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Being Bored Is Good

thewalrus.ca

181–190 of 230 posts

Re: Being Bored Is Good

#181
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…

>These are the people who fund albums and promotions these days. This is their criteria. From the horses mouth.

And VCs want you to make food delivery or photo sharing apps, because it makes them money. And yet, I can look out my window and see an artisanal bakery and craft store.

Is your son's goal to become a rich, pop star, or to play his music for a living? If it's the former, then I guess he should listen to the people who produce the pop stars. If it's the latter, there are more channels for doing so than ever in history.

Re: Being Bored Is Good

#182
I always love these threads.

"Being bored is good? I'll show you how bored I am! I'm the most bored. Here's an anecdote about how I was the most bored before being the most bored was known to be good. Therefore I really am bored and therefore good. LIKE ME LIKE ME LIKE ME"

You know what? I'm rarely bored, suck it.

Re: Being Bored Is Good

#183
post #106
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…

> In my own conception of life, I just don't understand how people can not feel lost if they don't create something that stems from their own selves. Then you must ask why those who have accomplished their dreams (doing what they want) still feel lost. I know many. The real question is: what can complete the emptiness that I feel? The answer is simple: Nothing! There is no emptiness -- stop imagining one. Do what you…

There is nothing we own and everything we leave behind after death is also temporary. Time changes everything, so why not think of our day as the unit of life that we get in the morning and ends at night? What I accomplish that day is what counts for me.

Re: Being Bored Is Good

#184
bored: feeling weary and impatient because one is unoccupied or lacks interest in one's current activity.

Somehow i feel people mistake living a peaceful life with living a boring life. if you are bored all the time, that is basically called being depressed. it is not fun and it is not good.

Re: Being Bored Is Good

#185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

As a millennial/gen z music person, the problem is that your son is a guitarist. Guitar rock is dead. Foo Fighters, Qotsa,tool offshoot bands are all too 2000's. Sample and synth based rock is alive. We can simply sample any guitar lines and warp them to fit the beat. No need to hire a guitarist. Rock has moved on. It moved on in 2000 following the releases of Radiohead's Kid A, The Flaming Lips' The Soft Bulletin, O…

> Lastly your kid is not deeper than the other kids lyrically. Get off of your high horse and stop leading your kid towards a path to hell.

Did you deduce that from looking at his Instagram feed that I posted above? A feed that pretty much contains NONE of his original material and only covers of current songs? That you didn't recognise that pretty much shows your total and complete lack of knowledge of the music industry today. You should spend less time at the (computer) keyboard and go listen to more live music.

Lastly, Where did you get the idea I was leading him anywhere? All his choices, I am just reporting what I see when he talks to music execs.

Re: Being Bored Is Good

#186
Once you have spent years not being bored thanks to constant availability to Youtube, Netflix and plethora of scrolling options on phone it becomes really _hard_ to be bored.

A lot of people of my generation actually need Netflix to fall asleep, which I find frankly disturbing. The eyeball economy is an addiction, maybe not as dangerous as other ones, so we just live with it.

Re: Being Bored Is Good

#187
post #51

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…

I really like this: > However, silence was a big part of traditional music, in the past. A glass is useful because of its empty space. You need the emptiness to fill it up with something. For inventions/ideas/startups, you need some empty space in your mind. Think of a bored computer (one that is not used to its maximum capacity). It's like a computer that uses swap memory v.s. one that has a few GBs of free RAM. Whi…

Like the Tao Te Ching passage:

Thirty spokes share the wheel's hub;

It is the centre hole that makes it useful.

Shape clay into a vessel;

It is the space within that makes it useful.

Cut doors and windows for a room;

It is the holes which make it useful.

Therefore profit comes from what is there;

Usefulness from what is not there.

Re: Being Bored Is Good

#188
I never saw The Walrus before - great content.

I consider it an aspect of “wealth” to have quiet time for introspection. While I do most of my hiking with friends, I block off long periods of time for introspective, or meditative, walks by myself in the wilderness (I live 150 feet from a trailhead, with lots of nearby wilderness).

I usually enjoy writing but after a recent move back to our home in Arizona, I was suffering from “writer’s block” and the way I broke through that was to toss my laptop in a backpack and walk for 45 minutes to my local library, write, then walk home. Walking 90 minutes might seem boring but this process worked well for me and got me unstuck.

Re: Being Bored Is Good

#189
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…

He should stop talking to music producers and execs and start playing shows, releasing music independently and hustling to get his image out in the world. The era of "breaking in" has been over for decades. Luckily for him it's very possible DIY a music career now, just not one that nets millions of dollars.

Re: Being Bored Is Good

#190
My favorite quote from the article:

> Boredom is, at its simplest, a form of desire turned back upon itself, resulting in the inability to act in any purposeful or happy manner.

> Why can’t I simply want something? Why can’t I simply do something?

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