In Praise of Idleness

I was actually surprised this was written by Bertrand Russell because it sounds very much like a long winded blog post from 2010.

For a logician I see so many holes in the essay, from the false dichotomy of what work is, to the hand wavey assertions such as investment in enterprises which fail is basically throwing money into a furnace (that enterprise surely spent that money on something, whether it be employees, materials, contractors, etc).

There are always going to be people motivated to work more, work less, work in start ups, work in large enterprises, society gives you a bunch of options, including working four hour days if you want to pursue scientific endeavors.

"Having leisure at one's disposal does not improve the quality of life unless one knows how to use it effectively, and it is by no means something one learns automatically"

-Mihaly Csiksentmihalyi "Finding Flow"

He makes it sound like it's an option, but with globalization and too many people, we've got competitive pressure like never before. You have to keep running to stand in place.