Towards a critique of the false narrative that human nature is to be ‘lazy’:

Why is laziness seen as a vice?

One of the worst mis-understandings about human nature is this:

A lot of these ‘smart’ people say: “Of course it is human nature to be lazy, slothful, and to exert as little effort as possible”.

This is patently false. Whoever says this … I wonder if this line of thinking comes from quasi-religious notions of English-Puritan-Protestant thinking that:

To be lazy and slothful is evil and a vice.

And it seems from a religious perspective a lot of people *NEED* or *WANT* a reason to factify or confirm this truth that all humans are (naturally) lazy. And then people then perhaps feel this Benjamin-Franklin-esque air of self-congratulatory moral-virtuosity that says:

I am productive, not lazy and therefore a virtuous good person, and I will probably go to heaven.

More thoughts >