The Benefits of Being a Slacker

Leglessme

This made me laugh because nothing you mentioned was slacking off. Not a walk, not a shower–dishes. That’s simply seeing to “other business.”

Slacking off, to me, is when I sit and play Jelly Juice on my Mac for hours and don’t watch TV, answer emails, post on forums or Discord or write. It’s really a na-na thing to do.

My exs mom was a Buddhist monk. She and the monks I met through her were all pretty adamant that you never achieved enlightenment while meditating. Instead, it came when doing some everyday task. There was even one monk who was said to have gained elightenment when smelling Jasmine rice cooking. All that does is make me hungry, but I"m no Buddhist and I dont meditate. The point is, the inspiriation always hits while doing something else. That’s not slacking, that’s using another part of your brain.

And thanks for the blog post. Made me remember how to free up my mind.

Luluo

I do see things like taking a stroll for no reason as slacking—it’s kind of a way (for me anyway) to write off other important tasks with the excuse that I “need fresh air.” But, once that previously elusive epiphany strikes, I suddenly realize I actually really did need fresh air!

1910orange

I am a Buddhist but I don’t meditate.

Leglessme

I know not all do. I knew a lot of monks.

Wendyg

An interesting blog.

I’d like to point out that the brain is not a muscle though. Nor does it go soft like an unused muscle. It is nerve tissue which works in a different way. Even the phrase ‘use it or lose it’ (often applied to brain tissue in relation to things like avoiding dementia) isn’t completely accurate, although repeated use of a neural pathway does aid memory recall.

I’m not a slacker and hate sitting around,

Do you really regard all sitting around as slacking?
To me, your description of the process you went to make your discovery all involved physical effort of some kind. So, in the end you discovered that some physical activities freed your mind to think about problems in a way that intense concentration on the problem did not.

I would argue that the physical activity is not essential to do that. For a universal example, the subconscious solves many problems while the body is asleep (‘sleep that knits the ravelled sleeve of care’). Plus, many people have great ideas while, say, relaxing under a tree and an apple falls on their head, or getting in the bath and having a eureka moment.

I was brought up a little like you were – to think that workaholicism was a great thing to be admired and that inactivity related to laziness (although sitting reading was acceptable as it is was a positive activity). I would burn the candle at both ends. I burnt so many candles in my twenties there would have been a wax shortage if they had been literal.

Since then, I’ve been struck twice by long-term debilitating conditions lasting not weeks or months, but many years. It’s been a hell of a journey filled with pain, exhaustion, and long periods of intensive inactivity. Along the way, I’ve met many physically disabled people and people with long-term illnesses that are physically inactive.
They are not slackers. They often get accused of being so, sometimes to their faces by complete strangers on the street. Often behind their backs by ‘friends’ and family.

They might not be able to work, and they might not be able to even get as far as the toilet without assistance or wheels, but the one thing they all have in common (of those I’ve met and whose brains aren’t impaired) is that it set their minds free to think.

So yes, I agree with your discovery that distracting part of the mind by going for a walk in the woods or by doing the dishes can free up your subconscious to come up with great ideas and solutions (I’ve had some great ideas when mucking out horse stables).

But I think that the phyiscal component is not essential if you just take time to be still and quiet too and don’t judge yourself (or others) as a ‘slacker’ just because you are not physically doing something for a time. Having ideas come to you while completely passive in the world, can allow you to access another skill as eye-opening as the discovery you have made. Plus, unlike the need for physical activity to provide the distraction, you can switch it on and off whenever and wherever you want.

Of course, it doesn’t get the dishes done, but that is another story.

Edited to add: Stephen Hawking is one of the people I would put on a ‘to meet in the afterlife’ list.

1910orange

Strategy involves knowing when to take action and when not to take action.

Luluo

If I did, I wouldn’t be writing or reading, would I?
I think you’re taking the term ‘sitting around’ to literally mean ‘the act of sitting,’ whereas the term ‘sitting around’ implies the general act of listless do-nothing-ness. There’s hardly any physical effort in writing, but it’s not ‘sitting around.’
My dad couldn’t do anything physically for the last year of his life due to an illness, so I’m hardly implying physical ability equals ‘something’ and being unable to do those manual things is ‘nothing.’

It’s a turn of phrase. A turn of phrase with a point, but a non-literal phrase nonetheless.

Miked

The brain is a muscle, in every way but the literal sense.

Disuse leads to atrophy.
Exercise leads to more efficient brain function.

In fact, the physiology of the brain changes as one learns, just like a muscle. Physical changes occur. Runnels appear, new synapses appear and new pathways are formed. Some psychologists call them ‘rabbit-tracks’. Old habits die hard because the physical layout of the brain makes it so. Once a neuron path is formed it never goes away. It can be ‘overwritten’ but the old rabbit-tracks always remain in some form.

[Accelerated learning and brain-inspired learning theory: Whereas it was previously thought that most of the changes associated with memory rely on changing the strength of existing synapses, it is presently believed that the formation of new synapses may play a key role in learning and, in particular, in stabilizing new memories. More significantly, parts of the brain can grow larger or denser, neurons can move more quickly or in better coordination, and so on. These changes form neurological pathways which can enable new abilities previously beyond the subject’s means or even beyond the subject’s capacity to postulate or comprehend.]

Wendyg

No, not just like a muscle, as muscle tissue and nerve tissue is different, anatomically and phyisologically. Parallels can be drawn, yes, as with any other tissue types, but they are not the same.

I was taking it as the term of physically doing nothingness. I guess everyone will interpret it differently though.

Miked

We are writers, right? We deal in nuance, allegory and metaphor. Muscle in this context is not literal.

You’re missing the forest for the trees. Take the leap.

Miked

I ran into a study that found that we are all biologically hard-wired to be lazy, from way back in the days when we huddled unmoving in caves to conserve precious energy.

It’s in our nature to be slackers, as a survival method. Nearly everything ‘modern man’ does runs counter to ancient instinct. As is right, since we moved beyond caves and have plenty of food now (mostly). But those rabbit-tracks will always be there.

Luluo

What one person considers ‘slacking’ another might consider ‘doing something.’ What your ‘slacking’ is will probably be different from mine. Even something like household chores can, in the right context, be nothing more than delay tactics to keep oneself too occupied to do the things they actually should be doing. If I’m really not looking forward to redrafting something I’ve already redrafted multiple times, I’ll sometimes tell myself I’m too busy to do it now because I’ve got laundry to do. Laundry isn’t ‘doing nothing,’ but it is an excuse.
But it just so happens that this excuse will sometimes lead to the kinds of epiphanies that wouldn’t have come to me had I been constantly dwelling on story issues. I suppose that’s my point—just without all the metaphors and circular storytelling.

Lynnlaren

It’s very helpful to take a break It helps refresh you so much sometimes!

Kairn

I was coming to say exactly this!

Kairn

Perhaps you’re confusing procrastination with slacking.
Semantics, maybe, but to me they are two very different things. I know, because I am an expert in both.

Luluo

Out of curiosity: What would you consider ‘slacking?’ I’ve heard one person mention cell phone games, but isn’t that also just procrastination? Aside from that, I don’t find cell phones games fun, so it wouldn’t be slacking for me!

Kairn

If you haven’t already, check out the classic 1990 Linklater film:
Slacker