Book Club 20 - The Art of Laziness

The following was originally published for Patrons on February 23, 2024. Get caught up at your own pace by joining at the "Post Parisian" level or above!

I think this will be the first book I share that I won’t recommend. But that’s also part of the charm.

I follow Library Mindset on Instagram and have enjoyed both the selection of quotes they share and a number of books they’ve recommended (some of which I’ve read, some I plan to). So when I found they had their own book, I thought I’d show some support and buy it. If nothing else, it looked to be filled with poignant quotes like the ones that had hooked me on their account.

Unfortunately, it was pretty light on the inspirational quotes. It was also poorly written. The whole book feels like a middle-schooler’s regurgitation of wisdom they’ve heard spouted over their parents’ favorite podcasts.

I struggled with this at first because, well, it’s not fun to read bad writing. I was disappointed that an account which had amassed such a large following would put out something of this quality. And worse, given that it’s a book on self-improvement, it’s hard to accept wisdom from someone you think asked ChatGPT not to plagiarize a few books while summarizing their points.

In the end, however, I think the weak writing ended up a blessing in disguise.

The fact is, they still imported some solid wisdom (and yes, intentional use of imported over imparted). Even if it’s poorly written, and often feels like they’re missing their own point, that doesn’t mean there’s no room for reflection. So I decided to keep going and finished the book in one sitting (helps that like any good middle schooler’s report, it’s double-spaced and thoroughly padded). Here are some of the things I underlined along the way:

“The goal of becoming more productive is not to work more, but the opposite.” I’ve spent a lot of time being busy, not productive. It can be hard to know the difference, especially when we aren’t familiar with our end goals. I do disagree with the idea that we’re somehow supposed to get to a place where we no longer have to work - some form of retirement. I’d like to work on things I love until the day I die. The real goal is to get to a place where that’s 100% a choice, and not required to survive.

“You must be patient with results, but don’t be patient with action.” This is something that came up in the first chapter of Atomic Habits (I’m re-reading that now). I have had a tendency to want immediate results, which built a lot of unnecessary frustration. If we’re going to make it in the long run, we need to act with immediacy. Rather than focusing on any long-term destination, I’ve learned I do myself a favor by locking in the process in the near-term. “You’re more likely to give up if you see no results and are exhausted too much.”

“An easy life for most people can only be possible by making hard choices.” This ties into my recognition this week that I needed to start by doing the hard things first. The hard choices we make in the short term make for an easier life in the long. Some of us figure this out in school with homework. Some of us take a little longer…

One of the quotes I loved was from Vizi Andrew, “Even Michelangelo would have trouble getting out of bed if he had nothing but a day of spreadsheets ahead. It’s hard to imagine Leonardo da Vinci working for a corporation or being a government bureaucrat.”

My dream of having a chateau or a creative studio in Paris isn’t about the building, the grounds, or even the copious amount of light flowing through massive windows - but the sense of creative freedom. Of having my own space. The ability to wake up, stroll into that space, and pick up right where I left off the night before. There will always be elements of life and work that are unpleasant-yet-necessary (thus the need to do the hard things first). But reminding ourselves of our dreams and then digging into the desires at their root can give us direction.

I think my main takeaway from this book was to choose humility. Wisdom can come from anywhere if we’re open to hear it. What bristled against the poor writing and questionable analysis wasn’t anything more than my pride. What prompts me to rag on and distance myself from the book, while trying to draw out what pearls I can, is much the same. So maybe I should recommend it after all. Perhaps we can all use a little middle-school wisdom to grind against our egos.

This Week’s Haul

This long interview with Hank Green was exactly what I needed. He beat cancer this year thankfully, and is on tour with some standup comedy about that experience. But Hank has been around since the earliest days of YouTube and has so much insight to offer that these two hours weren’t even a start.

It also took me so long to finish (across four sessions or so) that I didn’t watch anything else of note on YouTube this week. I am, however, excited for the second part of Dune to drop next week. How about you? Find anything fun?

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