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Labour-saving devices just make us try to cram more pointless activities into each day, rather than doing the important thing, which is to enjoy our life.

Tom Hodgkinson

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Tom Hodgkinson
Age: 56
Born: 1968
Born: January 1
Bookseller
Essayist
Journalist
Writer
Newcastle
Make
Labour
Life
Saving
Activity
Rather
Enjoy
Cram
Important
Pointless
Thing
Activities
Trying
Devices

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I think it's good to look at how people lived before, and then take the best bits of that culture and try to mix it in with your own.
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I suddenly realised, hey, I'm not a lazy idiot, I'm an idler! It's something to aspire to, it's part of the creative process! That's fantastic!
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The best thing that can happen to anybody is to be sacked or made redundant because often that's when you think, I don't want to become one of the living dead. I haven't got anything to lose, now I can start to follow my own dreams.
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When walking you see things that you miss in a motor car or on the train. You give your mind space to ponder.
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I would like to propose slow cycling. Commute by bike. At a stroke, you remove the need for and absurd cost of public transport. Cycling is almost completely free. There is no longer any need for the gym as you get fit by cycling. And you can go at your own pace.
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Doing something you enjoy at times of your own choosing and making a living from it: now tell me, is that work?
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We have become so obsessed by numbers and by bottom lines that beauty and truth has been knocked aside.
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Embrace the faff. Stare out of the window. Bend paperclips. Stand in the middle of the room trying to remember what you came downstairs for. Pace. Drum your fingertips. Move papers around. Hum. Look at the garden.
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It will soon be difficult to put up a shelf without a degree in shelf putting up.
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Truly, the bench is a boon to idlers. Whoever first came up with the idea is a genius: free public resting places where you can take time out from the bustle and brouhaha of the city, and simply sit and watch and reflect.
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The art of living is the art of bringing dreams and reality together.
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We have an idea that if something we're doing isn't actually earning money, or spending it, then it's completely worthless. But if you start to work less, you can actually start to give more to society, but on a local level.
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My idea of childcare at festivals is to sit at a trestle table with an ale while the kids run around and make up their own games.
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Sensible people advise against drinking on an empty stomach, but to my mind it is the best sort of drinking.
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Faffing is good. It is an important part of life. Faffing is when we disconnect from the matrix and idle for a while, like a car. Our body and spirit know deep down that human beings were not made for constant toil so subconsciously creates space through the mechanism of faffing.
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There is nothing so perfect as pinball and a pint at 11 a.m.
Tom Hodgkinson
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Idleness allows you to turn a situation from boredom to pleasure.
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Often, the things that a lot of work has gone into have been incredibly bad because they're over-worked.
Tom Hodgkinson
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A conclusion I’ve come to at the Idler is that it starts with retreating from work but it’s really about making work into something that isn’t drudgery and slavery, and then work and life can become one thing.
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It takes a while to master the art of hammock-lounging. At first I could only manage five minutes or so before I thought I ought to get out and go and help a child learn how to swim or something. But after observing the Mexicans' capability for staring into space for hours on end, I decided to put in some proper practice.
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