Legacy of Laziness

Having forgotten to blog last Monday, I'm morally bound to resume today. The way I figure it, people can forgive one slip, but two puts you into "unreliable slacker" territory. And that's not a land I want to inhabit. So here goes, with some thoughts on our progressive laziness as humans (perhaps inspired by my overwhelming desire to go to bed instead of folding laundry, washing the floor or doing any one of the other myriad items on my to-do list):

It occurs to me that with each passing generation, we humans become increasingly lazy. Imagine waaaaaaaaaaaaay back in time before the broom was invented. There’s dirt on your floor (did they even have floors before brooms were invented? Not sure, but work with me). What do you do? You kneel down and you pick up the dirt, speck by tiny speck. It's tedious, bad for the back and generally inefficient. Then someone creates this brilliant technology called the "broom" where you just have to sweep the dirt across the floor and – like magic, you have a clean floor. Life is good.

Pretty soon, though, people start complaining about having to sweep the floor. “Ugh. I have to sweep the floor. I ate sweeping the floor. I can’t believe I have to sweep the floor!”

Eventually, someone invents the vacuum – ta da! Clean floor, very little effort. Life is good. But give it a generation and it’s “Ugh. I have to vacuum. I hate vacuuming. I can’t believe I have to vacuum.”

So now someone’s invented the robot vacuum, which essentially cleans the floor for you, maneuvering around your furniture and even returning itself to its docking station. All you have to do is push a button. Just you wait - I give it a generation as a novelty before we hear: “Ugh. I have to press the button. I hate pressing the button. I can’t believe I have to press the button!”