Consistency is overrated, long live laziness
“I choose a lazy person to do a hard job. Because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it.”
— Bill Gates
Did Bill Gates say it? I am not sure, and I do not care. It does not change what I want to say. TLDR version: work smarter, not harder. However, you still need to work your body and mind; there is no escaping that.
This piece is going to be anti-climatic because it preaches one to be consistently lazy.
What are the qualities that you need to be consistently lazy?
- Confidence: That is the key. It would be best if you were confident about your capability and the people around you. It also means you need to be self-assured as a person.
- Ability to delegate: Being lazy means one does not want to work or put effort. The way around that? Delegate it to the best person for the job or hire one.
- Decide on the goal: Define the aim of each activity. Once you decide that, you would be able to define the task structure without stressing yourself or your colleagues. Once you determine a goal, be the rock falling to the bottom of the river.
- Copy others: This is one of my favorites. Cheating your way out of a difficult situation is a superpower. One can achieve this by talking to subject matter experts, reading case studies, and if none exists, then copy your competitor.
- Curiosity: Many companies write “self-starter” as a quality they are looking for in a hire. What they are looking for is curious people. One quality that you would need to maintain and encourage. Why is where you start and end with where I can use this. The ability to close the loop being key.
- Processes: A lot of being lazy involves discipline with your process. You do you and in detail. Set up a process and reporting system in a manner that you don’t have to revisit it for weeks, if not months, especially if you are planning to delegate or hire experts to do it.
- Automate the boring: The theory is if an AI can do it, then let it.
These tips have worked for me thus far. Fair warning, I have a sketchy record working in traditionally capitalist companies. The way things work in a modern corporation is far too stressful for me. The politics, managing egos of people around, insecurity about one’s job, being careful of not offending, squabbling over positions, typing out this sentence irked me.
There are a ton of more pieces out there that may make for better reads; I can rewrite it, but doing it would defeat the purpose of writing this.
