The Fallacy of the Lazy Programmer

There's an adage in the programming industry (Which you can find gleaning on the cyber plains I'm just not sure to whom it's originally attributed.), or so I've heard, that goes something like this:

“If you want something done, give it to a lazy person: they'll find the quickest and easiest way to do it.”

Anyhow, as anyone who's dealt with a lazy person will tell you that sounds like a nice idea, in theory, but in practice whatever you give a lazy person is going to remain undone – they won't finish it and that's because they're disinclined to put any effort into things. Relying on the least interested to do the work is a sure recipe for disaster. The trick, then, is making sure that you have a lazy person who's also highly motivated. With the proper incentive waiting for them once the work is done the lazy person can be surprisingly industrious. There needs to be, in so many words, a big enough reason for them to actually get off their lazy butts and overcome their natural inertia. So the key is finding something that interests them.