The Lazy Way to Success

We've moved

2005-02-28T15:34:00.000-06:00

Our new blog home is http://lazyway.blogs.com/lazy_way. Please come for a visit. See you there.

Brain Imaging, Part 2

2005-01-14T10:22:00.000-06:00

In another study it was shown that after one has learned a task so well that it has become effortless and automatic, the brain is actually doing much less to accomplish it.

Mother Nature has programmed our brains so they naturally tend toward doing less to accomplish more.

Perhaps she would prefer we spent our mental energy on things that have infinitely more evolutionary value than work.

Fred
www.lazyway.net

Brain Imaging and Bart Simpson

2005-01-14T09:40:00.000-06:00

Brain imaging studies have shown that the brains of intelligent people actually DO LESS while they are solving problems than their less intelligent counterparts. If that isn't a serious indictment against the work ethic, I don't know what is. It seems that the most advanced scientific research on the brain says that hard work is an indication of lesser intelligence.

I guess science has finally validated Bart Simpson when he said, "I am through with working. Working is for chumps." (The Simpsons: Three Men and a Comic Book)

Fred
www.lazyway.net

2005-01-13T16:11:00.000-06:00

Picture in The New York Times on front page of Style Section, Sunday January 2, 2005.

The New York Times Notices the Lazy Way

2005-01-13T16:00:00.000-06:00

A reporter for The New York Times, called me after reading my book and said it was "a genius notion." Even though I made a heartfelt appeal that he include those exact words in his article, he took a more objective route. In any case, having my book mentioned, quoted, and photographed in the New York Times definitely brought the hometown fans to their feet. Click here to see the article.

Fred
www.lazyway.net

Laziness Gets a Makeover

2005-01-12T13:30:00.000-06:00

Unfortunately, the term "laziness" has been stigmatized with negative connotations. The word is tinged with overtones of sloppiness, and physical lethargy, and mental dullness, and spiritual vulnerability (as in "idle hands are the Devil’s workshop"). Fueling this distorted stereotype are the world’s work-worshippers as they incessantly link laziness with losing.

It’s a bad rap. We all know that there is a highly creative side to laziness. We know laziness as the driving force behind all progress in life. After all, it was Benjamin Franklin himself who said, “I am the laziest man in the world. I invented all those things to save myself from toil.”

In this light, we decided that the word "laziness" needed a makeover to bring out its inner beauty, so we coined a few descriptive terms of our own.

Behold – The New Laziness!

The New Laziness is "smart-lazy."

(Or, if you are a Jimi Hendrix fan, "foxy-lazy.")

The New Laziness is also contributing a vital, dictionary-balancing word that has been painfully missing from our work-obsessed culture – "playaholic."

Who would not want to be one, especially since it is the key attribute that most consistently brings success?

Yes, indeed, the paradigm is shifting. And "neo-lazyism" will lead the way.

Fred
www.lazyway.net

An Anti-Work, Pro-Idleness Exposition

2005-01-11T14:30:00.000-06:00

Mark Slouka, who teaches in Columbia University’s School of the Arts, wrote a powerful essay for the November 2004 issue of Harper’s Magazine. It is entitled “Quitting the Paint Factory: On the virtues of idleness. This is a beautiful way to kick off this blog.

Fred
www.lazyway.net

Welcome

2005-01-11T14:25:00.000-06:00

Welcome to our blog where we enthusiastically fly in the face of conventional thinking and declare to the world that hard work is a fraud.

Needless to say, we have all been hearing since birth that hard work is virtuous. It is treated as an unassailable truth. But it is false. Hard work has nothing to do with success. It doesn’t produce success. It doesn’t sustain success. And it certainly doesn’t reverse a failure.

Accomplishment creates success. Not hard work. And if you can find easier, more effective ways of accomplishing things, your chances of success are exponentially greater than if you worked hard. When people say they are working hard, it can only mean that they aren’t using their intelligence or creativity to find an easier, more effective way of achieving the same thing. There is always an easier, more effective way. You just need to know how and where to look.

Finding the magical way where doing less accomplishes more is the secret. In this blog we will examine this style of functioning and explore this new science of problem solving.

I look forward to receiving your intellectual, creative, philosophical, academic, artistic, energetic, emotional, and spiritual contributions to this site. The time has come for the world to reject work and, as a result, enjoy greater health, peace, and prosperity.

Let the fun begin,
Fred
www.lazyway.net

2004-12-25T12:46:00.000-06:00

Picture from Des Moines Register