Lazy Work, Good Work - Morgan Housel  ## Metadata - Author: **Morgan Housel** - Full Title: Lazy Work, Good Work - Category: #articles - URL: https://collabfund.com/blog/lazy-work-good-work/ ## Highlights - Here’s a problem we don’t think about enough: Even as more professions look like Rockefeller’s – thought jobs that require quiet time to think a problem through – we’re stuck in the old world where a good employee is expected to labor, visibly and without interruption. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hz6syy02ya1ntkmpq4ak7hx0)) - If you anchor to the old world where good work meant physical action, it’s hard to wrap your head around the idea that the most productive use of a knowledge-worker’s time could be sitting on a couch thinking. But it’s so clear that it is. Good ideas rarely come in meetings, or even at your desk. They come to you in the shower. On a walk. On your commute, or hanging out on the weekend. I’m always amazed at the number of famous ideas that [came to people](http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2011/08/25/warren-buffetts-bank-of-america-deal-sparked-in-the-bathtub/) in the bathtub. But tell your boss you require a mid-day soak, and the response is entirely predictable. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hz6t2n9c2x7kn73a4aygaqez)) - Albert Einstein put it this way: > I take time to go for long walks on the beach so that I can listen to what is going on inside my head. If my work isn’t going well, I lie down in the middle of a workday and gaze at the ceiling while I listen and visualize what goes on in my imagination. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hz6t3v7vqnhc2xeasqpp7tkn)) - Mozart felt the same way: > When I am traveling in a carriage or walking after a good meal or during the night when I cannot sleep–it is on such occasions that my ideas flow best and most abundantly. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hz6t47e0n2e285fz9saxem10)) - Bill Gates got his best work done on [what looked like](http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB111196625830690477) vacation: > “Hi, thanks for coming,” said Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates, appearing eager for company after four days alone at the waterfront cottage. He was there for his “Think Week,” a seven-day stretch of seclusion he uses to ponder the future of technology and then propagate those thoughts across the Microsoft empire. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hz6t57nyjdatsr2x2hqvgvvk)) - In investing, where there’s the potential to win by pure luck, it’s wise to judge someone by their process, rather than their outcome. Work may be the opposite. Judge people by their outcomes, not by the visibility of their process, which is often hidden inside their head. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hz6t6mby30e0434z0s3x2jm2))