Michelle Medley over at Worthwhile had an interesting post this week about lifetime laziness.  She cites the message of Stanton Ballard, geologist, geophysicist and inventor of "Mr. Ballard's Lazy Lecture:” if you want to be lazy over a lifetime, work harder in high school, college or grad school.  Ballard's view is, work hard now for a good job later that will earn you twice as much money, working half the time. If you take the lazy route in high school, you'll work all your life for half the money in a job you don't even like.

I don’t think I agree with this.  As someone who worked my butt off from nursery school on, and as someone who continues to work my butt off to this day, I just don’t think the world operates this way.  I think the only way anyone can get away with being lazy is if he or she is independently wealthy.  If you have any kind of job in this economy, you’re going to work pretty hard.  Most of the people I know are in traditionally “white collar” jobs in the business world.  They studied diligently to get into and graduate from good colleges.  As a result of their station in life, they have access to cool, cutting-edge technology like Blackberry that allows them to work even harder, for even more hours. 

I also don’t believe that working hard when you’re young guarantees you a job you’re passionate about.  One of the commonalities among people who have jobs they love is how hard they’re willing to work for that career NOW.  In fact, many of them made mistakes while they were younger that taught them the value of a strong work ethic. 

I can see what Ballard is getting at.  He wants to encourage kids to work hard in high school.  As well he should.  But it seems a little misleading to tell them that this treadmill they’re running on is only temporary.