Life & Wisdom Quote by Olin Miller

Procrastination, Miller suggests, isn’t laziness so much as sabotage by scheduling. The line lands because it flips our usual story: the task isn’t hard; we manufacture its hardness by delaying it. “Easy job” and “mighty hard” sit on opposite ends of a spectrum, and the only thing bridging them is time squandered. That’s the sting. The difficulty isn’t in the work, it’s in the mental interest we accrue while avoiding it.

Miller’s intent is practical but not gentle. The folksy phrasing (“mighty hard”) smuggles a reprimand inside a wink, a hallmark of mid-century American advice writing where moral instruction often wore the costume of plainspoken common sense. The subtext is that procrastination is an active choice, not a passive condition: “just keep putting off” reads like a recipe. If you follow it, you will reliably transform a small obligation into a looming, identity-threatening ordeal. Delay breeds dread, dread inflates the task, the inflated task justifies more delay. It’s a closed loop with the cruel efficiency of habit.

Context matters: Miller lived through an era that prized self-reliance and productivity, shaped by economic instability, war mobilization, and a culture that treated industriousness as character. The quote channels that ethic without preaching about virtue; it warns about consequences. It’s less “work harder” than “don’t let your mind turn a pebble into a boulder.” The humor works because it feels like overheard wisdom, and because most readers recognize the trick: we don’t avoid tasks; we avoid the feeling of starting them.