Being Idle

In 1930, John Maynard Keynes said that technological innovations would soon allow us all to work just 15 hour weeks. Today, even the French don't work that few hours! The rest of the West feels pressurized to work longer and harder since otherwise the jobs will move to Asia. And Asians work long hours since otherwise the jobs will go to, well, other Asian countries!

But even on a personal front, most of us cannot stay idle for long. Rainer Maria Rilke's statement that we “be idle with confidence, with devotion, possibly even with joy” is practically impossible (for most of us).

And that is the central theme of Andrew Smart’s book, “Autopilot: The Art and Science of Doing Nothing”. As Smart says, we have this “contradictory fear of being idle, together with our preference for sloth”.

But doesn't too much idleness lead to boredom? Sure, but that boredom can sometimes lead to self-knowledge, argues Smart:
“What comes into your consciousness when you are idle can often be reports from the depths of your unconscious self...Through idleness, great ideas buried in your unconsciousness have the chance to enter your awareness.”

No wonder then that Shane Parrish says:
“Idleness is a lost art.”

Comments

  1. Ramiah KumarJanuary 12, 2017 at 4:12 PM

    Interesting in some ways, sure.

    One point keeps surfacing from the average Western point of view: emptying the mind totally is a matter for debate! In the East, it is actually not given much room for debate. However, addressing it as a meditation practice is taken up only by a few, both in the East and the West. Probably it is the effect of meditation on me that made me realize that that those who debate indeed indirectly acknowledge it is worth analysing instead of ignoring.

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