Tuesday, September 05, 2006

Laziness is the new hard work

Don't know if you've noticed, but hard work is sooo last season. There's a whole slew of books arguing that hard work is overrated and that laziness and loafing are much more fun.

So Corinne Maier's book 'Bonjour Laziness' is a rant about the meaningful bureaucracy of office life from the organisational lingo we have to adopt to the rubbish tasks we're asked to do.

Don't expect to learn anything that will transform your life, but it's a pretty entertaining book if you've ever wanted to slap your boss over some of the sheer silliness that goes on at work.

I picked up 'City Slackers' in a bookshop a few weeks ago just 'cause it has such a great title. (Oh, if you're ever trying to get a book published, make sure you have a great title - as a great title and average content will outsell great content but a so-so title).

Turns out that the author, Steve McKevitt, and I have something in common. His PR firm does the publicity for Cyan Books (who publish a handful of my books). He's a bit of a cynic, but a pretty funny one at that - arguing that it's possible to have a successful career without ever having to be involved in a successful job or project. The book has plenty of fairly amusing anecdotes about playing the corporate game to further your own ends without ever accomplishing anything. There's a fair bit of truth in his argument - so sit up and take notice!