# The Joys of Slackerhood **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 27, 2000, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-joys-of-slackerhood/42814 "2000-11-27T01:34:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2000, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-joys-of-slackerhood/42814/1 "2000-11-27T01:34:16Z")
No I’m not a “slacker.” Well actually I am. I’m a closet-slacker. No one at school would believe me if I told them, I don’t think… But I often leave my homework to Sunday. Night, even. I’m a good student and usually can get A’s on things i’ve left to the last minute. (Doing something the night before doesn’t necessarily mean you take out of all the effort!) I know lots of other “smart” kids who do- who have even done essays/small papers the day its due. So my little poll is- How many of you guys were slackers in school? (Or still are?) Were you “good” students? Which classes were you able to get away with this in? Myself I can almost always get away with doing minimum work in French and Latin… ---
**Author:** ![woodstockbirdybird](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/woodstockbirdybird/32/7905_2.png) [@woodstockbirdybird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodstockbirdybird)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2000, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-joys-of-slackerhood/42814/2 "2000-11-27T01:42:58Z")
Yeah, I was always the same way. I don’t think I ever did ANYTHING (including 10-page term papers) until the night before, and even then I made up a bunch of refernces for footnotes. I was an A student, too, so it didn’t hinder me. To be honest, I don’t know if I’ve ever put all my effort into anything I’ve done, but I’ve still managed to get by fine. Usually I’m scared to put everything I’ve got into something, for fear that it will be judged substandard and I’ll realize I’m just a hack. It’s much easier to do things half-assed and then be able to say, “Yeah, I wasn’t really trying too hard” when I get compliments on them. Makes me feel a little guilty, though. ---
**Author:** ![MsRobyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90ced4/32.png) [@MsRobyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsRobyn)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2000, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-joys-of-slackerhood/42814/3 "2000-11-27T01:46:29Z")
I’m definitely a slacker. Even now, with a ton of work still to do, I sit on the Net and post. The work still gets done, and done well, it’s just done later. Robin ---
**Author:** ![Globe-trotter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/cab0a1/32.png) [@Globe-trotter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Globe-trotter)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2000, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-joys-of-slackerhood/42814/4 "2000-11-27T01:48:03Z")
I always did my homework the night before it was due, that is, until I got to college. Then I had to change my way of doing things somewhat. These days, I’m a slacker when it comes to posting here. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Homer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/df788c/32.png) [@Homer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Homer)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2000, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-joys-of-slackerhood/42814/5 "2000-11-27T01:55:39Z")
Oh my. I’m sitting at home, an hour away from school, where I SHOULD be. I have a report to do on Harry Truman/Tom Pendergast. I have a report to do on Indians in movies. I have a report to do on the Korean War. All these are due LAST week. I haven’t even started any of them. I don’t work. I have no money. Not even for Christmas presents. Yet, do I look for work? No. I sit and fucking post. I have shit to do. But I don’t. I’ll probably fail most of my classes this semester. Oh. And I sleep about 12-16 hours a day. Maybe I’m depressed or something. Fuck. Yeah. I’m a fuckin’ slacker. –Tim ---
**Author:** ![whiterabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/cab0a1/32.png) [@whiterabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whiterabbit)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2000, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-joys-of-slackerhood/42814/6 "2000-11-27T02:32:21Z")
I just finished two major papers that are due in the morning. I have known about them since August. Do I qualify? ---
**Author:** ![nashiitashii](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7c8e57/32.png) [@nashiitashii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nashiitashii)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2000, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-joys-of-slackerhood/42814/7 "2000-11-27T02:58:19Z")
I do the minimal amount of work, and lately I just haven’t been doing most of my work in my classes. I’m an A student, I mostly get good grades, and I should really start doing work in history again. Those stupid little essays really tend to kill your grade when you don’t do them. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2000, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-joys-of-slackerhood/42814/8 "2000-11-27T03:40:25Z")
So we slackers are commonplace, then. I guess I don’t feel so bad about sitting around in no underwear listening to music when I should have been…doing a lot of stuff. It is due Tuesday so I don’t care. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![mblackwell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5fc32e/32.png) [@mblackwell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mblackwell)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2000, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-joys-of-slackerhood/42814/9 "2000-11-27T03:45:56Z")
I have a 3-page essay due tomorrow. I really should get started… ---
**Author:** ![absoul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bc8723/32.png) [@absoul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/absoul)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2000, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-joys-of-slackerhood/42814/10 "2000-11-27T04:10:46Z")
I delay needlessly. Throughout school I did the bare minimum and was a B student. It seemed like I was rushing from one late project to the next… I am posting at work when I have a TON of other s\*\*t that needs to get down. Damn, I work better under pressure anyway… ---
**Author:** ![cornflakes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@cornflakes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cornflakes)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2000, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-joys-of-slackerhood/42814/11 "2000-11-27T05:33:29Z")
I had two classes my senior year of high school. After football season, we were still enrolled, didn’t go to class and got A’s. My band instructors agreed to let me create my own music theory class and I bought a book that I looked at once. We scared off every jazz band instructor they threw at us, and seniors got the last period off. All the same, I almost flunked Creative Writing for lack of work. Nowadays I just post here… ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2000, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-joys-of-slackerhood/42814/12 "2000-11-27T15:51:00Z")
I was a slacker in school from early on. In fact, after about 2nd grade, there was a rubber stamp that was handed from teacher to teacher just for me. It read: “Very smart. Would do well if he applied himself.” Hah, I guess I fooled them. ---
**Author:** ![Shut\_Up\_And\_Party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7993a0/32.png) [@Shut\_Up\_And\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shut_Up_And_Party)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2000, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-joys-of-slackerhood/42814/13 "2000-11-27T15:57:28Z")
**As a wise man once said:** “Hard work pays off later. Laziness pays off now.” ---
**Author:** ![Spritle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Spritle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spritle)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2000, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-joys-of-slackerhood/42814/14 "2000-11-27T16:04:30Z")
I was going to post this earliler, but I didn’t get around to it… I wrote my Master’s Thesis in 2 weekends and turned it in the Monday of the deadline. Amazing just how much you you can do when the sun goes down. As I recall, it had something to do with “Hierarchical Linear Modeling and Value-Added Assessments as Statistical Methods to Model Educational Effectiveness”. Whatever. BTW, there seems to be a big difference between Slackhood, procrastination and general laziness. Someday I’ll look into this. ---
**Author:** ![Maeglin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8baadc/32.png) [@Maeglin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maeglin)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2000, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-joys-of-slackerhood/42814/15 "2000-11-27T16:14:51Z")
I’m 22. Occasionally when I am home for the weekend, I run into my seventh grade English teacher at a restaurant. She asks me if I am going to hand in my Keepsake Letter or my book report any time soon. “Maybe next week.” I suppose that about sums it up. At least I only studied what I absolutely love in college, so I turned from a hardcore slacker into a workaholic practically overnight. Now that I’ve graduated, I’m somewhere in between. If I like what I am doing, I will do it right away. If not, I’ll putz around for a bit, but the work will eventually get done. MR ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2000, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-joys-of-slackerhood/42814/16 "2000-11-27T16:39:25Z")
Doing your papers _the night before_? Bunch a Pointdexters, I tell ya. In my day, I would do them the morning they were due. I have two different memories of stupendeous feats of pulling a paper out of my ass. I thrive on clutch situations. 1)I had a Death and Dying Class. ( My favorite class in 12 years of Catholic school.) Every week we had to cover some aspect of death: execution, terminal illness, abortion, blah blah. Even got a field trip to a cemetary WHEEEE! We were suppose to keep journals and in the end pick one particular theme that we covered and write extensively on it, along with a poem. I hate poetry. It’s worthless drivel.And and article about death from the news and we had to write our funereal too. Pretty dark stuff. The day before it’s due, a friend of mine who knows I was a consumate wool gatherer, asked how my paper was coming along. \*You know, the 10 page report on death? \* I was like, " Oh, it’s due tomorrow…typed…ten pages? Fine." I hand wrote out everything ( including filling in my journal that I was suppose to keep all semester long) did my stinkin’ poem, and everything else and typed it all up re-writing everything, that morning on a —brace yourselves kiddies born since the advent of the PC—on a manual typewriter that weighed more than my first car ( a 1942 Royale-the typewriter, not the car.). And using white out brought down your grade with every little white blob on the sheet. You punks today don’t know what suffering is…:::slap::: Handed it in - with everyone watching me ( apparently this is the only thing I was known for in school–last minute things) and when the papers came back, I received a 120 percent. ( I got extra credit for something, though I cannot tell you what) The highest grade I’ve ever received. So I can honestly say, " I’m good at death." The other was in English ( is anyone reading this? Don’t you have work to do? ) another compendeum of what we learned in english for the semester. Had to pick to things we studied and compare them to each other. No problem, except \* I did not even own a text book \* (this was the end of the semester what was the rush?) and I went out that afternoon at lunch in the cafe and stole the textbook off the the girl I hated the most in school ( slut) went home, randomly dropped my fingers into Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Kubla Khan ( by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who is a half-back for the Dolphins when he isn’t writing drug induced poetry) compared them, did odes to them and the like, did my rough draft the night before. Rewrote it during breakfast and finished writing it as the teacher was collecting it. ( to the amazement of my classmates and teacher.) I got the highest score, which was the first time I’d ever blew the pants off the A students in my class. Heh. Naturally, those brianics got their retribution by becoming bank managers and CEO’s of upstart dot-com companies. Like that _means_ anything… (The first time I ever received an A in anything was history in 8th grade. When I got my paper back from the teacher, I did not recognize my name and the mark of A on the same page. It would be like seeing " Kathie Lee Gifford has talent". Unimaginable. I had to ask the kid next to me, " who is this Shirley Ujest? Is she in this class? It’s me? " I can only imagine if my record would have held up had I knuckled down and actually applied myself in college. But, being a slacker, baled on one of the greatest scams in this country, known as college. Isn’t it time you got back to work? ---
**Author:** ![Feynn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecb155/32.png) [@Feynn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Feynn)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2000, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-joys-of-slackerhood/42814/17 "2000-11-27T16:42:59Z")
I was a slacker in High School especially in English. I could write reports and papers the night before and get excellent grades and I never studied for tests. I had a 95% average and wonder what would have happened if I had applied myself… ---
**Author:** ![c\_goat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f4b2a3/32.png) [@c\_goat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/c_goat)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2000, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-joys-of-slackerhood/42814/18 "2000-11-27T16:55:47Z")
I used to get an 80% average in math class every semester one year because homework was 20% of the grade. I never did one, and I really didn’t care that I only got an 80 when I got 100 on all the tests. I even got an 800 on the math part of the SAT my first time. I also never did my english papers until the day they were due, usually in the class right before english (I hated having english first period, cause homeroom was just too short). I usually did well on those papers also, usually a B. Or I’d hand them in late, get an A, but lose enough points for being late to make it a B. Any reading that had to be done for classes was also done during lunch or right before the class. I also never studied for tests. If I didn’t know it by then, I wasn’t going to learn it, so I didn’t waste the time. All of this was during my 10-12 grade years. It didn’t even hurt my academic career at all since I still got a full scholarship to college (not my first choice though), and I would say I’m moderately successful now. As the topping on the cake, I did my senior project for my CS degree (a 3D graphics engine) in a single weekend and got an A on it. SLACKERS OF THE WORLD UNITE!!! ---
**Author:** ![Space\_Vampire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Space\_Vampire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Space_Vampire)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2000, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-joys-of-slackerhood/42814/19 "2000-11-27T19:01:34Z")
In high school I did almost nothing outside of class. I got through with a 2.01. In college I am still a slacker, doing everything at the last minute… The difference is, I do get everything done now. I made a 4.03 my first term, though science classes have brought me down to a “shameful” 3.76. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2000, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-joys-of-slackerhood/42814/20 "2000-11-27T19:29:22Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by spritle \* > \*\*BTW, there seems to be a big difference between Slackhood, procrastination and general laziness. Someday I’ll look into this. > \*\* Good god. I had no idea this thread would generate so much. I’ve never been classified as the “would be better if applied self” because I’m a hard little worker. (I am! usually.) Yeah I think there is. I’m more of the procrastinator actually. Because I do put effort in, just at the last minute. I wrote an essay for History two weeks ago that I prepared for for awhile, but didn’t actually _write_ until the day before. Yes…Shirley, I think it was who said it, I _should_ get back to work. Really though I shouldn’t have read this page. It makes me feel like less of a procrastinator, meaning that I’m not going to work as hard as I should tonight. Ah…forget about it… [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-joys-of-slackerhood/42814.md?page=2)