
Researchers in Germany are giving out scholarships in “idleness” - sm4rk0
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/germany-grants-laziness-scholarships-do-nothing-university-hamburg-a9681466.html
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dfxm12
Sometimes the only winning move is not to play.

The headline does make a joke of it, but consider the mission: _“If we want to
live in a society that consumes less energy, wastes fewer resources, [the
constant success spiral] is not the right system of values,” Professor von
Borries told Germany’s Deutsche Welle broadcaster._

Some successes certainly are worth wasting resources on, and I'm sure no
oncologists will get approved for this scholarship. There is a great deal of
busy and redundant work out there though. No one should be stuck doing that...

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this_user
"Researchers" is perhaps saying a bit much. It is an art school that is doing
this, so it probably counts more as an art project.

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sitkack
I am willing to spend in a cabin overlooking a lake, perhaps more of a pond.

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zwieback
To get the scholarship the applicant has to explain what they will stop doing
and how it might improve their life or the environment around them. So it's
not really money for nothing...

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itronitron
Sounds like work.

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droopyEyelids
unless you've thought about all the eternalized effects of your job.

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Stevvo
Is anyone _intentionally_ idle?

People that are considered idle have as many hopes, dreams and desires as the
most productive. Things get in the way like procrastination, depression,
malaise etc.

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aj7
As it is, Germany’s permissive culture can turn a bachelor’s degree into a
five-year fully paid for party.

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dgellow
What do you mean? You're not paid as a student, you still have to get some
income from somewhere.

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thelastinuit
Huh, if i take that scholarship, i will end up dead by the end of the week.
Suicide.

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tengbretson
Really putting the "scholar" in scholarship I see.

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082349872349872
"The institution of a leisure class is found in its best development at the
higher stages of the barbarian culture..."

According to Veblen, “saying, ‘I have time to dream … meet friends, put up my
feet – I have time to do nothing?’” has been and is the way to gain social
prestige.

> "But the whole of the life of the gentleman of leisure is not spent before
> the eyes of the spectators who are to be impressed with that spectacle of
> honorific leisure which in the ideal scheme makes up his life. For some part
> of the time his life is perforce withdrawn from the public eye, and of this
> portion which is spent in private the gentleman of leisure should, for the
> sake of his good name, be able to give a convincing account. He should find
> some means of putting in evidence the leisure that is not spent in the sight
> of the spectators."

is no longer a problem in the age of the cell phone.

