Laziness is not a bug, it is THE feature

I’m a big fan of man-made green spaces. Big, perfectly manicured lawns at the heart of college and corporate campuses. Master-planned city parks. Thoughtfully-designed little pockets of grass, trees, and shaped hedges tucked into the middle of otherwise crowded blocks. I live in the east bay of San Francisco and work in the city’s financial district and, as with many other large urban/suburban areas, you find these little pockets of green all over the place.

Similar to most people living in or near a city, I often go months at a time without finding or having the opportunity to spend time in any kind of real wilderness. To get up close and personal with nature. These green spaces, in a small way, scratch that itch for me. They provide an oasis in an otherwise harsh and lifeless concrete environment. That said, I usually find myself ever so slightly irritated whenever I do take the time to enjoy one of these outdoor sanctuaries.

More often than not, these refuges have areas that are meant to be walked on and those that are not. Usually the two are demarcated by premeditated paths laid out by the planners. Picture a line of those broad, flat stones or pavers connecting one side of a green area to another. Or a wood-chipped trail wrapping around and/or through a green area. Or an actual paved sidewalk. These pathways are put there to guide a person from point A to point B while also helping to maintain the aesthetic of the park. You can guess what happens once the park is opened to the public. Walking paths that were not intended by the designers are worn into the lawn, or between the bushes and trees, scaring the green space with an ugly dirt path. I always find this disconcerting and a thought usually jumps to mind: “People are so lazy.”

Being “lazy” is generally frowned upon and laziness would appear to be indefensible. We tell each other that “idol hands are the devil’s workshop” and “laziness is the sibling of starvation”. We even cast laziness a deadly sin. But, the truth is, people ARE lazy. In the majority of circumstances, most people, most of the time, will try to minimize the amount of effort they have to expend. That’s the thing, being lazy is much more about economy of effort than it is some kind of sinful sloth. Through this lens, “lazy” no longer feels like a four-letter word, resonating instead as a kind of common sense. In the case of our green spaces example, these dirt paths simply represent a less resistant way to get from A to B.

Now, to be fair, I am guilty of walking where the path isn’t as much as the next person. That makes me a hypocrite when it comes accusing others of being lazy in this regard, or any regard for that matter. But so are you. Rather than be irritated by each other’s perceived laziness, we should expect it. “Laziness” is not a bug in our behavioral code to be fixed, it is a core feature.

The Law of Least Effort

As we discussed in a previous post, human beings have limited attention spans. We are incapable of paying attention to everything all the time. As such, we must choose where to focus our attention, what to prioritize, and what to spend energy on, energy that is also a finite and expensive resource in its own right.

How do we decide? And why does it matter from a behavioral science perspective? Allow me to pass the mic to someone with just a bit more authority…

In his book Thinking Fast and Slow, renowned psychologist and forefather of behavioral science Daniel Kahneman tells us “A general ‘law of least effort’ applies to cognitive as well as physical exertion. The law asserts that if there are several ways of achieving the same goal, people will eventually gravitate to the least demanding course of action. In the economy of action, effort is a cost, and the acquisition of skill is driven by the balance of benefits and costs. Laziness is built deep into our nature.”

We are lazy because effort comes at a cost. Specifically, effort costs energy, of which we only have so much. And, when given a choice among options, we choose the least demanding so that our energy is conserved for if and when we may need it in the future, which has proven to be an evolutionarily successful strategy.

The better we come to understand ourselves and the universe we live in, the clearer it becomes that laziness is ordained by the very creator him/herself. Look around. The Law of Least Effort is all over the place:

• Water and electricity flow according to it. (Principle of Least Action)
• Wild wolves (arguably) became domesticated dogs because of it. (Evolutionary Psychology)
• Information-seeking is governed by it. (Principle of Least Effort)
• The study of linguistics recognizes it. (Zipf’s Law)
• Spiritual guru Deepak Chopra named it one of his seven founding laws. (Law of Least Effort)
• And so on…

The Law of Least Effort is vital to the study of behavioral science because it is a deterministic, or predictive, description of human behavior. Fortunately for us, awareness of this universal law has been passed down through the ages, confirming what behavioral science has only just begun to formally define.

The Path of Least Resistance

Sometime in the early 1800’s scientists and engineers coined the phrase “path of least resistance” as way to describe the properties of electricity and mechanical actions (e.g. the flow of electricity takes follows the path of least resistance). The “path of least resistance” beautifully and concisely captures the essence of the Law of Least Effort. Today, though you may not have thought of them in the context of behavioral science, you are familiar with a variety of sayings that are derived from the same core economy-of-effort principal:

• Around 600 BCE, Lao-Tzu, author of the Tao Te Ching, encouraged his followers to “Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.”
• In the 20th century, Bruce Lee told us to “be like water.”
• Athletes in various sports are taught to “run downhill.”
• We frequently tell ourselves to “swim with the current.”

If you’ve ever used one of these gems in inspiring someone else to take the path of least resistance, or simply encouraged them to “go with the flow”, you were communicating the same Law of Least Effort wisdom has been shared among human beings for thousands of years.

Occasionally these sayings come with a greater focus on the efficiency or effectiveness view of the Law of Least Effort:

• When harvesting a field or tackling a project, it is wise to start with the “low hanging-fruit”.
• When possible, you should take advantage of opportunities to “kill two birds with one stone”.
• And back in ancient Sumer, “In a household of several grown-up young men, the hoe and the work basket must cultivate the fields.”

Given all this — the rock-solid logic of arguments made by Kahneman, et al, the universal pursuit of the “path of least resistance” by all types of physical phenomena, and the abundance of time-tested “go with the flow” sayings — it would seem as though humanity is overdue to give up the fight against laziness. But it’s not quite that simple.

When it comes to acquiescing to the Law of Least Effort, we are definitely not resting on our laurels.

Being Industrious

Though we are lazy, the vast majority of people also recognize the virtue of being industrious. To say the least, none of humanity’s great achievements — the Great Pyramids, the Roman Empire, landing on the moon, the internet, etc. — would have happened if everyone was just laying around chillin’. Nobody would rationally argue that we would be better off as a species without the many wondrous things we have accomplished in the relatively the name of industriousness.

It is, in fact, virtuous to be industrious. To be proactive. To set a goal and take conscious, effortful steps towards it. We know this to be true, which we have acknowledged throughout history with an equal abundance of time-tested industrious idioms:

• Students in the ancient, Latin-speaking world learned that “the gods assist industriousness”
• Thomas Jefferson warned that “Men as well as rivers grow crooked by following the path of least resistance.” (This is perhaps the sharpest rebuke of the Law of Least Effort)
• We already mentioned the biblical teaching that “idol hands are the devil’s workshop”.
• Most every knows that “the early bird gets the worm”.
• We are often encouraged to “go the extra mile” and “fight tooth and nail”.
• And it’s been said that “only dead fish go with the flow.” (Another direct shot at the Law of Least Effort)

These are not the beliefs of a species satisfied with simply giving in to their laziness.

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Here we are, each of us locked in a tug-of-war between being lazy and being industrious. The Law of Least Effort is a natural law and nothing we say or do will change the fact that it is hard-wired into the very essence of our universe. We do well to accept and acknowledge its inevitable effects on individuals and on society at-large, adoptimg a more nuanced view of what it means to be “lazy”. At the same time, we must continue to move the goal posts of progress forward. We must strive for the next great milestone of achievement. We must embrace the virtue of industriousness. Though not exactly a natural law, being industrious is what affords our position as king of earth’s castle.

Striking a balance between the two is, at times, an impossible challenge. Perhaps our lazy/industrious tug-of-war will never end. From a behavioral science perspective, perhaps this tension is a critcal part of the secret sauce that pushes our species forward.

Whatever the case, next time I’m strolling through a city park, I’m going to look for the path of least resistance in those rogue paths and, rather than spend energy condemning the laziness of others, maybe I’ll come up with a whole new way to navigate green spaces that will eliminate dirt scars all together (but don’t hold your breath, that sounds like a lot of work).