32 ms·

What, do you think sex-havers waste more time or something? I don't know what point you're trying to make here. The fact that Newton did a lot of stuff doesn't

What, do you think sex-havers waste more time or something? I don't know what point you're trying to make here. The fact that Newton did a lot of stuff doesn't mean he burned himself out with Travis Bickle hours the way modern ding dongs do to excuse not having a life. Let's use another example of a great man who accomplished a lot without working real hard: Winston Churchill. A day drinker who was fond of long meals, boozy parties and who took a daily hour and a half long nap. Somehow he managed to take up painting, write a couple dozen encyclopediac books, ran many important government offices and defeated Hitler. I'll go out of my way to notice that the great ancient Greek and even Roman types were all unconscionably lazy by modern American standards, and Aristotle did his best work relaxing in a bath. Darwin was lazy as was da Vinci. Being lazy is civilized and normal. The insane "I must eat soylent and snort modafinil to maximize my productivity" calvinist mindset of contemporary American upper middle class strivers is the deviation from the mean of the human race. And don't try to tell me things are particularly amazing in current year because all these strivers are working bugman hours: this lifestyle is wretched and disgusting and our era is marked by stupidity, vice and lack of technical or cultural progress. Laziness is aristocratic; if people would relax and smell the roses more, well, most of them won't do anything like what Newton did, but they'll have more time to be thoughtful.

vosper 7y ago
> Let's use another example of a great man who accomplished a lot without working real hard: Winston Churchill. A day drinker who was fond of long meals, boozy parties and who took a daily hour and a half long nap. Somehow he managed to take up painting, write a couple dozen encyclopediac books, ran many important government offices and defeated Hitler. I'm don't think taking naps and enjoying parties disqualify the possibility of also working hard. There's probably a difference between doing a lot of work, and feeling that you're "working hard" - I can't say whether Churchill experienced the latter, but he certainly accomplished the former.
AndrewKemendo 7y ago
This concept of Churchill as a man not completely obsessed - specifically during his tenure as prime minister - is just wrong. He would dictate thousands of words a night and had a team of people who worked slavishly to interpret his volumes.
- NeedMoreTea 7y ago
  What head of state, cabinet minister, CEO, or general does not have a team of people to "slavishly" whatever? Significant use of dictation would be entirely usual among the same groups back then. Churchill seemed to consider his writing relaxation and hobby as we might surf the net, and our parents watch 5 hours of evening TV. Modern celebs and influencers have a team to maintain the social feeds, sight unseen of the celeb or artist themselves. When he took time off he'd write letters and talk about having had loads of fun writing 2000 words, and laying 200 bricks a day, along with painting a little. Bricklaying was another of his hobbies that persisted until very late in life. Started with garden walls, he worked up to building a whole cottage or two.

vosper 7y ago

> Let's use another example of a great man who accomplished a lot without working real hard: Winston Churchill. A day drinker who was fond of long meals, boozy parties and who took a daily hour and a half long nap. Somehow he managed to take up painting, write a couple dozen encyclopediac books, ran many important government offices and defeated Hitler. I'm don't think taking naps and enjoying parties disqualify the possibility of also working hard. There's probably a difference between doing a lot of work, and feeling that you're "working hard" - I can't say whether Churchill experienced the latter, but he certainly accomplished the former.

AndrewKemendo 7y ago

This concept of Churchill as a man not completely obsessed - specifically during his tenure as prime minister - is just wrong. He would dictate thousands of words a night and had a team of people who worked slavishly to interpret his volumes.

NeedMoreTea 7y ago
What head of state, cabinet minister, CEO, or general does not have a team of people to "slavishly" whatever? Significant use of dictation would be entirely usual among the same groups back then. Churchill seemed to consider his writing relaxation and hobby as we might surf the net, and our parents watch 5 hours of evening TV. Modern celebs and influencers have a team to maintain the social feeds, sight unseen of the celeb or artist themselves. When he took time off he'd write letters and talk about having had loads of fun writing 2000 words, and laying 200 bricks a day, along with painting a little. Bricklaying was another of his hobbies that persisted until very late in life. Started with garden walls, he worked up to building a whole cottage or two.