Bill Gates said he would “choose a lazy person to do a hard job”—here’s why cutting corners can be a strength.

When I heard Bill Gates' famous quote about choosing a lazy person to do a hard job, my first reaction was to bristle. After years as a financial analyst, I'd been conditioned to believe that hard work meant long hours, detailed processes, and never taking shortcuts.

But then I realized something fascinating. 

The colleagues I'd always admired—the ones who seemed to effortlessly deliver stellar results—weren't necessarily the ones burning the midnight oil. They were the ones who found elegant solutions to complex problems. The ones who questioned whether a task needed to be done at all before diving in.

I began asking myself, were they lazy or were strategically efficient?

The productivity paradox that changed my perspective

Some of my most productive days as a financial analyst weren't the ones where I worked the hardest. They were the ones where I worked the smartest.

I remember spending weeks building elaborate Excel models with dozens of scenarios, color-coded tabs, and formulas that would make a mathematician proud. Then I'd watch a colleague solve the same problem with a simple calculation and a phone call to the right person.

Who was being lazy? Me, with my over-engineered spreadsheet that took forever to build? Or my colleague, who cut straight to the answer?

I think the people Gates was talking about aren't actually 'lazy'—they're intuitively understanding something the rest of us miss.

Why your brain rewards the path of least resistance

Think about the last time you had to solve a genuinely difficult problem at work. Did you immediately jump into the most obvious solution, or did you pause and ask: "What's the simplest way to get this done?"

That pause is everything.

When we're faced with a challenging task, our instinct is often to make it harder than it needs to be. We add steps, create elaborate processes, and convince ourselves that complexity equals thoroughness.

But what if the opposite were true?

The art of strategic laziness

What Gates understood is that truly "lazy" people have a superpower: they're allergic to unnecessary work.

When I switched from finance to writing, I brought all my analytical habits with me. I'd research topics for days, create detailed outlines, and build elaborate content calendars. I was working harder than ever but feeling less productive.

Then I met a writer who seemed to produce twice as much content in half the time. Her secret? She'd learned to ask three questions before starting any project: Does this actually need to be done? What's the minimum viable version? And who else has already solved this problem?

"The key is not to prioritize what's on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities," as Stephen R. Covey once noted. But I'd add this: sometimes the best way to schedule your priorities is to eliminate everything that isn't one.

The most successful people I know aren't the ones who say yes to everything. They're the ones who've gotten comfortable saying no to almost everything.

Systems beat grinding every time

There's another reason why some people seem to accomplish more while appearing to work less. They've built systems that do the heavy lifting for them.

During my analyst days, I worked with someone who left the office at 5 PM sharp while the rest of us often stayed until 8 or 9. We used to joke that he was getting away with something. Turns out, he was—but not in the way we thought.

He'd automated half his reporting processes, created templates for common requests, and built relationships that meant he could get answers with a quick message instead of hours of research. While we were grinding through manual tasks, he was leveraging systems he'd built months earlier.

The people who look "lazy" are often just operating from better systems.

This isn't about cutting corners in a way that compromises quality. It's about recognizing that there's usually a smarter path to the same destination.

What cutting corners actually looks like in practice

Let me be clear: strategic laziness isn't about doing sloppy work or avoiding responsibility. It's about ruthless efficiency.

In my writing practice, this looks like repurposing research across multiple pieces instead of starting from scratch each time. It means using voice memos during trail runs to capture ideas instead of formal brainstorming sessions. It's creating templates for common communications so I'm not reinventing the email wheel every week.

These aren't shortcuts that compromise quality—they're systems that preserve my energy for the work that actually matters.

The best "lazy" people I know are actually incredibly disciplined. They're just disciplined about different things. Instead of being disciplined about working long hours, they're disciplined about working on the right things.

The courage to look lazy

Here's what took me the longest to learn: sometimes the most productive thing you can do is appear unproductive to others.

When I stopped attending every meeting I was invited to, some colleagues assumed I was disengaged. When I started batching similar tasks instead of switching between projects all day, it looked like I was doing less.

But my output improved dramatically.

The challenge isn't learning to work smarter—it's having the confidence to work differently when everyone around you is stuck in busy-work mode.

Gates knew that lazy people would find efficient solutions because they had to. They wouldn't tolerate unnecessary complexity or wasted motion. They'd strip problems down to their essence and solve them in the most direct way possible.

Embracing your inner efficiency expert

The next time you're faced with a challenging project, try channeling your inner "lazy" person. Ask yourself: How would I approach this if I only had half the time I think I need?

You might be surprised by what you discover.

The goal isn't to do less work—it's to do less unnecessary work. To find the 20% of effort that drives 80% of the results. To build systems that work for you instead of against you.

And sometimes, that means being just lazy enough to find a better way.