Deep Laziness

One person’s ritual is all but useless to another, especially a really good ritual. This is because the good ones are repeatedly adapted and elaborated in the direction of providing better fit for the particular person – structure-preserving transformations, where the only test of whether the transformation is structure-preserving is subjective fee... See more

find the centres

Elaborated time is reached in easy steps, a natural progression arising from each particular context. Its essence is doing the most natural, lazy thing that accords with the context of the whole person and all of the accompanying circumstances.

2. elaborate on this structure in a way that preserves and strengthens it

Some centers will be receding while others increase in intensity. Even those who crave strict, unchanging routines must adapt their routines to life changes; the deeply lazy are constantly adjusting. Sometimes a behavioral center slips away gradually; sometimes it disappears suddenly. The remaining structure must be adapted, through gradual elabora... See more

In terms of the behavioral repertoire, equivalents might be “elaborated time” (lazy time, experienced as an unfolding and elaboration of behavioral centers) and “scheduled time” (behaviors legibilized and organized top-down to satisfy a pre-existing image of proper behavior, OR the related dread that one has failed at this brutal form of organizati... See more

5. repair as above, or allow to decay

As complex as life seems, a typical human’s behavioral repertoire is made up of a small number of behaviors. These few behaviors make up life; they determine feeling and meaning, moment to moment, day to day. While these few behaviors are intricately connected with each other, resisting legible top-down plans, the system is small enough that it’s t... See more

people seem to be surprisingly bad at using their freedom to feel good, and especially at using it to feel deeply good.

A whiff of emotion, a whim, a half-joking suggestion, can be the basis for doing a new behavior or elaborating an old one.