For the Richard Linklater movie, see Slacker (movie)

The term slacker, in contemporary western culture, applies generally to young people who underachieve at school and or work. The term was commonly used in the United States in World War I and World War II to describe men who were avoiding the military draft.

To other people, it may appear that slackers do not do very much actual work, schoolwork, or much of anything. However, individuals considered to be slackers may in fact be very active, though not always in activities that society deems to be most important, (such as surfing the Internet instead of getting a job). One of the definitions of slacker is "people who are good at doing what is important to them."

Contrary to what some may believe, in some disciplines laziness is a virtue (especially constructive laziness). To paraphrase Sun Tzu, "When the superior man refrains from acting, his force is felt for a thousand li." This quote epitomizes the philosophy of the slacker. Another maxim that typifies the slacker is "Do not reinvent the wheel." For example, in computer programming, it often is easier to re-use previously written code than coming up with a new implementation of some algorithm.

Apart from meaning lazy, slacker may also be used to insinuate habitual procrastination and a disorganized, slovenly lifestyle. Proponents of slacker theory assert that managing to survive by doing things at the last possible moment improves intellect as a compensatory way to cope, fashioning a wily yet lazy person. Similarly, a disorganized lifestyle may be superior to an organized one from the pragmatic perspective that a slacker will adapt to disorderliness by improving skills at memorization and at effortlessly rummaging, whereas actively organizing would require serious effort. Hence, the epithet slacker, while often used in the pejorative, is growingly signifying a complimentary, cerebral quality of an unconventional person. For another example of a bimodally pejorative and affectionate term, see hacker. There is also a slight overlap between slacker culture, stoner culture, and hippie culture insofar as they all are implying a disheveled appearance; however, many slackers are straight edge, and their relative apathy precludes their involvement in any hippie movement.

Slack and Computers

The term Slacker is also used for a person who uses or advocates use of the Slackware distribution of Linux. Ironically, Slackware is widely considered the most technically oriented and Unix-like distributions ("Slackware has been traditionally known to be about as user friendly as a coiled rattlesnake" writes the owners of VectorLinux), although many also consider it the most stable distribution. This use of "Slack" comes from the Church of the SubGenius. Slackware does fit in with the concept of slacker in that it follows the KISS principle, relying heavily on simple, flexible text scripts rather than fancy yet brittle GUI elements. The Slackware logo is Tux the penguin with a corncob pipe.