The Importance of Being Lazy: In Praise of Play, Leisure, and Vacation [Hardcover]

This well-researched book is a great place to start to learn about the slow lifestyle. Al Gini is Professor of Philosophy at Loyola University Chicago. He's also a business consultant. He previously explored a mixture of business, work, and philosophy, in his book My Job, My Self. Be warned, he describes himself as addicted to work.

The Importance of Being Lazy is about personal identity in culture. Our most frequent response to the question, "who am I", is to say what we do for a living. The book is about who we are and what we do when not at work. Professor Gini's own university has only a few books on leisure but thousands on work, jobs, and careers. We value work, we don't value leisure.

If vacations are a project of self-definition, then what does it mean to not even take vacations? Vacation starvation becomes a malady. The consequences, as Josef Pieper pointed out, is the destruction of culture. The idea of leisure time was to refresh and renew to have a life outside of work. But market forces have largely been against this.

Adam Smith said, "Consumption is the sole purpose of all production." Al Gini says, "To Shop is to be. " Our culture has degenerated from a society based around people to those around things."

There are five problem areas:

1.Lack of Self Development. Without adequate time and energy we become passive consumers of entertainment. This makes us dull.

2. Lack of Autonomy. Time away from constraints and conformity of work is necessary to build a more authentic sense of self. Spending all our time at work makes us compliant, and often against our own best interests.

3. Effects of Social Life. Less time means more superficial interactions with others. Lack of social involvement degrades our social environment. We are too busy to be courteous. We are too busy for civic involvement.

4. Positional Competition. In other words, "Keeping up with the Joneses." Our focus is on the superficial. We self identify through our buying habits.

5. Cognitive and Valuational Confusion. You might expect a title like this from an academic. However, the book is wonderfully free of academic writing. What does Professor Gini mean? Advertisers create discontent by holding up impossible promises and standards to which consumers aspire.

Professor Gini cites a host of thinkers including, Hegel, Kipling, William James, Marcuse, and Aristotle. My own favorite is Mark Twain, "I do not like work even when someone else does it.

We need to find a balance between work and leisure. We are responsible for at least some of the choices we make.
The notes are a wonderful resource for further reading.

Highly recommended.

Al Gini's book is not about the nature and characteristics of Play, but rather, it is a `working' diatribe against work; with only scant attention given to `Play, Leisure and Vacation'. Paradoxically, Al Gini failed to grasp his own message. He needs to lighten up his message and play more, either that, or change the title (a much easier solution).

His book starts with the chapter "The Problem," and the problem is, of course, that we work too much; we work ourselves out of both health and holiday. I believe the problem started with Walt Disney and his seven dwarfs, those midget miners who plagued America with that addictive workaholic song - "Whistle while you . . . "

In other chapters Gini covers various social attitudes, such as "The Overspent America." This is an interesting chapter on how TV and shopping are the chief cultural activities in America. In another chapter he discuses our national addiction to sports, "the spectacle of sports anesthetizes us to that which we are either unable or unwilling to deal with, in our own lives." Other chapters include: Retirement, The Sabbath, Weekends and Traveling. All interesting and serious stuff, but . . .

In "The Importance of Being Lazy," we have a commendable sermon, with serious stats, against work; but, there is little new insight on "how" to play, neither does Gini bring any new ideas regarding leisure that challenge the reader to chill out and vacate their busy lives.

So, fellow workaholics, if you are going to be speaking at Toastmasters, the week before Labor Day, then this is the material you will want to quote: "The workaholic lacks boundaries," "We made a fetish out of work," "Work preoccupies our life" and "Workaholics no longer show up for life," etc., etc., etc. On the lighter side consider Dale Anderson's playful book "Never Act Your Age." Conditionally Recommended.

The Importance of Being Lazy: In Praise of Play, Leisure, and Vacations, by Al Gini

First and foremost, this book is not a lazy read-it requires attention and commitment from the reader. It is informative and clearly well-researched. I find it amusing that a book on laziness requires so much of its readers.

Gini's main thesis in this book is that Americans aren't necessarily overworked, but we are defiantly under-rested. We work more hours a week than anyone (even the Japanese, he repeatedly points out), but take far less vacation, not even the vacation we're due. And when we aren't working, we certainly aren't resting. He likens the need for leisure and relaxation with the concept of the Sabbath, a useful analogy he continues through the book. Leisure time should be unwired, reflective, even spiritual-a way to look at ourselves and grow as people, bettering ourselves and becoming more connected to our communities and families.

Gini considers many reasons for us not embracing leisure and play. Primarily, we work too much-our careers define us. And even if we don't let our careers define us, we need more stuff (so does consumerism cause workaholism or is it the other way around?) Even during weekends and vacations, our time is packed with structured and prepackaged activities that claim to offer us whatever we feel is lacking in our lives for a few hundred bucks. And then it's all supposed to come to a screeching halt at retirement. We would be better served, he suggests, to find ways to improve ourselves and become more comfortable with who we are inside than flitting away all our time and money on flashiness (except when he says it, it doesn't sound nearly so shallow and new-agey).

Generally, if you have time and attention to read this book, you are not one of the ones who needs to read this book. Perhaps we are suppose to go out and proclaim the good news of laziness to others, or maybe we are suppose to pat ourselves on the back for not spending too much time at work and in front of the TV to enjoy other parts of life. Or maybe we should get our noses out of books for a little while and go play...

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