science

Slacker

Slacker is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Slacker rather than just read about it. In short: A slacker is someone who habitually avoids work or lacks work ethic. Origin According to different sources, the term "slacker" dates back to about 1790 or 1898. "Slacker" gained some recognition during the British Gezira Scheme in the early to mid-20th century, when Sudanese labourers protested their relative powerlessness by working lethargically, a form of protest known as "slacking".

Key takeaways

Slacker belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Slacker to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Slacker from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

A slacker is someone who habitually avoids work or lacks work ethic.

Origin According to different sources, the term "slacker" dates back to about 1790 or 1898. "Slacker" gained some recognition during the British Gezira Scheme in the early to mid-20th century, when Sudanese labourers protested their relative powerlessness by working lethargically, a form of protest known as "slacking".

World Wars

In the United States during World War I, the word "slacker" was commonly used to describe someone who was not participating in the war effort, specifically someone who avoided military service, equivalent to the later term "draft dodger". Attempts to track down such evaders were called "slacker raids". During World War I, U.S. Senator Miles Poindexter discussed whether inquiries "to separate the cowards and the slackers from those who had not violated the draft" had been managed properly. A San Francisco Chronicle headline on 7 September 1918, read, "Slacker Is Doused in Barrel of Paint". The term was also used during the World War II period in the United States. In 1940, Time quoted the U.S. Army on managing the military draft efficiently: "War is not going to wait while every slacker resorts to endless appeals."

Evolution The shift in the use of "slacker" from its draft-related meaning to a more general sense of the avoidance of work is unclear. In April 1948, The New Republic referred to "resentment against taxes levied to aid slackers". An article tracking the evolution of the meaning of the term "Slacker" in defamation lawsuits between World War I and 2010, entitled When Slacker Was a Dirty Word: Defamation and Draft Dodging During World War I, was written by Attorney David Kluft for the Trademark and Copyright Law Blog.

Late 20th century and onward The term achieved renewed popularity following its use in the 1985 film Back to the Future in which James Tolkan's character Mr. Strickland chronically refers to Marty McFly, his father George McFly, Biff Tannen, and a group of teenaged delinquents as "slackers". It gained subsequent exposure from the Superchunk single "Slack Motherfucker" and the film Slacker, both released in 1990. The television series Rox has been noted for its "depiction of the slacker lifestyle ... of the early '90s". "Slacker" became widely used in the 1990s to refer to a type of apathetic youth who were cynical and uninterested in political or social causes. This type became a stereotype for members of Generation X. Richard Linklater, director of the aforementioned 1990 film, commented on the term's meaning in a 1993 interview, stating that "I think the cheapest definition [of a slacker] would be someone who's just lazy, hangin' out, doing nothing. I'd like to change that to somebody who's not doing what's expected of them. Somebody who's trying to live an interesting life, doing what they want to do, and if that takes time to find, so be it." The term has connotations of "apathy and aimlessness". It is also used to refer to an educated person who avoids work, possibly as an antimaterialist stance, who may be viewed as an underachiever. "Slackers" have been the subject of many films and television shows, particularly comedies. Notable examples include the films Slacker, Slackers, Clerks, SubUrbia, Metal Skin, Hot Tub Time Machine, Bio-Dome, You, Me and Dupree, Bachelor Party, Stripes, Withnail and I, The Big Lebowski, Old School, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Trainspotting, Animal House, and Bill and Ted, as well as the television shows Freaks and Geeks, Spaced, The Royle Family, and Regular Show. The Idler, a British magazine founded in 1993, represents an alternative to contemporary society's work ethic and aims "to return dignity to the art of loafing".

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Slacker

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Slacker claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Slacker before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Slacker ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Slacker

In research: Slacker appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Slacker in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Slacker is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1790s neologisms, Conscription in the United States, Counterculture of the 1990s, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Slacker outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Slacker in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Slacker means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Slacker out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Slacker in simple terms?

A slacker is someone who habitually avoids work or lacks work ethic. Origin According to different sources, the term "slacker" dates back to about 1790 or 1898. "Slacker" gained some recognition during the British Gezira Scheme in the early to mid-20th century, when Sudanese labourers protested the…

Why does Slacker matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Slacker?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Slacker.