Hard Work vs. Laziness
March 16th, 2005 by Steve Pavlina
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Brendon Connelly of Slacker Manager has challenged Fred Gratzon and me to a blog showdown. Fred is a long-time entrepreneur and the author of The Lazy Way to Success. I’d never heard of Fred until Brendon issued this challenge, but I’m looking forward to a fun debate. It looks like Brendon will be hosting the challenge in a Q&A format, starting on Monday, March 21.
I think the nature of this debate invitation stems from my posts regarding hard work and self-discipline vs. Fred’s advocacy of laziness as the means to success. I suspect much of our perceived philosophical differences will be nothing more than semantics. Having just read a few of Fred’s blog entries, it seems the way he defines laziness is essentially what I’d define as efficiency. I think Fred and I would both agree that laboring inefficiently when there’s a better way to get things done is pointless. Neither of us would recommend lifting a heavy boulder by hand when you can use a lever instead, or get someone else to move the boulder for you, or redefine the problem so the boulder needn’t be moved at all. So I wonder if what Fred defines as being lazy is equivalent to what I’d define as just being smart.
I’m hoping that we can plunge past these semantic differences and see what lies at the core. Are there fundamental differences in our attitudes towards productivity, or are we basically saying the same things using different words? I suspect there is some fundamental difference, but it may not be that big. My current perspective is that being lazy will only allow you to accomplish a subset of the interesting goals that efficient hard work can produce. Thinking with a mindset of laziness could be beneficial in driving you to find a less labor-intensive method of getting things done. But on the downside it could also limit the experiences you’re capable of having. For example, if you wanted to run a marathon, how would the lazy mindset enable you to accomplish that? Having run one myself, it’s a lot of hard work, and I don’t see how it could be done with a lazy mindset (unless you’re just genetically gifted with monstrous stamina). Would the lazy mindset preclude you from ever setting and achieving such a goal? What other goals would you have to give up because they couldn’t be accomplished the lazy way?
I don’t see that “the lazy way to success” is a complete productivity philosophy on it’s own, but it’s certainly Borg-able (i.e. worthy of assimilation as one of many effective strategies). Hard work is also an incomplete philosophy. Laziness and hard work are like two tools in your productivity toolbox. There are many other tools as well, like communication skills, passion, and planning.
The key is to avoid becoming overly attached to any one tool or philosophy, whether it be laziness or hard work or something else. As I wrote last year, you want to cultivate a complete toolbox of multiple techniques. By embracing both hard work and laziness, you get the best of both worlds (ooh, another Borg pun). You can be lazy (or efficient) when that’s the most effective strategy, and you can work your butt off when that’s likely to produce the best results.
Sometimes an elegant (lazy) solution is best, which might include redefining the problem to eliminate a lot of hard work. Other times brute force hard work is the most viable solution. I can think of many times where I made the mistake of being too clever when a brute force solution would have been better, and I can also recall stupid brute force implementations where a bit more thought would have eliminated the problem entirely.
The challenge is to develop the wisdom to know when to be elegant and when to be brutal.
The closest thing to a panacea I’ve discovered thus far is the concept of defining a purpose for your life. This is equivalent to deciding what the toolbox is for. This decision guides what tools you put in the box, which ones you keep sharp, and which ones you hardly ever use. Laziness may be a more important tool in Fred’s toolbox given the way he defines his life purpose, whereas my purpose may rely on hard work more often. Which of these tools will be most useful in fulfilling your own purpose?
Perhaps the nature of the debate then will be to explore the use of laziness and hard work as different productivity tools and to expose the strengths and weaknesses of each tool. Certainly there are people who could benefit by further developing one or both of these tools.
If you’d like to submit a question for the productivity blog showdown, you may do so by submitting a comment on the blog showdown post at Slacker Manager.
March 16th, 2005 at 3:47 pm
Okay,
The thing is work sucks, most people don’t actually care what they do just so long as they get paid. If you have to sit there and trick yourself into doing your job then you’re probably in the wrong job or business to begin with.
Now if you need a realistic standard of how to calculate how much work should be done for the level of pay you recieve it goes like this. Minimum wage means minimum work; take your salary divide it by minimum wage and that should be the expected level of work from someone.
Now if you think that someone making 40k a year is a lot of money, it isn’t.
It is what is known as “diddly squat”. If you, as a business owner, are worrying about that sayd 40k (which really is closer to 60k with all of the other stuff like computers/software/office/taxes/etc) and the productivity of that 40k. Then you’ve spread yourself too thin on the cash and set your expectations a little too high on what your return will be. Personally, when I hire someone at 40k I expect someone that doesn’t pee on the furniture, gets a moderate amount of paper pushing that I hate to do and takes 2X15 minute breaks/1 hour lunch.
Here’s a phrase that you should ponder on. “If you take care of the dollars, the cents (sense) will take care of themselves.” Get it? If you have your head on straight, bringing in some decent capital and help the people working for you learn their jobs (and still let them be their own people with lives instead of fart catching suck ups) then you get to relax when you take your two weeks off every quarter and phone the office to ask “anything?…no…good, I’ll think about you guys while the cottage with my beer.”
BTW Don’t bother inviting them up to the cottage for a beer. Here’s a clue, give them a cash bonus for not peeing on the furntiture and pushing some paper around. They have their own friends, you have you own friends (I would guess) and neither parties need to be that close as “friends”. You’re their boss, not their friend so a good incentive for pushing more paper around next year is a cash bonus. Making another friend is good but, you know, cash feeds you. Friendship doesn’t, same goes for your business.
March 16th, 2005 at 4:17 pm
Very interesting showdown.
A good way to avoid work is to delegate a lot. If you are an entrepreneur, then you can usually choose which tasks to do yourself and which tasks to delegate.
People who have low energy, like myself, can often get a lot more done in a day if they take breaks often. Just try it, if you have low energy. Breaks help you manage your energy and avoid getting tired easily.
March 16th, 2005 at 10:19 pm
Work on your energy instead. Invest time and be knowledgeable about this topic. You can enhance your energy by food you eat hundredfold. Or by doing stamina sports. But this is just my opinion and my experience. I used to be low energy person also.
I describe more of my feelings about food impact on our bodies at my blog in the signature.
March 16th, 2005 at 10:27 pm
I agree with Neon. I’d see low energy as a sign of a problem, most likely dietary. Different diets can have an amazing effect on energy.
Neon, I notice you run a macrobiotic site. If you don’t mind my asking, what turned you onto macrobiotics originally? I dabbled in macrobiotics a few years ago, and my wife maintains the web site for Real Food Daily, a popular macrobiotic restaurant chain in L.A. I don’t follow the macrobiotic diet strictly, but I do incorporate many macrobiotic principles into my eating habits today, although I replaced many of the cooked macrobiotic foods with raw ones.
March 17th, 2005 at 1:44 am
Taking the time to cook and all requires energy. It’s also an unpleasant task.
So, I take what little energy I have every day and put it into learning (I’m a study freak, I read a lot) and working. If I were truly rich (I decided that $3M in the bank is enough for me to live happily ever after) I would quit working, buy a van, fill it with books and travel through the country, and at the same time read.
Yes, I know, some people attach a spiritual meaning to life, and would probably dedicate their life to others. Me, I’m just a lazy bastard.
Leaving jokes aside, I have to do something about my energy level. It’s very low and it’s been very low in the last 15 years or so. Even had lots of problems in school because of it.
Good thing that I’m an entrepreneur, and I can make a living without having to go to work from 9 to 5 (which is very tiring for me) or to work long hours. I make a lot more than most other developers around me (however, keep in mind that I’m in Eastern Europe). It’s possible to be a successful entrepreneur even if you have low energy, provided that: 1) you study a lot, and are aware of current events so you can make correct, optimal business decisions almost all the time 2) you learn to delegate and then do it a lot.
So hard work is not the only way you can build a company.
However, if I could work hard my company would probably become at least 5x larger.
March 17th, 2005 at 1:57 am
It was my brother who started with macrobiotic in our house. I don’t know exactly what the starting impulse was for me. Many people do try macrobiotic after several problems. I have none problem with my health, I am 24. Maybe the main motivator was the perfect skin of my brother. I started in my 16th and you know there are some skin problems everyone had
But I was still going on and off, eating normal food occasionally. It was until I split up with my gf, she wasn’t willing to sacrifice junk food for better health and I wasn’t strong-minded enough to eat strictly around her. She is young and sees no problem with her health now, so no reason to eat healthy.
It’s very very useful personal quality to see forward, to take a big picture of your life. Even if you have no problems with eating junk food, you will have for sure in the future. There are no shortcuts. Doctors are trying to make them, but it doesn’t pay off in the long run.
I have been 7 months strict macrobiotic now and starting to see the enormous potential of this system. You have to stick with it until your body cleans all the rubbish you have accumulated for years. After then you are getting better and better and you are feeling more energy, you sleep healthy, you are ok with 6 hours of sleep, you wake up very positively motivated and ready to work. Not only ready, but you’ll start to enjoy the work. Because you have enough energy and your body loves to spend it anywhere. It also cleans emotions from the bad ones. You are feeling much stronger, independent, because you really are. You are not afraid about your health, because you really feel how it’s improving. You have eliminated all unnecessary pills. For example here’s interesting characteristic list of healthy person and I can honestly say, this list is 100% true and I am getting all these characteristics “only” by eating healthy.
http://macro808.blogspot.com/2005/03/how-healthy-are-you.html
Steve, what you mean by “I replaced many of the cooked macrobiotic foods with raw ones” ?
Are you eating raw vegetables only? What about wholegrains?
Do you attach big importance to your daily diet? Are you controlling every meal you eat? Or you don’t care and don’t think the food have any much impact?
March 17th, 2005 at 5:49 am
When I tried macrobiotics, I had already been a pure vegan for many years and a lacto-ovo vegetarian for many years before that. I’ve been vegan for over 8 years now (vegetarian for 12 years). I felt no better or worse after several weeks on a macrobiotic diet than I did on any other variation of the vegan diet, so it wasn’t an improvement for me energy-wise. I think it’s a great way of eating if you’re changing to it from a poor diet to begin with, but for me it was no better than other vegan diets.
Macrobiotics consists of mostly cooked (dead) foods like whole grains, soups, and veggie dishes. I’ve personally found better health/energy results from eating more raw (living) foods, i.e. raw fruits and vegetables instead of cooked ones … raw foods like cole slaw, guacamole, and fruit smoothies. I still eat many macrobiotic foods like brown rice, but raw fruits and veggies are a bigger staple of my diet.
March 17th, 2005 at 8:15 am
Don’t you ever feel the urge to sink your teeth into a well cooked and sauced piece of meat?
I’ve been vegetarian for 2 years. In the beginning it was great. I felt better. My mind was more active, etc.
However at the end of the 2 years period I had problems: my mind didn’t work as well as before, I started forgetting things and I started getting sick more often than usual.
I went to 2 doctors and both said that my problems appeared because of a lack of proteins and B vitamins. So I started eating meat again, and the problems (lack of strong immunity, memory problems, thinking problems) improved rapidly.
It may be that different diets are good for different people. For Steve being a vegan may be the best, but for me eating a moderate amount of lean meat may be the best diet.
March 17th, 2005 at 8:19 am
Hello MX, I understand you about leading the business by delegating. I am also self-employed and I can easily imagine my business growth 5x if more work done in the same time. My problem is not that I am being lazy or have no energy, but I can’t simply delegate what I am doing or I don’t know how to do it without side effects. My business is building web pages and making bucks by selling stuff from them. And the information are quite private and the opposite side could copy the system after teaching them and make the same sites of their own, without needing me anymore. I wish I could find a solution to this problem which I think many entrepreneurs have.
Btw would you mind to tell where you from are? I am from Czech.
March 17th, 2005 at 10:28 am
Do I ever crave dead animals? No, never. Not even a little. It’s just the opposite. The thought of putting something like that in my mouth is so disgusting. Trying to eat a piece of dead animal is like going on the TV show Fear Factor and having to eat one of those blended roach-cricket-worm shakes. I don’t think I’d even be able to do it for $50,000 cash … not even one bite of a Big Mac.
I’m just not into eating cats, dogs, pigs, horses, cows, or any other disease-ridden carcasses. No matter how you cook it or what kind of sauce you put on it, it’s still a rotting corpse. Blech!
March 17th, 2005 at 4:54 pm
Steve, plants can have deseases too. Parasites, viruses, bacteria attack plants too.
March 17th, 2005 at 5:24 pm
Neon, I recommend you to read the “How to
delegate work and ensure it’s done right” book
by Dick Lohr. It’s also available as an audio
book and you can listen to it. It’s simply
excellent, and will teach you to delegate
properly.
About your web development business: you are
thinking in “what happens if I delegate this
job to another guy” style. From a business
point of view, this is not the optimal way to
think about it.
Try to think more about where you want to go
with your company:
“I want to have a web development firm which
will consist of myself and 5 employees, and
because of this I ask myself these questions:
1. What compelling advantages can I offer to my
clients?
2. Which of these are advantages that a lone-
gun web designer can not offer? How can I
increase these advantages?
For example, a serious company which wants a
web site may want to work with you simply
because you have a firm, have over 200 clients
served and can provide references, you can give
them a legal invoice, and if the next day the
designer is hit by a bus, there will be someone
to continue the work.
Also being as professional as you can in
communicating and dealing with the client can
put your company ahead of 90% of the web
development freelancers out there.
Delegating means that you don’t have to avoid
unpleasant tasks such as typing text. You can
hire somebody to do it. Many freelancers refuse
to do boring things, so you have an edge over
them.
Try to offer your client full services related
to web development - scanning, photography, on
-going web site maintainance, SEO, Google
AdWords management, e-commerce, PHP
programming, etc.
There are some advantages that a company can
offer and that a lone gun web developer simply
can not offer.
If you offer your clients advantages that
freelancers can’t offer, you can also charge
more for your services.
3. How can my firm work more efficiently than a
lone gun web designer?
For example, if you hire a professional sales
person, the firm will get new web development
clients a lot faster than a lone gun web
developer can.
If you buy a reseller web hosting account which
can host 100 sites, you can offer your clients
inexpensive web hosting that a lone gun web
developer can’t.
4. What advantages can I offer a web developer
that working as a freelancer can’t offer? You
may offer job security - the guarantee that the
developer is paid.”
Other books to read:
E-Myth by Michael Gerber - teaches you
operations management for small businesses -
that is, how to organize your firm. It’s also available in audio book format.
Competitive Strategy-Techniques for analyzing industries and competitors by Michael Porter - the author doesn’t write well and the book is a bore to read, but the ideas are outstanding. It teaches you how to compete successfully.
March 18th, 2005 at 1:02 am
MX, I am really very much thankful for your advices.
I can imagine how it all builds up with a web development firm. And I am really happy to hear such a knowledgeable ideas.
I should had been more accurate while describing my position. I am building web sites but not for my clients, the websites are self alone, stuffed with adverts. The traffic is mainly from SEs which is the main private area I don’t like to share with an employee. I can’t also teach how to make good advertisement that sells, what tricks to use to gather traffic etc.
Only solution that I thought up was to let my employee sign some terms about not using the ideas that he have learnt and not doing the same kind of job for his own which I don’t know if it’s not a comedy and if these terms are possible to be observed.
I was thinking about running the web design firm and building pages for clients, but I decided not to. I would lose my freedom. If I am independent without any crew around me, I am freer to design my days as I like to. Even with delegating, there’s too many hours needed every day to let the wheel spinning, am I right?
Thank you very much for your book tips. Me, avid reader, is very happy for them
Btw could I know what profession are you delegating if you don’t mind?
March 18th, 2005 at 10:50 am
neon: “Only solution that I thought up was to let my employee sign some terms about not using the ideas that he have learnt and not doing the same kind of job for his own which I don’t know if it’s not a comedy and if these terms are possible to be observed.”
In the US there is a very standard “non-competition agreement” that employees sign. Every employer I’ve worked for had me sign one. The document basically says that you will not compete with the employer while you have the job, and there can also be a clause that bars you from doing it for a year (or more) after you leave the job.
March 20th, 2005 at 7:25 pm
Neon:
One idea for your company would be to make sites that require several employees to build. This way no employee would be able to easily steal your idea.
An extreme example is the About.com site. It’s basically a HUGE content site with lots of advertisments. It has over 1.8 million HTML pages. The site has been sold recently to New York Times for a sum estimated to be of 410 million dollars.
Of course you can’t develop a huge site like About.com with 4-5 employees. It was just an extreme example. But maybe you can make a very good web site on a hot subject, rake in a lot of advertising dollars, and then maybe sell it to a large company.
About delegating: when I was still working from home, I used to lead a team of 4 developers. I asked them to send me timesheets twice a week, and I also met them once a week. This used to eat a lot of my time, but I still had a lot of freedom.
One of the most important things for delegating successfully is to find the right people. This can be hard, but once you find them, things will be a lot easier. The method you use to find potential employees is very important. You may pay a large sum for an advertisment in a magazine, and find mediocre candidates. Or you may simply go to an online forum, publish an ad there, and find an excellent candidate. Experiment and do what’s best for you.
It’s also important to test them - have a difficult test ready, and ask them to complete it. I used to take the hardest part I could find in my project, and give it as a test to all the candidates. This way I tested them with a real-world problem instead of using a made up test.
Making employees sign a non-compete aggreement is a very good thing. It’s also good to have a lawyer write the non-compete aggreement. This way it will be expressed in legal terms, and your employees will know that it’s a solid, serious contract.
One thing I do to test a potential employee’s ethics is to ask him to show me source code he wrote for his previous employers. I make sure that I ask the candidate to show me important source code. If the candidate aggrees to show me or to let me copy such code, then he failed the ethics test, and it’s a no-hire.
I know that you may not be able to apply this to your company, but maybe you can design your own ethics test.
April 15th, 2005 at 12:19 am
nice