or “finding easier ways to do something” is a huge driver of improving life for the whole human race. At my company at least, it is being supplemented by the question, “do we even need to do that?” We will see how that goes.
And I would say that a good boss is a lazy boss. As a servant leader, the measure of success is getting the job done, period. And it should be the team that does it. There is activity required of the leader, but as a lazy leader, one helps the team solve the problem but does not solve it for them. See Jon Gabriel’s post from 2017.
As far as Joe Walsh’s line goes, it is one of my favorite lines from a favorite song.
.
Published in Group Writing
I have aspired to laziness all my life.
This is the Quote of the Day, and it’s a twofer. If you have a quotation you’d like to share, why not do it like a synchronized swim team with every move in order? You can sign up for a date on our sign-up sheet right now.
But too lazy to do what is needed to achieve it?
No, too energetic.
During one of my many annual performance reviews, I had one supervisor tell me I need to look “more busy.” My problem was that I tried to find the most effective way to get my assigned tasks and duties done so I’d be free to do other things, some job related, some not. He was a little miffed next time he walked by my cubicle and saw the sign “Look busy” pinned to the wall . . .
Just lie down until that goes away.
I have always held this opinion myself. And I practice it every day.
Agree with Heinlein
That’s a good response to a sadly misguided request. Now that we are all working from home, all one must do to look busy is to move the mouse on your work computer every 15 minutes or so.
If only she were a male, that could be my personal avatar. That’s been my philosophy of life for a few years.
I believe it was Bob the Dinosaur in Dilbert who said that given time most of your problems would go away. I’m pretty certain he’s right, the difficulty comes in discerning which problems will go away and which need to be fixed.
My dad always said “Worrying works! 90% of the things I worry about never happen.”
There’s a utility to do that for you. MouseJiggle
So I suppose inheriting from my Mother a tendency to overthink and worry about many things isn’t so bad….
There you go. A lazy person delivering the goods for all of us!
I use it when I’m watching Plex, so the screen doesn’t turn off.
I may have used it in the past so Lync wouldn’t say I was inactive for a certain jerk client in Monterey Park…
Our cats would take care of that . . .
He is male. He’s just identifying as female for the comment . . .
Laziness is the mother of a lot of inventions
not all but a lot
I had one whose management style was to stare at you for fifteen minutes (open office plan) to see if you looked busy. He told me I was looking up too much, not staring head down in the case files. I told him it’s called “thinking.” We called him “Lee” behind his back because he looked like Lee Harvey Oswald.
A lazy boss is a good boss because he doesn’t micromanage and he hates meetings.
The use of “he” is an accident?
Private sector is mostly judged by output.
Government employees have no output. Do they even have input?
To sidetrack, I didn’t read the Lazarus Long series until my late 20s (no, I don’t know why).
By the time I got to Time Enough for Love, I was in Sydney.
That was one of my very first Amazon purchases (on my current account) and I had it shipped to a fraternity brother who was about to come visit, and he brought it to me.
I liked a lot of it, but the creepy fetishization of his mother was off-putting.
Especially the description of her nipples. Which was oddly descriptive.
Say what?
What.
I lived in Sydney from 1999-2002.
Thanks, Sydney.
Useful animals. Sometimes.
True. Many are just ground out.
I often find myself spending a lot of time building a good automated and/or efficient process and spend more time creating it than I save. But it’s the challenge!
I had forgotten that. I liked the story about the orphan he ends up marrying and building a new settlement across the mountains. And the one about the lazy guy, of course.