The Lion Razor

Optimise for the softest, easiest, and most important use of your strength, instead of wanting to be everything.

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I came across a tweet mid-week (I can’t find the OG tweet, so I can’t embed it) from someone saying they are the laziest person they know and do not understand how they ever get shit done.

I have seen that tweet in varying forms over the years and have participated in its variations. A more common, straightforward form is “I am the laziest hardworking person I know.”

Cliched nuances always give us a window to look into our patterns and why such practices are popular, and that was what I did. Pointless yet important to mention that you are not that special. Everyone else feels some of the shit you think too, and that’s how humans typically find their tribe; by identifying [with] people who feel the pinches in their shoes.

In understanding the nuances around this cliched lazy, hardworking person, I wanted to know how lazy, hardworking persons function effectively, and I found a multilayered answer in razors.

Razors

In the way razors typically function, philosophical razors exist to help people cut off things that do not serve them towards achieving maximum success, entertainment, or benefit from something.

These razors exist in different forms and can help to cut out other things from how we argue, the kind of people we engage, where we put our essential efforts, how to guide those efforts, etc.

So, instead of substituting crap for more crap to force ourselves to be more appealing or to fit into square boxes as circles, these razors exist to help you decide what stuff you want to eliminate and what you want to retain.

In our lazy-productive scenario, I have found a fitting razor called the Lion Razor.

What is a Lion Razor?

Lions, you see, are very smart hunters. Unlike Hyenas, who are always loitering and scavenging, Lions prioritise ‘lazy-ing’ as part of their process. And when Lions do get to work, they try to optimise their energy for the most critical hunts.

Documentaries have given a closer look into the lifestyles of Lions, and they spend most of their time in vacation mode. And when it is time to work, they put all their effort into the most critical work, finish the hunt, and go back to relaxing.

While some people can work round-the-clock and not tire (and maybe even enjoy it as Hyenas do), many optimise for the lion razor. This is even more typical of creatives.

Therefore, mate, there should be no guilting yourself for having a protracted period of just sitting and doing nothing as long as you can produce quality material in the periods when you have those bursts. Sahil Bloom, an ‘internet guy’ that likes motivating people and sharing hacks, rightly mentioned that “if you have the choice, always choose to sprint and then rest. Most people are not wired to work 9-5—long periods of steady, monotonous work. If your goal is to do inspired, creative work, you have to work like a lion.”

TEA

Next week, I will write about more Razors, and possibly carry it on for the next few weeks. But for now, here is Razor one, as I return to enjoying my mid-year work leave.

And here is my counsel: there is no perfect time to take a leave from work. If you think you need it, take it—Tempus fugit.