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Being Bored Is Good

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Re: Being Bored Is Good

#41

Post by tcfunk »

jokoon wrote: post #35

I often have this weird fear that I wont accomplish anything in my life like it is some sort of personal failure. Meanwhile I'm able to write about game ideas, code them, create some characters and story and background, even though it doesn't lead to anything since it's more of a hobby, but I fail to make it into a job. I love to think, create, try to design little things, and honestly that's the best pleasure I have…

> Meanwhile I'm able to write about game ideas, code them, create some characters and story and background, even though it doesn't lead to anything since it's more of a hobby, but I fail to make it into a job.

I am feeling sort of stuck in a loop with this, and constantly feel like a failure about it. Part of me thinks I should give up on the idea altogether and I would just be a happier person. But I don't know if I could do that if I were being completely honest with myself. Not that this helps you, just putting it out there :)

Re: Being Bored Is Good

#43

Post by ricardobeat »

jokoon wrote: post #35

I often have this weird fear that I wont accomplish anything in my life like it is some sort of personal failure. Meanwhile I'm able to write about game ideas, code them, create some characters and story and background, even though it doesn't lead to anything since it's more of a hobby, but I fail to make it into a job. I love to think, create, try to design little things, and honestly that's the best pleasure I have…

> I just don't understand how people can not feel lost if they don't create something that stems from their own selves

For a majority of people, their greatest and most satisfying achievement will be their children. Nature doesn’t play around :)

Re: Being Bored Is Good

#44

Post by botanrice »

criddell wrote: post #31
leadingthenet wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is precisely why boredom is important. It can lead to some truly creative thoughts.

But if you are meditating or thinking about work, are you bored? I don't think I've felt bored in decades precisely because I have so many things I like to think about. I'm not sure I could even turn that stuff off to actually feel bored any more.

I feel this way too. Maybe I misinterpreted the article but I almost felt guilty for never feeling bored. Even though I'm never bored not out of technological stimulation but rather my own internal mental stimulation. Full of ideas and thoughts and things to think more on or things to discover, areas of life I have not yet given the time to think about.

Re: Being Bored Is Good

#45

Post by mruts »

Has anyone considered that the ability for people to be easily distracted reveals a weakness in themselves? i.e we all wish we were more bored so we could discover our "true" selves. If you're distracted all the time by twitter or bullshit or whatever, you really only have one person to blame: yourself.

It would definitely be easier for everyone's self image if we weren't exposed to the parts of ourselves that we found weak, or disgusting. Boredom and lack of stimulation easily facilitates this illusion of self control and virtue. But true self knowledge and self-equilibrium result from the understanding of who we exactly are, how we react to different situations. In this way, I think "over"-stimulation is laudable: you never know what is enough until you know what is too much.

Re: Being Bored Is Good

#46

Post by filoleg »

criddell wrote: post #31
leadingthenet wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is precisely why boredom is important. It can lead to some truly creative thoughts.

But if you are meditating or thinking about work, are you bored? I don't think I've felt bored in decades precisely because I have so many things I like to think about. I'm not sure I could even turn that stuff off to actually feel bored any more.

>if you are meditating or thinking about work, are you bored?

You are doing those things to escape boredom. The idea isn’t to stay in a perpetual state of boredom. The point is to induce boredom, so that it pushes you towards doing things you wouldn’t normally do, in order to escape it.

Re: Being Bored Is Good

#47

Post by soverance »

ricardobeat wrote: post #43
jokoon wrote: post #35

I often have this weird fear that I wont accomplish anything in my life like it is some sort of personal failure. Meanwhile I'm able to write about game ideas, code them, create some characters and story and background, even though it doesn't lead to anything since it's more of a hobby, but I fail to make it into a job. I love to think, create, try to design little things, and honestly that's the best pleasure I have…

> I just don't understand how people can not feel lost if they don't create something that stems from their own selves For a majority of people, their greatest and most satisfying achievement will be their children. Nature doesn’t play around :)

> For a majority of people, their greatest and most satisfying achievement will be their children.

This sentiment is grossly nauseating, to me. Having children is not an achievement. It may be satisfying and fulfilling, but it is in no way an "achievement".

If your greatest contribution to the world is birthing a child, you have failed as a person.

Re: Being Bored Is Good

#48

Post by ajcarpy2005 »

opportune wrote: post #28
stcredzero wrote: post #6

If it weren't for the crushing boredom of the suburbs when I was a child, I might not have learned how to program computers. I would never have thought so much about spaceships. The original Star Wars trilogy wouldn't have been nearly as cool to discover. I also play traditional music, though boredom wasn't part of my discovering that. However, silence was a big part of traditional music, in the past. You need empty…

Same here, I learned how to program because I was bored in highschool math and physics classes and realized most of the work was just applying an algorithm to some inputs. I'm young enough to have had smartphones when I was in highschool... but I really do feel bad for younger kids these days now that their smartphones are so much better and the ecosystem is so much better, I can imagine they almost never have an opp…

I'm studying C# with the app SoloLearn for Android

Re: Being Bored Is Good

#49

Post by avgDev »

soverance wrote: post #47
ricardobeat wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I just don't understand how people can not feel lost if they don't create something that stems from their own selves For a majority of people, their greatest and most satisfying achievement will be their children. Nature doesn’t play around :)

> For a majority of people, their greatest and most satisfying achievement will be their children. This sentiment is grossly nauseating, to me. Having children is not an achievement. It may be satisfying and fulfilling, but it is in no way an "achievement". If your greatest contribution to the world is birthing a child, you have failed as a person.

However, if that child cures cancer because you provided them with opportunities and assisted them in a way that allowed them to flourish, you have done a tremendous job. I do agree that giving birth being an achievement for people seems sad. It is almost like wining in a medal in a middle school where everyone gets a medal and being proud of it for the rest of your existence.

Re: Being Bored Is Good

#50

Post by dragonwriter »

soverance wrote: post #47
ricardobeat wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I just don't understand how people can not feel lost if they don't create something that stems from their own selves For a majority of people, their greatest and most satisfying achievement will be their children. Nature doesn’t play around :)

> For a majority of people, their greatest and most satisfying achievement will be their children. This sentiment is grossly nauseating, to me. Having children is not an achievement. It may be satisfying and fulfilling, but it is in no way an "achievement". If your greatest contribution to the world is birthing a child, you have failed as a person.

> This sentiment is grossly nauseating, to me. Having children is not an achievement.

The GP didn't say “having children”, so even to the extent one agrees with this claim it's a non-sequitur.

> If your greatest contribution to the world is birthing a child, you have failed as a person.

Perhaps. Certainly, if that's your greatest contribution to your child, you've done very little as a parent. But when people say that someone's greatest achievement is their children, they probably don't mean giving just giving birth to (or fathering) them.

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