Is It Laziness, Or A Sign You Need To Slow Down?

Life Kit

NPR

Education, Kids & Family, Self-improvement, Business, Health & Fitness

4.5 • 4.9K Ratings

🗓️ 23 September 2021

⏱️ 17 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We don't question whether our pets, friends or family have earned their right to exist, so why do we sometimes think about our own lives in those terms? What we learn about the value of productivity and the negative connotation of "laziness" is part of the problem, says social psychologist Devon Price.

In this episode, Price, author of Laziness Does Not Exist, shares tips for rethinking the concept of laziness and how feeling "lazy" is actually a useful signal from our bodies and our deepest selves.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This is NPR's Life Kit, and I'm Elise Hugh.
0:02.6	And let's start this episode with a true legend.
0:06.2	["Dump Truck"]
0:08.7	Yeah, so I have a chinchilla named Dump Truck,
0:11.3	and he's never been productive in his life, right?
0:16.1	That's Devon Price, a social psychologist,
0:18.3	and the author of the book, Laziness Does Not Exist.
0:21.3	And of course, importantly, they're
0:23.7	the owner to Dump Truck, the chinchilla.
0:26.3	Like any pet, he just sits there,
0:28.9	and in fact, he's actually very destructive.
0:31.4	He's chewed my floorboards to just rubble.
0:35.1	Devon doesn't believe in Laziness.
0:37.1	Their book is all about how the idea of Laziness
0:40.2	has actually been wielded to make people
0:42.2	feel unproductive and unworthy, which brings us back
0:45.8	to the chinchilla.
0:47.3	I would never look at him and think of his life
0:49.4	in terms of has he justified his right to exist.
0:52.7	He's not paying rent.
0:53.8	He's not performing any service.
0:55.7	And it would be absurd to even think about his life
	...

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