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Being Bored Is Good

thewalrus.ca

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Re: Being Bored Is Good

#171

Post by WA »

filoleg wrote: post #46
criddell wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

That makes sense. If I just stay bored, I probably start daydreaming and nothing comes of it.

Re: Being Bored Is Good

#172

Post by akuji1993 »

brootstrap wrote: post #10
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…

Modern music is a mirror image of the internet culture as well. Blasted with as many synth hooks and processed vocal melodies as possible. I was recently turned onto this band called Wand. If you want to feel some delicious space in a song, check out Scarecrow by Wand. The video is amazingly simple too. The constant bombardment of shit is so real though. I want to spend time with my wife and kid. Sometimes it's hard…

Pink Floyd is also a band using a lot of "whitespace" as I usually call it (design infused I guess). In my opinion few people using silence in solos as good as Gilmour.

Re: Being Bored Is Good

#174

Post by hvidgaard »

Gene_Parmesan wrote: post #168
brokenmachine wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I always wonder: when their week is over, where do people find refuge? Sports, hobbies, entertainment? I just don't understand how people can think about leaving this world without having something that is really their own. How do you live when you're just a consumer? What happens if you lose friends? In my own conception of life, I just don't understand how people can not feel lost if they don't create something th…

> At the end of it all there will be nothing but the heat death of the universe. I'm as non-religious as they come, but I often wonder about this. Any time I spend even a little bit of time thinking about this stuff, I always find myself turning to the thought that, if that truly is all there is, then why does anything exist at all? Like, even on the level of energy/matter. My brain just can't get past the logic of,…

For all we know, we live inside a black hole, as far as we understand the matter in the universe and it's size. The size of the observable universe line up with the event horizon of a black hole with the same mass. It may be a coincident.

Or perhaps our universe it all there is, and it doesn't expand infinitely, but will begin a pullback at some point leading to a new big bang.

Or maybe we're just simple 3d beings, and the universe is really multi dimensional. Or even more mind boggling, we're just a simulation.

None of the above explains what is outside, nor does it answer your question. What I'm trying to paint, is that we will probably never know. But we do know that being happy feels good, so just focus on that, because that is the meaning.

Re: Being Bored Is Good

#176

Post by cjarrett »

brootstrap wrote: post #10
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…

Modern music is a mirror image of the internet culture as well. Blasted with as many synth hooks and processed vocal melodies as possible. I was recently turned onto this band called Wand. If you want to feel some delicious space in a song, check out Scarecrow by Wand. The video is amazingly simple too. The constant bombardment of shit is so real though. I want to spend time with my wife and kid. Sometimes it's hard…

Wand is great. Thought their latest album was from a different band because it's so different than the random freebie I got from my local record store (their Golem record, it was bent)

Re: Being Bored Is Good

#177

Post by sobani »

cyberferret wrote: post #166
warent wrote: post #91

> Modern music is a mirror image of the internet culture as well. Blasted with as many synth hooks and processed vocal melodies as possible. This seems a little bit like a fist-shaking "back in my day!" kind of judgemental statement. Music is a matter of taste and what you're approaching here doesn't relate to the topic.

I am going to have to back the parent comment about music, having had first hand experience with this. My son is currently trying to break into the music industry. He is a gifted guitarist and musician [0], but whenever he talks to music producers and execs, he is told that his songwriting is too complex, his songs too long (avg 4 minutes) and his lyrics too deep for the current generation of music buyers (read: teen…

> the people who make the decisions

Those people mostly focus on finding songs that can reach a billion streams. They are like the VCs looking for the next Google, they don't care about the specialty boutique.

Maybe your son should try to find his '1000 true fans', instead of trying to win the gatekeeper lottery.

Re: Being Bored Is Good

#179

Post by vekker »

Gene_Parmesan wrote: post #168
brokenmachine wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I always wonder: when their week is over, where do people find refuge? Sports, hobbies, entertainment? I just don't understand how people can think about leaving this world without having something that is really their own. How do you live when you're just a consumer? What happens if you lose friends? In my own conception of life, I just don't understand how people can not feel lost if they don't create something th…

> At the end of it all there will be nothing but the heat death of the universe. I'm as non-religious as they come, but I often wonder about this. Any time I spend even a little bit of time thinking about this stuff, I always find myself turning to the thought that, if that truly is all there is, then why does anything exist at all? Like, even on the level of energy/matter. My brain just can't get past the logic of,…

I think the trick is to reverse your thinking. Looking for answers to existential questions outside ourselves is just a rabbit hole leading to more questions. I'd love to be proven wrong, that would make things a heck of a lot simpler. But this is like the dreamer asking himself where all the dream stuff comes from and why it's there, making up all sorts of theories about the dream universe and dream black holes or even dream gods. I think reality is very similar. You cannot solve problems with the same thinking used to create them.

Re: Being Bored Is Good

#180

Post by leethargo »

daveslash wrote: post #122
Ididntdothis wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“Every year I volunteer to backpack into the desert mountains of Southern California, sit in one spot for 3 full days, and count all of the Bighorn Sheep that I see. “ Where is this if I may ask? And how many sheep do you get to see? I wouldn’t mind doing that and take my camera.

Re: Where is this? -- Anza Borrego Desert State Park. Re: How many sheep -- Depends on your count site; some people see zero, others see upwards of 40. See this HN comment (from this same thread) for additional info. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20384971

Oh great, I've actually been there and saw two bighorn sheep near the "oasis" that is not too far from the visitor center. It was super hot there, actually (42°C or so?). Probably my most extreme heat exposure ever.
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