Because of his absentmindedness, the idler is often accused of being thoughtless - not in the sense of "insensitive," but in the sense of "unthinking," or "scatterbrained." But as R. L. Stevenson makes clear, it is instead those "dead-alive" people engaged in a conventional occupation who "pass those hours in a sort of coma, which are not dedicated to furious toiling in the gold-mill," and who possess "not one thought to rub against another, while they wait for the train." See: ABSENTMINDED, DISTRACTED, FORGETFUL.