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5ee7d9f
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Behaving as if you are better than others shows a lack of regard for other people.
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Tom Hodgkinson |
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f6e2a91
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Sembra un paradosso ma per x esser davvero oziosi bisogna essere efficienti
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Tom Hodgkinson |
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0357ea2
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Sembra un paradosso ma per essere davvero oziosi bisogna essere efficienti
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Tom Hodgkinson |
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ed952a6
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Life has been reduced to a series of long periods of boredom in the office punctuated by high-octane "experiences" which you can rack up on your list of things to do before you die. That's not really living: that is slavery with the occasional circus thrown in."
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slavery
life
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Tom Hodgkinson |
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99a223f
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Coffee is for winners, go-getters, tea-ignorers, lunch-cancellers, early-risers, guilt-ridden strivers, money obsessives and status-driven spiritually empty lunatics. It is an enervating force. We should resist it and embrace tea, the ancient drink of poets, philosophers and meditators.
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Tom Hodgkinson |
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76ec457
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take responsibility for our lives and recognize that we choose how we react to situations and that we can choose to be free if we so wish.
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Tom Hodgkinson |
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97dcf94
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Der Mussigganger hat den Wunsch, standig ein gutes Leben zu haben, nicht nur an Samstagabenden.
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müßiggang
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Tom Hodgkinson |
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65f77a0
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Wir kommen uns klein vor unter den Sternen, aber paradoxerweise fuhlen wir uns mehr bei uns. Wir sind, wer wir sind.
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sterne
leben
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Tom Hodgkinson |
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53e34c8
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The first drink of the day brings us into the present moment: we become Buddhists. That first drink also has a physically restorative effect. I find I can spend all day complaining about being tired, listless, lacking in energy, desperate for sleep. Then at six, in the pub or at home, with a pint of foaming nut-brown ale before me instead of a computer screen, I will suddenly perk up. Energy will rush back into my body. I am alive. And with..
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Tom Hodgkinson |
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c5c5e02
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Let us add also that the urban pub has been fiercely undermined by the gym. Instead of heading straight to the pub after work, an increasing number of pleasure-hating lunatics appear to enjoy going to the gym, where instead of quaffing foaming pints of nut-brown ale in convivial company they run alone on treadmills while watching MTV on giant screens to distract them from their agony. If you really want to exercise, then why not find a pub ..
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Tom Hodgkinson |
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23e6658
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No! Be weak! Give up! You can't do everything. Lower your standards. Get friends to come and help you.
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Tom Hodgkinson |
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c49dc5e
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it is while prone that ideas come. "A writer could get more ideas for his articles or his novels in this posture than he could by sitting doggedly before his desk morning and afternoon," writes Lin Yutang in his essay "On Lying in Bed."
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Tom Hodgkinson |
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e241e0c
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But, sadly, our manly struggle to conform to the slave-like work rhythms of present-day custom has led to the nap being replaced by that costly and damaging drink, coffee. As paracetamol is to the cold, so coffee is to the nap: a way of riding it out, a sort of competition with one's own body, a civil war. When we feel tired after lunch, the socially acceptable solution is to dose up on coffee and ride out the tiredness, rather than simply ..
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Tom Hodgkinson |
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5fc2c62
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How much better life would be if we began the day with a poem rather than the empty prattle of newspapers, with their diet of fear, hate, envy and jealousy.
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Tom Hodgkinson |
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2e907b6
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In the West, we have become addicted to work. Americans now work the longest hours in the world. And the result is not health, wealth and wisdom, but rather a lot of anxiety, a lot of ill health and a lot of debt.
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Tom Hodgkinson |
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6436a06
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the job was invented in order to make things easier for those at the top.
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Tom Hodgkinson |
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593b60a
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Long periods of languor, indolence and staring at the ceiling are needed by any creative person in order to develop ideas.
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Tom Hodgkinson |
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b1aafb3
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We need to claim lunch back. It is our natural right. It has been stolen from us by our rulers. The fear that keeps you chained to your desk, staring at your screen, does not serve your spirit. Lunch is a time to forget about being sensible, practical, efficient. A proper lunch should be spiritually as well as physically nourishing. Cosy, convivial, a treat; lunch is for loafers.
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Tom Hodgkinson |
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7308b86
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Governments appreciate terrorists, because they provide a good advertisement for the need for government, for its protection. They love wars, because they give government a reason for existing - to save us from the infidel.
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Tom Hodgkinson |
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4847383
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the dogma of hard work--which is deeply embedded in contemporary notions of what it means to be American--is what keeps us toiling and keeps us happy to be exploited in this way.
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Tom Hodgkinson |
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4ac8a90
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the myth suggests to us that a "good job" will offer us ample money, a social life, status and work which we will find "rewarding." It's actually astonishing how little we pause to reflect on these terms when at school or college."
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Tom Hodgkinson |
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23f08ad
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But we are moaning about the very lives that we have created for ourselves...We were free to go and retire alone in Goa and live on the beach for the rest of our lives, childless and free. But we chose not to do that. And then we complained.
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Tom Hodgkinson |
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de1b075
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art's purpose: "[What art] seeks to disturb is monotony of type, slavery of custom, tyranny of habit, and the reduction of man to the level of a machine."
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Tom Hodgkinson |
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40148ac
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even though, as children, we hear our parents complaining every night about their bosses or co-workers, it doesn't put us off the world of work. We think it will be different for us.
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Tom Hodgkinson |
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b9e72a7
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Better to have lots of time than lots of money in those early years. There will be time later for earning.
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Tom Hodgkinson |
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c7937c7
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To walk out of your front door as if you've just arrived from a foreign country; to discover the world in which you already live; to begin the day as if you've just gotten off the boat from Singapore and have never seen your own doormat or the people on the landing . . . it is this that reveals the humanity before you, unknown until now.
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Tom Hodgkinson |
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810b46a
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there is a lot to enjoy in life if you make the effort to go out there and drink it in.
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Tom Hodgkinson |
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65685e0
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one lives as if one "might miss out on something." --
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Tom Hodgkinson |
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8791470
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The great management guru Charles Handy says that, as far as money goes, you have to look after yourself. He reckons you may need to do something else as well as your "passion project" to earn money, particularly in the early stages of a new business"
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Tom Hodgkinson |
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5cfd3e2
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A business plan is a campaign, a strategy, an outline of what you want to do and how you plan to do it. And you need to write one whether or not you are looking for finance.
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Tom Hodgkinson |
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a4d45df
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Your business plan should tell a compelling story. It should present a problem that you are going to fix.
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Tom Hodgkinson |
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9620703
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Include some material in your business plan about your competition. Become obsessed by your competition. You may think you have none, but you do.
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Tom Hodgkinson |
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c981f78
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sembra un paradosso ma per esser davvero oziosi bisogna essere efficienti
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Tom Hodgkinson |
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59a02bd
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It's hard to drift off into nowhereland when your arousal hormones are circulating wildly as a result of your rage at mobile-phone users. Fantasies of hurling their mobile phones from the train window tend to disturb the search for inner calm.
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Tom Hodgkinson |
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2ab3697
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the fat cats used to send us into the mills to make their millions, and now they send us to the shopping centres.
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Tom Hodgkinson |
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b81d19a
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If we realized that meditation simply means staring into space, then it would be more accessible to more people. It's easy. A window is all you need. I remember being at school and being able to spend 20 minutes straight just staring out of the window. This is meditation, although my teachers called it daydreaming. Windows are free, and they are everywhere. They are on trains, on the top deck of buses, and most houses have loads of them. Re..
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Tom Hodgkinson |
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d05ed4c
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You don't get ads on the Underground saying: "Tired? Then Sleep More," as no one has figured out how to make money this way."
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Tom Hodgkinson |
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f9c4dc0
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Martin also reveals the many scientific studies that have shown the benefits of long sleeping and napping to our health and happiness, and also shows how major disasters such as Chernobyl, and smaller ones such as train and motorway crashes, were caused by lack of sleep. Chasing profit leads to lack of sleep, and lack of sleep can lead to death.
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Tom Hodgkinson |
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97e2464
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The moon and the stars are soothing constants in an idler's life.
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Tom Hodgkinson |
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6e9cbb6
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Their contemplation seems to reconnect us with a childlike sense of wonder at the mysteries of the universe. They are literally other-worldly, and so remove us from the world and its cares; they lift us off the ground.
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Tom Hodgkinson |
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a38b542
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The stars are a tantalizing mystery. And the great thing is that the stars are free, in that they cost nothing to watch, and can be seen from anywhere by anyone.
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Tom Hodgkinson |
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ead0575
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We feel small under the stars, yet paradoxically we feel more ourselves. We are who we are.
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Tom Hodgkinson |
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c270e46
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The lie-in--by which I mean lying in bed awake--is not a selfish indulgence but an essential tool for any student of the art of living, which is what the idler really is. Lying in bed doing nothing is noble and right, pleasurable and productive.
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Tom Hodgkinson |
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d6cf99d
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I count it as an absolute certainty that in paradise, everyone naps. A nap is a perfect pleasure and it's useful, too. It splits the day into two halves, making each half more manageable and enjoyable. How much easier it is to work in the morning if we know we have a nap to look forward to after lunch; and how much more pleasant the late afternoon and evening become after a little sleep.
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Tom Hodgkinson |