Lessons from the Dude

Epistemic closure, in a modern sense, describes the act of stubbornly clinging to a belief system despite evidence to the contrary. In a political example, it's the refusal of educated men and women to acknowledge the overwhelming scientific evidence that suggests that humankind is contributing to the warming of the planet.

That closure is made more durable by the natural human instinct to seek information that buttresses our beliefs, confirms our biases. 

With that as preface, none of it is relevant to this discussion of an important new article about procrastination. As someone who struggles daily with that particular personal failing, my interest in Jonathan Malesic's hypothesis that procrastination in and of itself is a net positive is purely academic, I assure you. By no means did I read Malesic's piece and immediately file it away as justification for spending most of today lounging around the house and watching sports. 

I would've done that anyway.

Malesic, a professor of theology at King's College, had me at "The challenge is not to stop procrastinating; it is to procrastinate well and without guilt." The New Republic editors didn't hurt their cause by featuring a photo of the Dude abiding above the headline. Jeffrey Lebowski may, in fact, be the poster boy for procrastinating well and without guilt.

Couching his argument in the context of an increasingly knowledge-based and always-on work environment, Malesic proposes that procrastination is healthy, even necessary. "Procrastination, then, is not a failure of will; it is instead a rational way to safeguard self and sanity against work’s expansion."

I've always considered myself a rational person. Now I've got confirmation. Which in no way implies that I'm reading into Malesic's work a meaning that justifies my instinct. No way at all.

Here I am (and Monday I'll be) safeguarding self and sanity. May you feel good about putting off today what could be done tomorrow.