[mattmanser]

Well, at least I know the meaning of proactive, so personally I think smart.

You can't be proactive to solve the unknown.

Also the opposite of reactive is not proactive.

Apart from being pedantic about the word proactive, I also totally disagree with the premise of the article, some of the most inventive problem solvers I've met are lazy as hell.

[pestaa]

Proactivity does not make one busy by definition. I think it means, when one is challenged by an interesting problem, he/she does everything and more to tackle it. A side effect may be that proactive people generally care far less about boring problems, thus making them appear lazy.

[mattmanser]

It doesn't mean that either!

It's anticipatory action to deal with a known future event.