The defining moment when you realised you could get through life just fine being lazy

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Assuming, of course, there was such a moment.

In grade 5 I had half an hour to finish a math assignment, so I figured I'd just copy off my friend. But I just sat around doing nothing instead.

― chrisco (chrisco), Tuesday, 17 August 2004 23:57 (twenty-one years ago)

today i told my boss/coworker that i've always been a b+ student (and i'm happy with it because it's easy to get b+'s and people are happy with b+ work) even though i know he always strives to be an A student

he probably wants to fire me now because i'm an underacheiver and bringing his company down.

― JaXoN (JasonD), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 00:10 (twenty-one years ago)

Third grade. I had a 56 in English at the three week mark and a 95 at the end of the six-weeks without really altering my habits. It was downhill from there.

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 00:23 (twenty-one years ago)

I was born, a tit was shoved in my face, pretty much then.

― Jarlr'mai (jarlrmai), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 07:47 (twenty-one years ago)

i've known it for a long time, but it was confirmed for me when i managed to get a merit in my masters, when i'd stayed up till 4 or 5 am every night the week my finals/dissertation were due to watch the NBA/NHL playoffs on alternate night. dood.

― colette (a2lette), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 09:18 (twenty-one years ago)

I used to know this perfectly well about 25 years ago but somehow, somewhere along the line, it seems to have slipped my mind.

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 09:19 (twenty-one years ago)

The real defining moment was A Level results day, when I was called a bastard by ALL my teachers for the previous two years. English teachers called me a bastard for never doing any work and getting the highest mark in the school, and Politics teachers called me a bastard for never doing any work and failing. These was also a meeting with the head of sixth form during my first year when I told her I was bored and wanted out - she said "fine, do what I did", to which I replied "whaddaya mean, yr a doctor?", and she explained that she'd been bored in sixth form and taken two months off to bum around, and still passed, gone to university and then done a PhD. I didn't take the two months off, but I did take a very selective approach towards attending classes.

― Jimmybommy JimmyK'KANG (Nick Southall), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 09:23 (twenty-one years ago)

it was in the first year at college. I'd gone to a bad high school and felt ill-prepared for college level work. So the first term i tried REALLY hard to do well - long hours and so on, and i did well. but then i got a little burned out and slacked off a little in the next quarter. But i did even better! then i slacked off even more in the 3rd quarter (last of freshman year) and did best of all.

then when i started interning (im in engineering) i learned that laziness is the mother of invention. it really is. laziness has saved my ass more times than it hasnt.

― AaronK (AaronK), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 12:51 (twenty-one years ago)

RAH's "The Tale of the Man Who Was Too Lazy to Fail" to thread. A truly inspirational story.

― Rock Hardy (Rock Hardy), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 12:54 (twenty-one years ago)

It was the day I typed in "O Superman Laurie Anderson" into Google and this internet message board came up where they all spoke funny and couldn't type proper.

― dog latin (dog latin), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 13:04 (twenty-one years ago)

You can get through life being lazy? Woohoo!!!

― Markelby (Mark C), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 13:20 (twenty-one years ago)

when i passed my 3rd year of college - halfway through and still haven't done much work. i would like to complete the degree without doing much work, but unfortunately i have to learn pitman shorthand.

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 13:23 (twenty-one years ago)

halfway = 3/4

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 13:23 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm feeling damned tired right now, that must count.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 13:30 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't know that I've ever had a moment like that about my entire life, but I've certainly realized this about every job I've ever had -- which is a shame. I wish I had a job where someone would notice if I did more than the bare minimum.

― Harold Media (kenan), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 13:33 (twenty-one years ago)

"get through life just fine"

― TOMBOT, Wednesday, 18 August 2004 13:33 (twenty-one years ago)

January 1980, the day I started school. I could already read, but they made me start again at Ladybird book 1a with the rest of the class. I still feel indignant about it, but these days I'm more pissed off because I realise it was the first time I understood that I could keep up with the others by doing the minimum of work and it was a slippery, underachieving slope from then on.

― Madchen (Madchen), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 13:33 (twenty-one years ago)

I was trying to find the date that I first started posting to ILX, both as comic answer and serious answer, but I couldn't find my first post. Sigh.

I bet someone's answered that already, though.

― Super-Masonic Black Hole (kate), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 13:34 (twenty-one years ago)

ive been lazy since i left high school. it started in high school though, when i used to get too much unwanted attention for always getting the best marks in class. i think that affected my studiousness.

― dickvandyke (dickvandyke), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 13:34 (twenty-one years ago)

I think I got mostly lazy in college. Staved it off at various intervals, but it basically set my ideal life pattern (wake up, bong hit, go back to sleep).

― hstencil (hstencil), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 13:41 (twenty-one years ago)

I get too much unwanted attention just for wearing a TIE at my office so I stopped doing THAT. If I actually ran down a list of all the things I used to put effort into that I've stopped doing entirely or stopped consciously working at because my "talent" generated undesirable levels of chatter I'd wind up jumping off the 8th floor mezzanine probably halfway through.

What a depressing thread.

― TOMBOT, Wednesday, 18 August 2004 13:42 (twenty-one years ago)

its a TRUTHFUL thread.

― dickvandyke (dickvandyke), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 13:43 (twenty-one years ago)

i played computer games through my 3rd year in uni and got a first. my dissertation was 8000 words long (it was short but to the point apparently)

― ken c (ken c), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 13:48 (twenty-one years ago)

ha ha Madchens tale is the exact mirror of mine

"could try harder, doesn't work to full potential, unduly vociferous at time - as if he's perpetually bored" all regular entries on school reports.

― Porkpie (porkpie), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 13:50 (twenty-one years ago)

"doesn't work to full potential"

*shoots self in head*

― TOMBOT, Wednesday, 18 August 2004 13:55 (twenty-one years ago)

Just now. I wrote a paper I've been "writing" for about two months while ILX was Poxy Fule-ing yesterday afternoon, and gave it to the boss this morning.

It only needs a very, very minor bit of work to correct it, now he's reviewed it.

― aldo_cowpat (aldo_cowpat), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 14:09 (twenty-one years ago)

I think I balance off times of extreme 'I like doing nothing, dammit' with times of 'must do something' -- and actually I think they complement each other well. My desire to get things done pretty darned quickly at work is usually motivated by the simple notion that once it's done I can relax a bit.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 14:10 (twenty-one years ago)

Problem is it's the opposite way round for me - I used to sail by and not find anything hard. Always top of my class with the minimum amount of effort etc. Now I shirk away from putting a stamp on an envelope.

― dog latin (dog latin), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 14:17 (twenty-one years ago)

I'd love to be able to get through on minimal effort but I've always found that most stuff is quite hard work - school, degree, PhD, learning to drive, working, being married, kids, band...

― Dr. C (Dr. C), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 14:26 (twenty-one years ago)

Probably that moment came for me when the doctor reached up into my mom to pull me out. From that point on, I knew there would always be someone there to cover my ass.

― Huck, Wednesday, 18 August 2004 14:30 (twenty-one years ago)

I have to get up before 10am for the rest of the week and I don't know if I can do it. Maybe I just won't, eh? Who cares, the next 40-50 years are just going to be increased world violence as we run up to actually not having any oil left, which ought to happen just as we all die of old age. It's going to be a wonderful world.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 14:44 (twenty-one years ago)

My mantra when I feel depressed by my phenomonal underachievment is 'Oh well, the war's going to come soon anyway.'

― Wooden (Wooden), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 14:50 (twenty-one years ago)

Dude I just said that, stop stealing my material!

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 15:13 (twenty-one years ago)

Comedy -- c/d?

― adam. (nordicskilla), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 15:16 (twenty-one years ago)

I was agreeing with you, Tracer.

― Wooden (Wooden), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 15:19 (twenty-one years ago)

Fat lot of good agreeing with me will do after we're ALL DEAD.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 15:21 (twenty-one years ago)

I've been lazy for my entire life. I think there have been an odd few moments where I decided to be an overachiever but then decided it just wasn't worth it. One such time was when I was 13 and decided I wanted to be a neurosurgeon when I grew up. HAHAHAHA.

― Homosexual II (Homosexual II), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 15:21 (twenty-one years ago)

Tracer - I'm just getting in with you now in case we survive, have to from a post-apocalyptic biker gang and search for precious water.

― Wooden (Wooden), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 15:23 (twenty-one years ago)

My brother is a neurosurgeon so no matter what I've done, I've always looked lazy compared with him.

― hstencil (hstencil), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 15:25 (twenty-one years ago)

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000059H98.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

― TOMBOT, Wednesday, 18 August 2004 15:28 (twenty-one years ago)

if that's "avant-garde" my ass is named Frankenstein.

― hstencil (hstencil), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 15:29 (twenty-one years ago)

ten months pass...

Revive.

I think it was the day I realized I could earn a decent full-time salary for part-time work without even having to apply for the job (it was offered to me by a former co-worker at my old job).

That was a little over a year ago, and I honestly only feel worse off for it. But I am most decidedly "getting through life just fine."

― Hurting (Hurting), Friday, 1 July 2005 05:46 (twenty years ago)

Though I am more than a little disheartened by my own laziness lately.

― Hurting (Hurting), Friday, 1 July 2005 05:47 (twenty years ago)

Oh man, getting a part time job that pays what I earn now (which isnt great but is liveable money) is like my holy grail.

― Trayce (trayce), Friday, 1 July 2005 05:58 (twenty years ago)

12th grade, when i found out that an SAT above 1200 but below 1300, and a b+ average could get me into good schools -- and that while doing better than that could get me into better schools, i didn't feel like putting in that much effort. and yep, all downhill since then.

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Friday, 1 July 2005 05:59 (twenty years ago)

xpost Yeah, it's the holy grail of laziness. So imagine getting that grail without effort.

― Hurting (Hurting), Friday, 1 July 2005 06:26 (twenty years ago)

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