Laziness

Laziness is the lack of desire to perform work or expend effort. What behavior is considered laziness varies according to personal and societal standards. Chronic laziness may be an underlying psychological condition.

Feelings of laziness may be a symptom of clinical depression or listlessness.

Intellectual laziness

The expression "intellectual laziness" is used to describe a tendency to not ask questions or investigate thoroughly, applying a kind of mental routine (availability heuristic) or just following the crowd (herd behavior).

In Philosophies and Religions

Christianity

One of the seven deadly sins in Christian thought is sloth, which is often defined as spiritual and/or physical apathy or laziness. Sloth is recommended against in the Letter to the Hebrews (Hebrews 6:12), and associated with wickedness in one of the parables of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew ({Matthew 25:26). In the sapiential books of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, it is stated that laziness can lead to poverty (Proverbs 10:4, Ecclesiastes 10:18).

Literature related to laziness

• Carl Honore: In Praise of Slowness, 2005, ISBN 0-06-075051-0
• Paul Lafargue (transl. Len Bracken): The Right To Be Lazy (1883) ISBN 1-892355-03-5
• Corinne Maier:
  • Hello Laziness! - Why Hard Work Doesn't Pay, 2005, ISBN 0-7528-7186-2
  • Bonjour Laziness! - How to Work as Little as Possible (Just Like the French), 2005, ISBN 0-375-42373-7
  • Bonjour paresse - De l'art et la nécessité d'en faire le moins possible en entreprise, 2004, ISBN 2-84186-231-3
• Bertrand Russell: In Praise of Idleness - And Other Essays, 1935, ISBN 0-415-32506-4
• John Steinbeck: The Log from the Sea of Cortez, 1951, ISBN 0141186070.
  • "Only in laziness can one achieve a state of contemplation which is a balancing of values, a weighing of oneself against the world, and the world against itself."

See also

• Lazy evaluation
• The Idler (1993)
• Acedia
• Procrastination
• Senioritis
• Couch potato
• Slacker
• Bludger