
Homo erectus wandered around for about a million years before deciding to evolve into something resembling you and me. About half a million years ago, humans took two divergent evolutionary paths: Busy Man, Homo occupatus, and Relaxed Man Homo relaxatis.
Busy Man, h.occupatus
During the Stone Age, Busy Man (h. occupatus ) invented war, the wheel, and the interminable business meeting.
Oog was one of those cave dwellers who just couldn’t hang loose. With manic ferocity, he spent his days smashing bits of rock together. He called this activity invention. He named his latest effort the wheel.
Oog’s invention was a success. The marketing literature said it had “possibilities.” This left many people scratching their heads. Yet early adopters wanted a wheel, or maybe even two. They eagerly anticipated his next release.
With the business proceeds, Mrs. Oog redecorated the cave. But she suffered. Oog’s success only led to more and more activity. Oog himself was rarely home. And when he was at home, he was tense. The only subject of conversation was his wheel.
She wanted them to do some star gazing, or sit around the fur-lined cave in front of the fire. But he said he didn’t have the time.
Oog built a work-cave.
Oog spearheaded stone-age commerce. He sold his wheels to the Flint Group, a local cutlery business. Later, he became famous for inventing the business round table based on his original wheel design.
With the launch of FlintBrand, his future looked bright. That was until his life was cut short in a rolling accident.
As time marched on, Busy Man’s tribe—never content with inactivity—up and left the caves for greener pastures.
And this was a bit of luck for tree dwellers.
Relaxed Man, h.relaxatis
Relaxed Man, h.relaxatis, eventually explored the primeval forest floor, more by accident than design.
Relaxed Man wasn’t one for unnecessary activity. His tribes decided that it was quite nice up there in the trees; especially now the noisy neighbors had left. The leaves were comfy and the food wasn’t bad at all.
The Fall of Man or what some people call The Great Slippage led to the discovery.
When h.relaxis, picked himself up from a long fall to the forest floor, he found abandoned caves in move-in condition. There wasn’t a lot to do, so he wandered about beneath the giant trees and wondering about the meaning of life.
That was until the discovery of the primeval hammock.