Principle: Laziness, in of itself, is not a sin

by phil on Friday Aug 1, 2008 4:21 PM

This is something I've been thinking about lately, especially in regards to concepts such as Flow and autotelism. I've decided to be a little bit of a "lazy" programmer, which doesn't harm anybody but me since I own everything I make. But basically the way to be a "lazy" programmer, is to spend the most time on things that are fun/easy and ignore or downgrade the features I don't care about. The result is that I end up perfecting the features that I'm best at, and the other features become just satisfactory. If the work I do succeeds, it will be by virtue of the work that I cared about the most, and so I will naturally get more projects that cater to that competency.

Laziness can lead to problems, let's say, if you're too lazy to make an appointment. But, I don't think the onus is on the laziness. I think the onus is on you scheduling something you can't keep.

I don't think there's anything noble in having your life filled with permanent struggle and self-sacrifice. I do believe in some sacrifice for some causes, but to spend your whole life in an aggressive "making it" mode, is a form of self-annihilation to me.

Comments

Rahul said on August 19, 2008 3:12 PM:

Henry Ford, when attempting to improve his initial versions of the assembly line, would put the laziest man in company on the job, and observe his actions, inactions, and choices for how to use his time and energy. This would provide Ford with the info he needed to make his assembly lines more efficient.