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A review by leviofmichigan
Laziness Does Not Exist by Devon Price
5.0
What this book taught me about the world and others I interact with is immediately actionable, practical, and well-articulated. What this book taught me about myself and my interactions with myself will take a lot of time to sort through, to learn how to let it change the way I pursue self improvement. That’s to be expected though, and I am hopeful that, through mindfulness, I can be better at recognizing when I need to just let myself rest, and not compare myself to my highest capitalist self.
Like the book, *What We Don’t Talk About When We Talk About Fat,* this book really helped me get it through my head that I shouldn’t judge other people based solely on an aspect of them that I happen to notice. My parents raised me in all the ways Price described, telling me not to give money to homeless people, because they’d just spend it on drugs. But we never know someone’s story. You could have a roommate whose actions you observe day in and day out, but you don’t know what’s going on internally. You don’t know if someone will spend the money they’re begging for on drugs, but if they are, you also don’t know why they’re addicted to drugs. And the nice thing about believing the best about people is that it pushes you back toward looking for systemic factors, and once you start looking, they’re not hard to find. Resist the capitalist oppressors. Choose to go deeper than instinctual judgments.
Also, I noticed some reviews saying this book is not for poor people or the unemployed. While many of the anecdotes do center overworking, affluent people, Price acknowledges that, and I found that personally, as someone who does not overwork myself at my day-to-day job in the *slightest,* I actually found myself applying these concepts to areas of my life far removed from my work. The general concept, “laziness does not exist” is broad, and Price delivers.
Like the book, *What We Don’t Talk About When We Talk About Fat,* this book really helped me get it through my head that I shouldn’t judge other people based solely on an aspect of them that I happen to notice. My parents raised me in all the ways Price described, telling me not to give money to homeless people, because they’d just spend it on drugs. But we never know someone’s story. You could have a roommate whose actions you observe day in and day out, but you don’t know what’s going on internally. You don’t know if someone will spend the money they’re begging for on drugs, but if they are, you also don’t know why they’re addicted to drugs. And the nice thing about believing the best about people is that it pushes you back toward looking for systemic factors, and once you start looking, they’re not hard to find. Resist the capitalist oppressors. Choose to go deeper than instinctual judgments.
Also, I noticed some reviews saying this book is not for poor people or the unemployed. While many of the anecdotes do center overworking, affluent people, Price acknowledges that, and I found that personally, as someone who does not overwork myself at my day-to-day job in the *slightest,* I actually found myself applying these concepts to areas of my life far removed from my work. The general concept, “laziness does not exist” is broad, and Price delivers.