Originally published on Dr. Z's Two Cents, February 17, 2026.
Laziness Does Not Exist (2021) by Dr. Devon Price, PhD
Greetings once again, dearest of Blog Readers!
I'm trying something new (again!) and have challenged myself to expand my reading repertoire and share some takeaways here on my corner of the internet. Welcome to my first pro-fersonal (that is, professional and personal) book report & recommendation!
My first introduction to Dr. Devon Price was via Price's 2022 book Unmasking Autism, which was published the same year I received an official ADHD diagnosis.
I discovered Price's Unmasking Autism the following year. The content piqued my interest, having fairly recently reconciled my own 'look...a sparkly squirrel!' variety of neurodivergence, I wondered more about the mysteriously controversial 'autism spectrum'.
Within the first several minutes of listening to Unmasking Autism (who doesn't enjoy being read to...especially by the author?!), the gentle, unwavering words spoken by the author brought me to my knees as I sobbed like I had never before shed a tear... feeling proverbially 'seen' in a way I had longed for since childhood, yet had never been acknowledged, let alone defined.
Phew!
You're probably thinking, "that's great and all, Doc...what does this have to do with the book you originally mentioned???"
In my truest neurospicy fashion, first I must of course provide you with all the context my brain deems relevant to set the scene as to how I came to select Laziness Does Not Exist (2021) for this post.
Living during this time in history (insert the LOUDEST eye roll here), where we have 24/7 access to Al Green's Internet (thank you, @Dr. Lori Croom), and an onslaught of unfiltered information, fast-tracked by the rise of AI in the name of who knows what...is a lot.
The following are some takeaways that really resonated with me as it relates to how we can choose to exist in 2026:
According to Price (2021, p.15)
The Laziness Lie has three main tenets:
1. Your worth is your productivity.
2. You cannot trust your own feelings and limits.
3. There is always more you could be doing.
Hopefully it isn't much of a surprise then that the "collective fear and hatred of laziness has its roots in the history of slavery and capitalism" (Price, 2021, p. 75). Because of course it does.
Price (2021) provides receipts from a variety of research throughout the book, including reiterating the need for us to "detach from the idea that our productivity defines our worth" (p.127).
The author challenges readers to consume less more meaningfully, reminding us that "we're living in an era of information overload-- and the solution is not to learn more but to step back and consume a smaller amount of data in a more meaningful way" (p. 134).
There is a lot to unpack in Price's 2021 book, and in the interest of time and my own attention span for this edition....the author leaves us with the following to consider: compassion kills the laziness lie.
The Laziness Lie teaches us that people who do more are worth more. When we buy into that method of assigning value to people, we doom ourselves to a life of insecurity and judgment. The remedy of this is boundless compassion [...] If your life has value no matter how productive you are, so does every other human life. (206)
[IMAGE FROM ORIGINAL POST]
For your pondering: what is one way life could look different for you outside of the laziness lie framework?
Bonus: What if instead of viewing productivity as the ultimate indicator of value, we viewed how we live out our values (that is, what is most important to us individually) as beneficial to the greater collective?
Thanks for joining me again in these ongoing unprecedented times...energetically sending ease & love your way.
In Solidarity,
Dr. Rachel