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Finished reading: Laziness Does Not Exist

I’ve been pretty burned out recently, for a variety of reasons, and bought this on a bit of a whim after reading a few of Price’s essays online. This book is definitely For Me in that it’s hyper-targeted at burnt-out affluent liberal professional-managerial class Millennials, and it certainly has parts in it that are useful or resonate or whatever. But Bullshit Jobs this is not; the topics here are too wide-ranging and too self-helpy (apparently everything from activism to entitled parents are governed by a cultural fear of laziness), with cute little “what you can do!” bullet points at the end of every chapter in a way that show the cracks of the book’s origins as an internet essay.

I also say this is a book for “affluent liberals” pretty specifically; Laziness makes a few nods to some kind of deeper class or structural analysis, but ultimately this is a “how to make capitalism work better for you, personally” book rather than a “fuck capitalism, actually” book. You are burnt out because you care too much and work too hard! But don’t look too closely at the underlying structure of why that is (at least not beyond “mumble mumble American Protestant work ethic mumble mumble”) and certainly not too deeply into who that benefits. Just turn off your phone more and go for walks in nature! If you’re feeling really bold, maybe show your boss some of the studies that show burnout is bad, actually!

(I’m being a little unfair here, maybe. The book’s analysis is definitely stronger in its first half which, again, makes it very obvious this is a short-form internet essay padded out to the sort of full-length self help read a certain type of business traveler grabs at the airport when they realize their plane doesn’t have wifi. Which, you know. Case in point.)

Ultimately, I think I’m more frustrated by Laziness Does Not Exist than anything else. It’s certainly not a bad book and, like I said, I do think it has parts in it that will help the sorts of people who are likely to pick it up on an exhausted whim. And, by the book’s own logic, maybe that’s enough.

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