The book, an update

I'm finalizing my book and find myself at last with a systematic and complete work (at least I think so), something that grew in my hands almost without my noticing.

This manual (unfortunately, I'm like the worker in a weapons factory in the story by Gianni Rodari, who however hard he tried to build peaceful toys for his grandchildren, always ended up making weapons: I only know how to write manuals), which will see the light this year (I’m currently searching for a publisher), has the pretension of saying that a better world is possible – especially with regard to work – that you shouldn’t always follow the rules imposed by others, that you can live well and decently without working yourself to death.

One question, over the years, has repeatedly come to mind: how many of us, when arriving at the point of death, would have spent even more time in the office? In my view, the purpose of work is to liberate time and therefore allow us to dedicate ourselves to more important and significant tasks. Today, thanks also to technology, we all can do it: if we do it or not depends only on ourselves, on the degree of freedom we give to our own lives.

I talk, whenever I have the opportunity, with people who have many responsibilities at work and I cannot understand their point of view when they refer to their work as something unavoidable like a steamroller (as they fail to understand mine: "Oh, lucky you that you can work so little..."). But for me a simpler life is possible, fuller and richer in meaning, devoid of unnecessary worries and most of all not full of work to the brim: it's up to us to give allow ourselves to live under the conditions that we decide for ourselves.

I arrived at these conclusions by changing considerably over the years: I learned to simplify, to apply the Pareto principle and Parkinson's Law. Now everything about work – and not only – just seems to me vastly simpler, and I think I can and know how to convey this two-bit philosophizing of life. That's why I am convinced that this book may be helpful to many people.