What if someone told you that laziness is a lie?
Click start to play today’s Spell It, where “laze” is one of the words you can spot.
The word “lazy” originated in the 1540s in England and was used to mean someone who disliked effort or work. It came about from either the Middle Low German “lasich”, meaning feeble or weak, or from the Old English “lesu”, meaning false or evil. Inherently, lazy people are equated with being weak, lacking motivation, and even being morally corrupt.
But according to US-based Devon Price, author of the book Laziness Does Not Exist, most of the things we classify as laziness, such as procrastination, are driven by perfectionism or anxiety. Someone who is too “lazy” to start their research paper may actually be anxious about getting the job done perfectly. So, are they truly lazy?
The laziness lie is a belief system around the world that thinks of hard work as being morally superior to relaxation; less productive people then, have less inherent value in society than more productive people. In this belief system, rest and self-care is thought of as a means to make ourselves more productive.
But the fact is, doing nothing is also part of life. And it’s an important part – it helps people get the rest and relaxation they need for their mental health, without judgment.
According to Price, because of the laziness lie, most employers don’t trust their employees – they think their workers are secretly lazy and need to be monitored and coerced often to be productive. But according to US-based business magazine Harvard Business Review, data shows that productivity went up by 40 per cent during the pandemic, where most people were left to their own devices, and were working away from supervision, from home.
One of the biggest assumptions in this kind of belief system is that people tend to moralise work. Productivity is considered to be moral and doing nothing is immoral. So, if you feel guilty just sitting still and reflecting, it’s likely because you are committed to always feeling a sense of urgency, and think that being productive makes you a better person.
But according to Price, you don’t owe anything to anyone. Every living thing has worth and we’re all part of the same universe. Take pets for example – most don’t do anything productive. They sleep, eat, gnaw on things and like to be petted. Still, their owners love them for the mere fact that they exist.
If we do the same for each other – think that everyone is worthy, no matter what they do – it becomes easier to break away from the laziness lie, and live without judgment.
What do you think about the concept? Play today’s Spell It and tell us at games@gulfnews.com.
