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Being Lazy Is a Sign of High Intelligence, Study Suggests (independent.co.uk)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Independent: Findings from a U.S.-based study seem to support the idea that people with a high IQ get bored less easily, leading them to spend more time engaged in thought. And active people may be more physical as they need to stimulate their minds with external activities, either to escape their thoughts or because they get bored quickly. Researchers from the Florida Gulf Coast University gave a classic test -- dating back three decades -- to a group of students. The 'need for cognition' questionnaire asked participants to rate how strongly they agree with statements such as "I really enjoy a task that involves coming up with new solutions to problems," and "I only think as hard as I have to." The researchers, led by Todd McElroy, then selected 30 'thinkers' and 30 'non-thinkers' from the pool of candidates. Over the next seven days both groups wore a device on their wrist which tracked their movements and activity levels, providing a constant stream of data on how physically active they were. Results showed the thinking group were far less active during the week than the non-thinkers. "Ultimately, an important factor that may help more thoughtful individuals combat their lower average activity levels is awareness," said McElroy, according to The British Psychological Society. "Awareness of their tendency to be less active, coupled with an awareness of the cost associated with inactivity, more thoughtful people may then choose to become more active throughout the day."
Perhaps the typical Fat Dumb American are actually intelegent people who cannot find work to match their potential.
This isn't other similar research correlating intelligence with other related issues.
Such as intelegent people tend to get paid less than people with lower intelligence. Or People with higher IQ may get caught up in drug addiction.
I think in part much of American values are built on the concept of hard work and not on smart work.
If I am smarter than the next guy and gave a task to do I may get it done in half the time and go home early while the guy who is having a harder time is putting in overtime. Thus he is getting paid more for doing more work however the outcome is the same.
Then we also get the smart guy questioning authority. So the boss will say "Do it this way." While you may think of a better way and the boss doesn't like watching you not following his direction.
Now all this goes down to a link in America correlating obesity with income. So this with other research such as this one helps paint a better picture of the complex issue that we face. Not the simplified tweet or a snarky comic of a fat guy in a wheelchairs with flags and gun going 'Merica!
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
If you pull an all-nighter and write 1000 lines of code, then you're likely in violation of the "I only think as hard as I have to" part.
If, on the other hand, you spent your time daydreaming, a light bulb came on while you were taking a shower, and the net result is 20 minutes of work and 30 lines of brilliant code, then you qualify.
But management will ding you, because while you're supposed to work smarter and not harder, if they don't see you "working", then you're "obviously" not being "productive". So keep doing those all-nighters and job security will be yours. Maybe.
This looks more like the people who *think* they are intelligent are lazy.
It is not just about being lazy, but about what you do with your laziness. The most intelligent goof off by posting on Slashdot.
You fall into the category of people who think they are intelligent; some of the most intelligent may goof off on Slashdot whereas others don't. But I'll tell you one thing they don't do - make categorical statements about subjective concepts.
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