The Right to Be Lazy (1883)
Paul Graham has a very nice perspective on this: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.paulgraham.com&#x2F;opensource.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.paulgraham.com&#x2F;opensource.html</a> (2005)<p>&quot;I think the most important of the new principles business has to learn is that people work a lot harder on stuff they like. Well, that&#x27;s news to no one. So how can I claim business has to learn it? When I say business doesn&#x27;t know this, I mean the structure of business doesn&#x27;t reflect it.<p>Business still reflects an older model, exemplified by the French word for working: travailler. It has an English cousin, travail, and what it means is torture.<p>This turns out not to be the last word on work, however. As societies get richer, they learn something about work that&#x27;s a lot like what they learn about diet. We know now that the healthiest diet is the one our peasant ancestors were forced to eat because they were poor. Like rich food, idleness only seems desirable when you don&#x27;t get enough of it. I think we were designed to work, just as we were designed to eat a certain amount of fiber, and we feel bad if we don&#x27;t.&quot;