"On a recent flight I sat next to a businessman who told me that, even at their young age, his children were exhibiting very different personalities. He saw signs of his wife's overachieving tendencies in their son. In his daughter, he saw himself. In the first grade she was getting lectured for not applying herself enough. She, too, was a slacker.
He was frustrated by her slacking ways, but he also sympathized because she showed traits of his business mindset.
"She does her own little cost-benefit analysis," he said. "She realizes that she can do just enough to get by and use the rest of that time for playing and having fun."
I had never thought of slacking off in those terms, but he was right. I've known my share of slackers, and most of them are intelligent people who could easily upstage everyone else's efforts if they applied themselves
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