Cultivating obsession or drive

[gumpzilla]

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Lazy people are really just cowards. Basically you go around never giving your all, b/c not giving your all is your defense mechanism. It's so easy to say to you could've done better if you tried. As opposed to trying & failing, or even worse that you find you can't even put in an honest effort no matter how hard you try.

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I'm rather puzzled how many people seem to think this is the only reason that anybody, anywhere is lazy. Does every negative personality trait have such an easy explanation? I'll certainly grant that it can be the case. Still, what is it exactly I'm supposed to be afraid of finding out? I've always had what I consider a more balanced, realistic view of my own intelligence and abilities (which I feel tends to get overrated by people I know), and so I'm very comfortable with the fact that there are people out there substantially better at what I do. I've met quite a few at this point.

As for failing, my job at this point consists largely of failing repeatedly. We've spent the past two months trying all kinds of stuff to get our experiment up and working again, only succeeding after finding some trivial thing that appeared totally unrelated to anything else we're doing. Maybe this is a different kind of failing than what you're talking about, but I'm not sure.

Anyway, I'm still curious to hear about people who have found themselves in my spot and, in essence, broke the habits of laziness. kidcolin: I agree with your final point there, in some regards, but figuring out how to break the habits without the external pressures is something that interests me. One thing I need to do is post here less; consequently, I won't check back on this thread until sometime tonight. EDIT: Except to comment on this. chezlaw's comment seems in keeping with my ideas about European vs. American attitudes. Do other people agree?