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Never Work: Essays against the Sale of Life
Work or die is a threat presented as a choice. A few people claim to own the world. When we do not permit them to reap what we sow, they send their lackeys to starve us, imprison us, even kill us. They have succeeded in convincing many people that work is freedom, that it is good for us to toil so that they may profit. Yet from the first day they levied this threat, we have resisted.
287 pages, Paperback
Published July 15, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
December 10, 2025
A nice collection of essays for the individual spanning over a century that rip into the “social duty” of devitalizing work and labor. Most are smart, well written and devilishly motivating to reclaim your time by whatever means possible. Unfortunately, with some of the more recent ones you do get leftist junk (rantings about white supremacy, etc) as well as plenty of utopianism, but not enough to really stain the book.
My favorite essay is Take Things from Work, The Strategy of Appearance, The Audacity of Real Life as a Tactic by Ummfatik about how the author over a five year period working at a firm decades ago was able to carve out a niche position for himself in the shadows, thus minimizing oversight as well as simultaneously creating unique value to protect himself, using all this to whittle down hours of weekly time spent actually working. It had a beautiful Office Space vibe to it, except smarter and with more determination. At one point the author mentions having sex in the afternoon on the clock *chef’s kiss*
Work hard, but only in the service of your passions or when absolutely necessary, working smart is always better, and not working at all is best, just make sure the fruits of your labor are reaped by you when you do work, otherwise the goal is always to reclaim as much time as possible for yourself. Intentionally sitting on the toilet longer than necessary during company time is just the start, take it further and steal materials from your job, think up some schemes to obscure oversight and skim money off the top and to the side, involve others at work in these schemes if you can, especially if you’re employed at some mega corp. Shag women in your boss’s office and tell coworkers about it. See it as a game and a challenge to take as far as you can. Fight back and make it fun. Done correctly, you’ll be revered and loved for it.
The Protestant Work Ethic is for suckers. The ancients viewed labor as fit for slaves and peasants. Channel their spirit of aristocratic laziness and leisure as an end in itself. These essays will help with that. And like another reviewer said, read them on the clock if you can get away with it.
My favorite essay is Take Things from Work, The Strategy of Appearance, The Audacity of Real Life as a Tactic by Ummfatik about how the author over a five year period working at a firm decades ago was able to carve out a niche position for himself in the shadows, thus minimizing oversight as well as simultaneously creating unique value to protect himself, using all this to whittle down hours of weekly time spent actually working. It had a beautiful Office Space vibe to it, except smarter and with more determination. At one point the author mentions having sex in the afternoon on the clock *chef’s kiss*
Work hard, but only in the service of your passions or when absolutely necessary, working smart is always better, and not working at all is best, just make sure the fruits of your labor are reaped by you when you do work, otherwise the goal is always to reclaim as much time as possible for yourself. Intentionally sitting on the toilet longer than necessary during company time is just the start, take it further and steal materials from your job, think up some schemes to obscure oversight and skim money off the top and to the side, involve others at work in these schemes if you can, especially if you’re employed at some mega corp. Shag women in your boss’s office and tell coworkers about it. See it as a game and a challenge to take as far as you can. Fight back and make it fun. Done correctly, you’ll be revered and loved for it.
The Protestant Work Ethic is for suckers. The ancients viewed labor as fit for slaves and peasants. Channel their spirit of aristocratic laziness and leisure as an end in itself. These essays will help with that. And like another reviewer said, read them on the clock if you can get away with it.
October 5, 2022
Hell yeah to this great collection of essays. Make sure to read it during your 9 to 5.
September 24, 2022
A great collection of essays capturing the spirit and theory of anti-work in a timely way.
June 27, 2024
FORREAL!!!! informative and fun
March 6, 2025
read most of this while smoking cigs on the clock and stealing from my job. 9/10 would recommend
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews