Being Bored Is Good
thewalrus.ca
Being Bored Is Good
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Re: Being Bored Is Good
#2I 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 me. I recommend that everyone find something similar in their own lives.
Re: Being Bored Is Good
#3I 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…
If I had to sit for 3 days watching the mountains and the occasional sheep passing by, I would probably turn to meditation or continue planning my project in my mind.
Re: Being Bored Is Good
#4"Break Up With Your Girlfriend, I'm Bored" came on over the radio while reading this.
Re: Being Bored Is Good
#5I think boredom is a mechanism for novelty seeking, making us take a step back and maybe try a different activity, a necessary part of the exploration-exploitation tradeoff... because we never know what unknown unknowns we're missing. It's good to do what we know will give us rewards, but maybe there are even better rewards we're passing on, so from time to time it's necessary to sacrifice the safe zone and go out.
Interestingly, both curiosity and self-control have been turned into successful reinforcement learning techniques. A RL agent would walk a maze collecting points, but one wall was turned into a TV, so when it found it it stopped exploring and just binged on the video feed. Even RL agents can be addicted to video.
Re: Being Bored Is Good
#6If 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 space if you're going to approach something with a fresh, receptive mind and heart. When something is so common that it becomes an ubiquitous commodity, we tend to tune it out and become desensitized. It's this way for all kinds of culture and media. If you're not familiar enough with the really great parts of traditional musics, then think of media around sex. Or, for that matter, video games.
The transition from boredom to fascination to determination has been a start of many significant parts of my life.
Re: Being Bored Is Good
#7I 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…
I highly recommend this episode of the art of manliness podcast if you like that kind of things:
https://www.artofmanliness.com/articles/fire-watcher-philip-...
Re: Being Bored Is Good
#8If 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…
Totally! I think what’s really important is having space to think. Stimulation seems to stopper the possibility of deep-thought. Having significant, radical, perhaps discomforting thoughts becomes impossible when we’re constantly aborting our opportunity to think by filling our lives with distractions. It’s an activity which really does require absence—séquestration and quiet space. I try to set aside time each day for thinking. Often I don’t wind up thinking anything very interesting, but these brief quiet periods have an overall effect of making me feel sharper and more attuned to the world around me. When I’m constantly bombarded by stimulants I begin to feel like a meat-dummy. A buzzing uselessness. A corpse doll. The ubiquitous, incessant access to entertainment, and even to knowledge, that we enjoy today can be far more harmful than helpful.
Re: Being Bored Is Good
#9Being bored is great. You're forced to be with your thoughts.
You have the opportunity to work on them. Be it via meditation. Or cognitive behavioral therapy. or whatever.
And if you succeed, you earn a happier mind.
Re: Being Bored Is Good
#10If 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 to focus though. Everywhere you look in public there is something flashing to get your attention. Thankfully we _are_ able to turn things off for a while and just be with each other.