I don't know where that quote in the title comes from — but I use it all the time. I was reminded of it when Boing Boing pointed me at this fabulous piece in the Guardian in defense of idleness.

So why is this in the “managing” section? 'Cause I think acknowledging this notion is an important part of managing, that's why.

So there…

Ryan Underwood had me grinning this morning with this piece in Fast Company. A fable about fables, it chronicles the decline of a poor hapless person who actually follows all the oh-too-sweet advice in some of the “big name” business books. I loved it. He only blew it when he offers a recommendation at the end of the article.

Bonus! It's got the plot summaries of a bunch of those fable-books, so you can nod knowingly when people start talking about them.

I like this piece by Seth Godwin in which he comes up with a bunch of new words to describe “great stuff” and in the course of the article makes some darn good observations about how to get a product up and running.

For example; there's a very important moment when a product becomes “remarkable” and opinion leaders start buzzing about it amongst themselves. He calls products like this “Purple Cows.” With that, people can start asking questions like “how can we make this more Purple?” A great insight, among many.

Laura Ries carries on in her father's footsteps, writing terrific stuff about positioning. Here's her checklist to stimulate your thinking when you're getting ready to work on where to position a product (as I am, just now).

I'm a big fan of market-segmentation and positioning, especially in the early stages of a product's life. I don't think you can come up with too many ways to segment a market when you do this kind of analysis. Laura describes several new dimensions that I'll add to my standard list.

Charles Fishman has a piece in Fast Company about Whole Foods and the fella that runs it, John Mackey. So I'm breezing along, enjoying the read until I get to the veerry end, where Charles buries the following pearl.

These are the ones that Mackey makes himself — or the “boss” in a particular setting makes. They happen when timing doesn't permit wide consultation, or when Mackey thinks the stakes are so high that he feels that he has to decide. “I almost never make a command-and-control decision,” he says.

These are decisions that Mackey, the senior leadership team, or the appropriate group of people make — but only after wide conversation and consultation with those involved. It's the most common form of decision making at Whole Foods. “I make a ton of decisions where I consult with people I trust, with the people involved,” Mackey says.

These occur when the team involved strives for general agreement. Each team at each store meets monthly to provide a forum for this kind of decision making; among the decisions reached by consensus are hiring decisions: Every new employee must be voted onto the staff after a tryout; it takes a two-thirds yes vote from the team to stay. Even Mackey's National Leadership Team of 24 people routinely votes on decisions. “I don't overrule the National Leadership Team,” says Mackey. “I've done it maybe once or twice in all these years.”

“I will make a decision about what kind of decision something is,” says Mackey. The most common decisions, he says, are also his favorites: “decisions that are not my decision.”

Tarnation! That's a darn fine insight…