Believe it or not, you can commercialize inventor laziness! You can invent products for lazy people to use, or you can let lazy inventors invent things for other people to use.

To put this discussion in perspective: Donna Rodriguez Claims in a 2010 blog, “Technology is Leading to Laziness,” at roundupnews.com that technology is progressing every day to make life easier—which will make people become more lazy. We now have devices that will do almost anything.

She says that with the internet available to anyone,there is no limit as to what people can do or how lazy they can become. “Everything you need is right there!You don’t even have to get dressed,” she writes.

Time conducted a survey several years ago to identify the most useful invention in history; the top choice was the cell phone. It is probably the ultimate laziness production the sense that it gives people the ability to make phone calls from anywhere, and now you can send quick messages to friends or family. In fact, if you’re too lazy to get off the couch or out of your chair in order to talk to someone in the next room, you can just send the persona text message. Now, that’s really lazy!

Just stick out your tongue

Probably one of the earliest inventions for lazy people occurred in 1928, when a couple of Michigan Cousins in the furniture business used wooden slats and orange crates in the design of a chair that tilts back in a daybed-ish way. They thought that sitting up straight took far too much effort, so they invented their own reclining chair.

They took suggestions for their new products name—Sit-N-Snooze, the Slack Back and the Comfort Carrier among them. They settled on La-Z-Boy.The escalator, or moving staircase, was also an early example of an invention to be used by lazy people—those who didn’t want to walk or climb stairs.

Other Illustrative examples of inventions designed for lazy people, per lifebuzz.com and buzzfeed.com:

  • A motorized ice cream cone holder. Normally, i would have to twist the whole cone to lick the ice cream. The motorized ice cream cone holder twists around for you. All you have to do is to stick your tongue out.
  • An automatic dog ball thrower (called the iFetch, featured in the June 2016 Inventors Digest) that makes it easier to play fetch with your dog. You don’t have to be in good physical shape or exert much energy to play with your dog; just let the device throw out the ball and let your dog bring it back to you for insertion back into the device.
  • A hair dryer stand so that you don’t have to lift that heavy handheld hair dryer. Just mount it on the stand at the appropriate height and stand, or sit in proximity.
  • Battery-operated electric scissors, when cutting something by hand is just too much work.
  • Self-lacing shoes, when it’s too difficult to have to bend over to tie your shoes.
  • A toilet lid lifting paddle that makes it easier to raise the seat. You don’t have to bend over. Just step on the paddle.
  • A popcorn maker that shoots it straight into your mouth. No need for that bowl and napkins.

Ben Franklin? Lazy

Technology may be taking away the challenge of hard work. As Thomas Edison said, “We often miss the opportunity because it’s dressed in overalls and looks like work.” Ronald Reagan once joked that “I’ve heard that hard work never killed anyone, but I say, why take the chance?”

Benjamin Franklin once said that he was “the laziest man in the world. I invented all those things to save myself from toil.” He exhibited many of the “lazy inventor attributes” cited by Shewali Tiwari in her January 2015 blog, “15 Reasons Why Lazy People Are Actually Really Really Smart” (storypick.com):

  • They find the easiest, most convenient and brilliant ways to do things.When it comes to being creative, they will surprise you with the functionality of things that you’ve probably never considered.
  • They are generally more efficient in the sense that ifa good shortcut or more efficient method of accomplishing a task exists, a lazy person will attempt to figure it out.
  • They have an easy alternative for everything that they’re supposed to do. Bill Gates said: “I choose lazy person to do a hard job because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it.”
  • Their laziness typically results in a savings of time and energy for them, allowing them to have more time where their mind can wander—which results in the opportunity for more creative thinking and innovation.

Israelmore Ayivor, the noted self-improvement motivation and inspirational writer, is quoted as saying that“When you come across an excellent invention, what it should tell you is that someone used most of his sleeping time as his thinking time…and he kept doing the same until his good became better and his better became the best!”