...Dans la ménagerie infâme de nos vices,
II en est un plus laid, plus méchant, plus immonde!
Quoiqu'il ne pousse ni grands gestes ni grands cris,
Il ferait volontiers de la terre un débris
Et dans un bâillement avalerait le monde;
C'est l'Ennui! L'oeil chargé d'un pleur involontaire,
II rêve d'échafauds en fumant son houka.
Tu le connais, lecteur, ce monstre délicat,
— Hypocrite lecteur, — mon semblable, — mon frère!
Boredom is not a problem to be solved, it's the privilege of a free mind
51–60 of 97 posts
Re: Boredom is not a problem to be solved, it's the privilege of a free mind
#52This feels a bit short-sighted to me. Maybe it's just use of terms at the end of the day. Telling a young person to "lean into boredom" is a recipe for disaster. And "thinking" as the antidote to boredom doesn't do much either. There's a quote that always stuck with me I ran into a while back that goes something like: "All day long we tell our children to 'Pay attention!' but we never actually teach them how." The pr…
I don't disagree with your thesis here.
I'd like to observe that a course of training such as you describe seems outside the scope of the article. Perhaps it does some small good, anyway, by suggesting that acquiring such training oneself, from whatever source, is a good thing to do.
Re: Boredom is not a problem to be solved, it's the privilege of a free mind
#53It's been a long time for me since experiencing boredom per se. There is so very much to do, to think about, to create, to investigate. Boredom is about choosing (or not) to engage thinking/curiosity/activity. So yes, as the author says, the solution to boredom (when perceived as a problem to solve) is to THINK. The problem is too many people have learned to not care, to not be interested, in their circumstances. At this point, should I be actually bored (which would probably require a willful act of situational deprivation imposed on me by others), and which the author addresses, the very state of being bored would & should become a point of intense fascination.
Re: Boredom is not a problem to be solved, it's the privilege of a free mind
#54I fantasize about having enough time to be "bored." I don't mean that as a humblebrag. Just the opposite, exactly. If I was better at life then I'd actually have the time to be "bored."
I put "bored" in quotes because boredom is a very momentary state for me. If I'm "bored" then I can choose to do something I actually want to do: read a book, write something, do something spontaneous, etc.
Re: Boredom is not a problem to be solved, it's the privilege of a free mind
#55I fantasize about having enough time to be "bored." I don't mean that as a humblebrag. Just the opposite, exactly. If I was better at life then I'd actually have the time to be "bored." I put "bored" in quotes because boredom is a very momentary state for me. If I'm "bored" then I can choose to do something I actually want to do: read a book, write something, do something spontaneous, etc.
I'm worried that most of us use sensory-stimulation to avoid boredom, instead of those worthy activities you mention. Like firing up Angry Birds (or whatever is popular now). Or turning on Netflix. Or texting somebody, anybody, to get them to text you back.
Re: Boredom is not a problem to be solved, it's the privilege of a free mind
#56Boredom isn't the act of having nothing to do. That's idleness. Boredom is a problem of a lack of satisfaction. There's various reasons for that but I believe having too much to do, and too much stress is what leads to boredom. People have an amount of attention they can pay to any topic before they need to rest. You can only listen to a song for so long before it stops being pleasant and starts being annoying. You c…
fantastic comment! very well written. Can you share your thoughts on what to do when you're bored? Especially can you elaborate on the "your whole reward system of your brain has told you you've had enough of" part of your comment?
Re: Boredom is not a problem to be solved, it's the privilege of a free mind
#57I enjoy boredom every often in a while. Helps me put my thoughts in order and think more clearly, if I'm stressed it forces me to tackle and face whatever problem I'm having, and I'd also say it makes me more creative.
Boredom != Idleness
Boredom != Contemplation, Introspection, Reflection
Re: Boredom is not a problem to be solved, it's the privilege of a free mind
#58Boredom isn't the act of having nothing to do. That's idleness. Boredom is a problem of a lack of satisfaction. There's various reasons for that but I believe having too much to do, and too much stress is what leads to boredom. People have an amount of attention they can pay to any topic before they need to rest. You can only listen to a song for so long before it stops being pleasant and starts being annoying. You c…
I don't know that it's good or bad, I think it's simply a signal, like hunger or tiredness that allows us to make an informed choice about what we can do to meet the needs of our body and mind.
Re: Boredom is not a problem to be solved, it's the privilege of a free mind
#59After reading this article I feel more confused about the point it's making than anything else. Of course there are plenty of things written about how to avoid boredom, it's a symptom of not having anything to do.
The article does attempt to touch on how low-cpu tasks are not often mentally enriching tasks, but that point is more about how to get more out of the time that you aren't bored, not what the title suggests.
Boredom hits hard for me, I find it physically uncomfortable, I get an ache in my stomach that grows and grows. For me, boredom is certainly a problem to be solved, by doing things that are stimulating, not by dwelling on it.
Re: Boredom is not a problem to be solved, it's the privilege of a free mind
#60HUMAN BEINGS MAKE LIFE SO INTERESTING. DO YOU KNOW, THAT IN A UNIVERSE SO FULL OF WONDERS, THEY HAVE MANAGED TO INVENT BOREDOM
~Terry Pratchett
Of course it's not just the privilege of a free mind, but also the privilege of relative freedom from stress, free time, and to an extent the education that leads you to aspire to more stimulation. A cure for boredom should probably sit atop Maslow's hierarchy of needs.