(Business 2.0) – From the beginning of time, even the most productive folks were slackers: Adam and Eve didn't buckle down until they bit the apple, and ancient Greeks considered work a curse. But slacking, argues Tom Lutz, author of the new book Doing Nothing, is vital to career success, "a role to adopt while finding our relation to work."

In tracing the history of "loafers, loungers, slackers, and bums," Lutz points out that work didn't become a Western virtue until the Reformation. Ever since, careerists have navigated between the extremes of productive types, such as Karl Marx, and their polar opposites, like Marx's son-in-law Paul Lafargue, who endorsed three-hour workdays. Benjamin Franklin asserted that "time is money" but took "airbaths" that involved lying nude on his bed for an hour. Even famed bum Jack Kerouac was a near perfectionist when reworking On the Road. The harder a society works, Lutz says, the more vibrant its slacker culture. So ease up a bit, and get back to work!