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We have become so obsessed by numbers and by bottom lines that beauty and truth has been knocked aside.

Tom Hodgkinson

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Tom Hodgkinson
Age: 56
Born: 1968
Born: January 1
Bookseller
Essayist
Journalist
Writer
Newcastle
Aside
Obsessed
Bottom
Numbers
Lines
Beauty
Become
Truth
Knocked

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The art of living is the art of bringing dreams and reality together.
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Bosses should sanction the nap rather than expect workers to power on all day without repose. They might even find that workers' happiness - or what management types refer to as employee satisfaction results - might improve.
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When the going gets tough, the tough take a nap.
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Idleness allows you to turn a situation from boredom to pleasure.
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Deleting 200 spams a day is a drag. And I was checking my email constantly, rather than getting on with my real work, which is reading and writing. Email was becoming a distraction, a burden rather than a liberation.
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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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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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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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Faffing of course does not fit the programme. We are supposed to be busy, productive citizens.
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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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I count it as a certainty that in paradise, everyone naps.
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Beauty, pleasure, freedom and plenty of sleep: these are the hallmarks of a successful idler's break. Travel should not be hard work.
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There's nothing new about anti-work philosophy. History is dotted with individuals and groups who decided that laziness was next to godliness and work was a waste of time.
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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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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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The idea of a government is to create an ordered, willing work force where there's no trouble. I think idlers are generally seen as potentially dangerous because they're asking questions.
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I've never understood activity holidays since we seem to have far too much activity in our daily lives as it is. Find a culture where loafing is the order of the day and where they don't understand our need to be constantly doing things. Find somewhere you can have a hammock holiday.
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Although I played a lot of computer games in my 20s, now I have children of my own I hate them with a passion.
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One of the least arduous but most productive of gardening jobs, the magic of deadheading never fails to delight me. It was a revelation when the principle was explained to me: that flowers are the attempt by the plant to reproduce itself. So if you cut the heads off before the flower turns into seeds, the plant will continue to flower.
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Laziness works. And the simple way to incorporate its health benefits into your life is simply to take a nap.
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