h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

By the theory of the article, it should not be entitled "The Edicts of Laziness" but rather, "The Edicts of Stupidity." If, as stated in scenario 1, a lazy person were in the shower without their favorite shampoo/conditioner combo they would just combine what is present in the shower and make their own combo. The truely lazy person would see that leaving to buy more would require more work than was absolutely necessary. And in the second scenario, would a truely lazy person be hauling rocks at all?! Of course not! They would employ a neighborhood child to do it at a very low rate of pay. That way, they would exert the least amount of energy and time to the task.

Damn right. The only difference between the amount of work a lazy person does and minimum work possible, is the work now, work later principle by which a lazy person will quite happily swap a small amount of work now for a huge amount of work later, as it means less work to do now. Perhaps they will die between the two deadlines, thus they have avoided the work.