Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Being Bored Is Good

thewalrus.ca

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–160 of 230 posts

Re: Being Bored Is Good

#151

Post by _7fvc »

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 recently read Sapiens. The author discussed how the Agriculture Revolution tied humans down into boring and less rewarding agriculture societies. Perhaps after thousands of years running freely in the wild, humans got bored. They needed to find higher callings. This was when religion started.

It seems like humans are now at the same junction. After getting all stuff we need, we are lost again. We have less children for economic reasons in the same way hunters did. Having and raising children is ironically the simplest way to find meaning in life.

Re: Being Bored Is Good

#152

Post by [deleted] »

bad_user wrote: post #101
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…

I grew up in a small city, not really a suburb, and had friends and plenty of daily distractions. When I was going out to play I would then come back with my whole body hurting from how much I ran. Not even sure how to describe that pain, because I can no longer feel it, in spite of me working out. It was this intense visceral pain, literally I could feel my organs tired and yet I was euphoric. And I'm not sure how i…

[deleted]

Re: Being Bored Is Good

#153

Post by uniquelygeneric »

pretty_lorelei wrote: post #105
_o-O-o_ wrote: post #100

From: http://www.catb.org/esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html > 3. Boredom and drudgery are evil. > Hackers (and creative people in general) should never be bored or have to drudge at stupid repetitive work, because when this happens it means they aren't doing what only they can do — solve new problems. This wastefulness hurts everybody. Therefore boredom and drudgery are not just unpleasant but actually evil. > To behave lik…

IMHO, this is just different defininiton of boring, as in "doing this repetitive shit is boring and I would be better off automating it and doing something challenging" vs "being alone with my thoughts rather than consuming delicious Internet information is so boring, let me just mindlessly scroll HN instead".

As a musician, I can tell you that practicing a song (particularly a well known song) is very frustrating partly due to boredom. A practiced musician will know when they’ve reached their limit for the day of learning a song. Muscle memory is much slower than neural memory, and usually requires “sleeping on it”.

Knowing you’ve reached the limit of your current capability is boring because you know the next few practice rounds will be much of the same, with minor improvements that provide a dopamine rush.

Regardless, nothing has changed in the age-old saying of how to get to Carnegie Hall: Practice, Practice, Practice. The practice is the boredom, but without training your muscles and building up myelin sheaths, you’ll never be good enough to automate most of the music to an extent that you can improvise on top of it (the fun part).

I guess my point is akin to OP’s, in that boredom isn’t inherently a bad thing, but a means to an end. Without the boring practice, we wouldn’t have experts/artists...and even then, the practice doesn’t have to solely be boring.

Re: Being Bored Is Good

#154

Post by teksimian »

wnmurphy wrote: post #124

This is exactly in line with my own experience. I noticed that I had completely stopped thinking deeply and creatively as I used to, and it coincided with my use of social media as a mental "palate-cleanser" at work. I was filling all of my spare moments with the mental equivalent of processed snacks. Once I stopped, my mind returned to filling that void with deep thoughts and creativity. I really think social media…

When we constantly consumed with stimulus from social media or non stop feed of news and discussion there is no room for boredom. Boredom is important to the creative process.

Re: Being Bored Is Good

#155

Post by thomastjeffery »

tomc1985 wrote: post #150
undulation wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, it's not entirely fist-shaking about the 'good ol days'. There has been research done into this that shows that modern music has become more repetitive: https://pudding.cool/2017/05/song-repetition/

But why is repetition considered "bad music"? The mind craves certain kinds of repetition. I'm big on the electronic music scene here; and once you're in the zone that repetitive four-on-the-floor 120/140bpm dance beat begins to feel like a heartbeat: essential, calming, and deadly if stopped On another note I recall hearing about some anthropologists who claim that the acoustics of Stonehenge are optimal for repetit…

On that note, I find the best thing about EDM is that that repetition is used as a foundation for musical themes, and that expression is done by subtly changing repetitions to make new themes, then mixing them all together in interesting ways.

There's definitely something meditative about it.

Re: Being Bored Is Good

#156

Post by brokenmachine »

mcny wrote: post #149
brokenmachine wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>All the accomplishments of humanity stem from having children. And all the failures. There's already too many people on this planet for it to be sustainable.

I absolutely agree that not everyone needs to have children. I'd go as far as to say most people don't need to have children. However, how do we go about changing this? We demand constant growth in the economy which won't play well with a rapidly shrinking population. That being said, I'd love to promote the idea that your children are not just your responsibility but mine as well. It is such a primitive tribal idea…

>We demand constant growth in the economy which won't play well with a rapidly shrinking population.

That ridiculous and frankly insane expectation of constant growth is the reason we're in this mess in the first place.

Also, a "rapidly shrinking population" has never happened so who knows what the effects might be.

>Personally, I am OK with waves of forced mass sterilization but I understand, because human nature, it will be just as poorly implemented as any war draft so I can't promote this idea.

I wasn't suggesting either genocide or mass sterilization, but lets not go too far the other way and pat ourselves on the back too hard for simply making more people, and making vapid statements like, "All the accomplishments of humanity stem from having children".

Those billions of accomplishments are rapidly destroying the only planet we have, so clearly on average every extra person is a net negative.

I haven't had children myself so the effects of all those accomplishments won't be my offspring's problem when I'm dead.

Re: Being Bored Is Good

#157

Post by crypt0b1z »

"We might think that the addict has it easy: even if they are powerless to solve it, at least they know what their problem is!" Boredom I suppose can be addiction if it can gain profits. Boredom compared to an addiction you dont even realize what is happening. Addicts first step is admitting they are powerless and realizing they have a problem.

Re: Being Bored Is Good

#158

Post by quickthrower2 »

daveslash wrote: post #2

I was so bored this past weekend, and it was great. 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. There's typically a total of an hour of excitement each day, and the rest is just sitting, staring at a mountainside. No cell reception, no human made structures visible, just two other people there with…

And once you can do that, take it to the next level: stare at your apartment wall for 3 days and count the insects, with no other people. That would be hard and true boredom!

Re: Being Bored Is Good

#159

Post by hydrox24 »

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 often have this weird fear that I wont accomplish anything in my life like it is some sort of personal failure.

It's not a weird fear. It is rooted in the expressive individualism of our age, which strips us of tribal identity and tells us that we can be whoever we make ourselves. Both for better and for worse.

The worse of the latter is that if we do not make anything of ourselves, it is our fault. This is perhaps a little more true today than it was in ages past, but we feel it to be a near-absolute truth where it was barely thought of once.

I feel the same thing. It is neither strange nor unexplainable. It is one of the little-spoken downsides of modernity.

Re: Being Bored Is Good

#160

Post by gerbilly »

bradhoffman wrote: post #84
gerbilly wrote: post #75

I'e been programming since the early eighties, and when I was zoned into it, my mom would have to call me 3 times for dinner. I would tell her I'd be there in two minutes, and to me what felt like two minutes, was really ten in real life. In those days, this kind of computer time dilation experience was pretty unique, and very few people had access to it. Now I find it funny to see that all of society seems to be tur…

So how do you keep yourself from become a "phone zombie"? Have you gone as far as to get rid of your smart phone? That is one thing I've heavily considered, but Spotify, Navigation, and High-quality photos are too hard to pass on.

>how do you keep yourself from become a "phone zombie"?

I install only utility apps, a surf forecast app, a VPN token generator for work, and a few others.

I specifically don't install any social media apps on it.¹

I also use an older phone (iphone 5), and maybe that helps a bit too, since you have to be really motivated to browse the web on it.

1: I don't even have social media accounts, period, but that's another story.

Post reply on HN