We're all busy, right?

Idleness on a sunnier Sydney day at Coco Chocolate.

The 'Busy' trap is making the rounds recently - definitely a good read, I especially enjoy the focus on 'idleness'.  At university we were always encouraged to make time for 'necessity of play' and this resonates with that.

“Idleness is not just a vacation, an indulgence or a vice; it is as indispensable to the brain as vitamin D is to the body, and deprived of it we suffer a mental affliction as disfiguring as rickets. The space and quiet that idleness provides is a necessary condition for standing back from life and seeing it whole, for making unexpected connections and waiting for the wild summer lightning strikes of inspiration — it is, paradoxically, necessary to getting any work done.”

Only thing I don't agree with is the notion that work was invented as punishment.  Much as I agree with  the core of what Kreider is saying, I would argue that he gets enormous satisfaction and even pleasure out of the 'four or five hours' that he puts in.  Doing the work that you were built to do is wonderfully rewarding thing - the point is just to keep your mastery over it.  And always make time for play.