Re my quest for laziness, ttl pointed out this video'd lecture. Carl Honore: Slowing down in a world built for speed. Warmly recommended.
Some of those suffering the most under today's super-pressure are children and teens. A Scottish school banned homework for kids under thirteen. Of course the parents were horrified, but it turns out exame results not only did not suffer, but actually improved.
Hey Eolake, thanks for the pointer. I blogged about it, you, and an idea that resulted.
ReplyDeleteCheers,
Gandalfe
I have summers off (I work in the school system) and I allow myself enormous free time. I have a little part-time job, 15 hours a week, and we live/eat very simply. I have been having the best, healthiest summer of my life, hiking everywhere, exploring this whole area of wilderness. I am consciously letting go of my need for distracting activities and money, and started meditating in my chair at night in lieu of watching movies and drinking wine. Just let it go, and I am finding a whole new integrity in myself where entertainment drops away.
ReplyDeleteMy boss, a self-proclaimed work-aholic, says he realized recently that his speeded up mind is always on overdrive, and that even when talking with people he rarely listens. He doesn't really "hear" who people are. He just got a tatoo on the inside of his wrist, the word "listen."
Laurie
I've always been big on the idea of not working. It always seemed silly to me. The basic premise.
ReplyDeleteThis new book, "The 4-Hour Work Week," is right up my alley. Anyone read it? I'm going to try to implement some of it.
I love working. But only on my own terms and only on the projects I choose.
ReplyDeleteI too am looking into what ideas I can adopt from Timothy Ferriss' book.
It's funny, I just got and read this book a couple of weeks ago. The most important things about the Slow movement are that it's not anti-technology, and it increases productivity and profit, etc.
ReplyDeleteI think it's important to have some kind of work in life that you love and can express yourself through, but "all things in moderation". Work becomes destructive when it becomes your whole life. If you can no longer get your mind off of it, you're overdoing it.
ReplyDeleteIt's a problem when work is the most important thing in your life. It should be important - especially if it's something you love - but shouldn't be placed higher on the list than friends or certainly family.
ReplyDelete4-Hour Work Week 4-Hour Work Week 4-Hour Work Week 4-Hour Work Week
ReplyDelete:)
"Work" for me should be (and I've always thought of it this way) a means to an end. If you're creating great art, then wonderful! Do please work at it. But not for the effort or the "experience" of smelling the paint, feeling the brush in your hand, and standing alone in a big room in SoHo. No, for the canvas, the final product, do it. For me it's always had to be something more mundane -- bringing out a book or publicizing a politician, for example -- and therefore I can only think of my daily work (the kind I get paid for) in terms of effort-to-reward. In other words, "HOW MUCH AM I GETTING PAID? FOR HOW LONG? WHAT? No way, man, that's not a good wage."
I am sure that some day I will find some kind of lucrative behavior that is also enjoyable and fulfilling enough, to me, that I can stand to perform it for the requisite hours a week that will allow me to feed and clothe myself. So far this has not come to pass.
And, beings as I am a terrible actor, people notice that I am "not happy here" and get rid of me. So, not only do I have no work that I love, I also quite often have no work that I hate. And hence often no income.
Paul said...
ReplyDelete"Work becomes destructive when it becomes your whole life. If you can no longer get your mind off of it, you're overdoing it."
Then I'm definitely a sex-a-holic love-a-holic. "But I don't have a problem, I can stop whenever I want. I just don't WANT to right now." ;-)