For me repetition is boredom.
Boredom is not a problem to be solved, it's the privilege of a free mind
71–80 of 97 posts
Re: Boredom is not a problem to be solved, it's the privilege of a free mind
#72It kind of reminds me of my philosophy regarding programming - that it can never be boring. If it's boring, then something is done wrong. You can always automate the boring parts, and thinking about automation is less boring.
> If it's boring, then something is done wrong.
Note that the inverse is not true: If it's exciting, you could still be doing something wrong. (Watch any junior hire with day-one ideas to "improve" the codebase.)
Re: Boredom is not a problem to be solved, it's the privilege of a free mind
#73This article is basically just a different definition of the word "boredom" than is being used by most people. It's trying to communicate something insightful (that we should be okay with being alone and undistracted with our own thoughts). But I don't think that's what most people mean when they say "boredom", and there's plenty of deeper discussion on this topic in literature about mindfulness.
Louis C.K. also talks about this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HbYScltf1c
Re: Boredom is not a problem to be solved, it's the privilege of a free mind
#74For 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. Af…
This. I don't regret the time I spend just thinking. I do however regret the time lost to boredom. They're not the same thing. Boredom to me is a state of wanting to do something but either not being able to or not knowing what that something is.
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Re: Boredom is not a problem to be solved, it's the privilege of a free mind
#75Boredom 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…
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Re: Boredom is not a problem to be solved, it's the privilege of a free mind
#76Earlier quoted context omitted.
Agreed. Humans do not live in their natural state, and are so far removed from it that they do not know what they do not know that they lack. From this manifests much of the strife we experience. We talk of boredom - because we have grown accustomed to the idea that we must fill our time, and society presents antipathy to those who are content to merely sit and think. "What's wrong?" "You look troubled" "Would you li…
I don't get where the vengefullnes would come. You're in a good literary company. Your ideas sound very much what Freud and Marx wrote of modern life - the latter whom was actually really acute about a great many things (despite what other did later in his name). You option #1 sounds basically like Aldous Huxley's 'A brave new world. Lots of modern people have fought with the dilemma you talked about. Quite a many ca…
Perhaps a rejection of agricultural society and a return to nomadic life would help.
But then you also face fears about extinction much more readily.
Alternatively, working less, vacationing more would help a lot, and make the idea of "less work that needs to be done" more palatable to people who have attached their very values to their careers and being needed by society.
Re: Boredom is not a problem to be solved, it's the privilege of a free mind
#77Boredom 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…
Nicely said.
I'd add that this article appears to equal boredom with the kind of state achieved through introspection and/or meditation. I believe that is not the default response to boredom. I think the usual response is browsing reddit for funny stuff or playing mindless computer games. All while still being bored and not getting much out of it. I'm certainly in that state sometimes and hate it especially if I could have been sleeping instead
Re: Boredom is not a problem to be solved, it's the privilege of a free mind
#78For 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. Af…
Agreed. Humans do not live in their natural state, and are so far removed from it that they do not know what they do not know that they lack. From this manifests much of the strife we experience. We talk of boredom - because we have grown accustomed to the idea that we must fill our time, and society presents antipathy to those who are content to merely sit and think. "What's wrong?" "You look troubled" "Would you li…
If you combine this comment above with its parent comment on wild animals, it starts to get even more interesting. As I see it, we accept our updates and pre-fab environment (being born into cities, families, religions, ways of living, acting, and thinking we didn't choose) yet if we look to wild animals, they notice every little change in their own environment, and not only that, they're cautious as well as curious about those changes. Around 99% of people I know, and have ever met, accept all kinds of technology without debating and contemplating it first, on a micro and macro level. The individual gets left behind if he/she decides to decline any popular technology (computer, cell phone, FB, etc) or societal shift (such as migrating to cities).
Re: Boredom is not a problem to be solved, it's the privilege of a free mind
#79 and moreover my mother told me as a boy
(repeatingly) "Ever to confess you're bored
means you have no
Inner Resources." I conclude now I have no
inner resources, because I am heavy bored.
Re: Boredom is not a problem to be solved, it's the privilege of a free mind
#80Each day at work I put in headphones, code for a bit, read HN for a bit, then back to code. I don't know if I could describe it as boredom, maybe confused context switching. It brings to mind how the protagonist of Neuromancer gets hooked on amphetamines after being surgically banned from the Internet. We get so used to everything happening quickly and efficiently that our brains don't have time to rest. If you're no…
Not only "what's wrong with you", but I took his addiction to amphetamines as a response to his addiction to the instant gratification the Internet provides, which is 100% relevant today.
Now I want to read Neuromancer again. Great book.