Boredom is not a problem to be solved, it's the privilege of a free mind

The problem with idle boredom is one of curiousity, but active boredom in your work can lead to mistakes, lack of productivity, and potentially dangerous situations.

As someone who was bored 90% of the time as a kid and who's still bored quite often, I really believe that it would be better not to be.

For me boredom is the manifestation of a problem. I am introvert and could think on my own for days, but boredom never happens.

Animals in the wild rarely get bored. I worked as an assistant in a zoo while teenager and you could see every single animal getting bored there. And today it is much better than in the past, because we are stating to understand them and we make them work for getting their food and so on.

After I sold my first company I went to an African Safari, and it was incredible seeing the same animals I had seen in captivity, because they looked different in the Wild. In particular, they were the same, but moved and behaved completely different. Their spirit is different.

In my opinion, the same happens to humans, only that we could create our own jail ourselves for paying the rent,raising our kids, advancing our career or having a successful business.

I think what this author is getting at is similar to the concept of flow.

It's interesting, the article is based on "boredom" but I'm not sure that's the right word. Boredom is a state of "I want to do something but there's nothing to do," and I think what the author is really arguing for is finding time for quiet contemplation, letting your mind wander, personal reflection or, if you will, meditation.

A lot of those books on creativity espouse the benefit of quiet time without distracting yourself with Facebook (or Hacker News). So it's a similar idea here. Allow yourself free self-reflective time in order to be happier and more creative.

I had a similar experience (which I tried to "solve" in high school via World of Warcraft), and honestly I see this more in my case as a manifestation of depression, not pure boredom. Often the issue was that nothing SEEMED interesting/worth doing, and once I got started I'd be ok, but the initial push to get started was too much effort, or I'd stop too soon and wouldn't be able to get fully engaged with the activity.

I was just thinking about it last night: I went for a run, which is a little unusual for me, and I was similarly "time free" as most nights but a lot less bored. I felt my ideas/internal state was more interesting/entertaining, perhaps due to changes in my neurotransmitters caused by exercise.