Why do people say they are doing nothing?

Question

When u ask some one what then doing and they say nothing.... well thats a lie

ur always breathing... if u hold ur breath then well thats what ur doing

if ur sitting then ur doing somthing ... even if u were floating in space then ur doing something ur floating

Even if ur dead then ur still laying down... ur being dead too!!

Answer 1

Doing is an active word.

If you're doing something, means you're:

- conscious of it
- intending for it to happen
- participating in an activity that is designed to make something happen

Once you fail to meet any of the above things, you can say that you're not really doing it.

For example, if your friend sleeping, you can't really say that your friend is doing his heartbeat. He is not in control of it, nor actively trying to control it.

Doing - its a doing word.

Answer 2

The truth is that the verb to do implies willing to do. Think about it: when you ask what ARE you doing, what WILL you be doing, etc... you have to insert a to be verb to qualify to do and that is where the willing part is implied. When a person say I AM doing nothing, that person is saying I am willfully doing nothing. It does not mean that he is not doing anything at all. Doing nothing and doing not anything at all are not the same thing. You would think it is but there is a fine line between the two phrases. Nothing, because the term exists, is part of anything at all. Not anything at all is the contradiction of anything at all so it can't be in anything at all by laws of contradiction. At anyrate, that is why people can say Nothing and get away with it.

The whole truth is, they don't want to tell you what they are doing and or they don't think it is worth saying everything that is going on where they are either because it is not interesting to them or they think it will not be interesting to you.

And Nothing but the truth is, NOTHING is the deepest thought of all, so when you look at Roget's "Thinker" and wonder what the man was thinking about the answer is probably NOTHING AT ALL.

Now you have been told the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth about Nothing.

Can you see the irony in all of this?

You have just asked a question about nothing and received a response about nothing, so; what were we doing?

Nothing.

Answer 3

Intellectually you are right that they are telling a lie..

But what to do one Mind computer is set such that it makes mountain out of mole

suppose any one you met says I am digesting my food and it has reached my duodenum and now passing through the pancreas and will enter the small intestine and some is absorbed into blood and I am feeling my bladder is about to be full and any time it may give signal to burst , so let me go to .....
how silly it will look
and even if it was the practice of telling the truth, who has time to listen,

who has time to accept the truth..
some wise man has said that , If every body told truth , in the world , no one will be friendly with each other..

It is the Lie , taught to us from child hood...
smile when you feel angry..
keep quiet when you feel to dance
sleep when you want to watch the sky.

so why blame any adult , he is just a replay of the CD loaded in his mind from childhood

look what parents do to their child.. look what teacher do to child , look what Priests and Political leader do to child

they all preach,, preach and child learns to be hypocrite

so next time any one say He is doing nothing , appreciate that he has not hit you with a hammer , and gone politely

Answer 4

We're a lazy species. If you notice, I used a contraction rather than the extra space and vowel that it took to complete the two words.

Taking language literally will always pose challenges.

People who make the statement "I am doing nothing" could actually be saying "I am doing nothing important, fun, valuable, etc." Which is very often what they mean.

What we mean and what we say is another matter entirely. Sometimes I think people should come with handbooks to decipher all of the oddities of communication.

Answer 5

Most people who state, "They are doing nothing" are not self-aware enough to notice, as you say, that to even sit motionless in a chair means you are indeed doing a whole range of things at once(or you would be a dead being!".

That lack meta cognition means the majority have to be engaged in "gross" movement in order to notice they are doing "something". Scary really isn't it?

Answer 6

They mean they are not actively working towards accomplishing something. We all speak approximately, even a Rhetoritician must be an artist with words.

Answer 7

I think it's like asking someone, "How are you?" The asker doesn't really care and the answerer always says, "Fine."

As far as asking "What are you doing?" I like to tell people even if it's personal or gross. It's real. If they don't want to hear the truth, why do they ask? Probably just to acknowledge someones existence and start a conversation.

Answer 8

youre doing something, being stupid

hey coop doing and breathing arent the same thing, doing and sitting arent the same thing, doing and floating isnt the same thing, see youre not doing anything, just BEING stupid 2

Answer 9

Doing and being are not the same thing.

Answer 10

People say they are doing nothing because they are not doing anything that they find interesting.