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Ask HN: How to Beat Boredom?

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Ask HN: How to Beat Boredom?

#1

Post by ellinoora »

When I come home after work, it usually happens: I get bored. I keep asking myself "What should I do next?". It's hard to think that this is a "privilege of a free mind" and I know this is a first-world problem, but it doesn't help with the fact that feel bored. I'm not really satisfied with the situation. I'm not stressed, nor depressed — just bored. Any help?

Thanks, fellows!!!

Re: Ask HN: How to Beat Boredom?

#3

Post by yashvanth »

Ah, boredom! This sure is a first world problem, I was there until a couple of weeks ago. Until I got into reading and meditation which has kept me busy for now. Give it a try!

Hope this helps, let me know what else you try, might help me too!

Re: Ask HN: How to Beat Boredom?

#4

Post by volument »

yashvanth wrote: post #3

Ah, boredom! This sure is a first world problem, I was there until a couple of weeks ago. Until I got into reading and meditation which has kept me busy for now. Give it a try! Hope this helps, let me know what else you try, might help me too!

Thanks! Reading makes a lot of sense. Especially fiction, since I'm so bored of all the tech books.

Re: Ask HN: How to Beat Boredom?

#5

Post by jerome-jh »

volument wrote: post #4
yashvanth wrote: post #3

Ah, boredom! This sure is a first world problem, I was there until a couple of weeks ago. Until I got into reading and meditation which has kept me busy for now. Give it a try! Hope this helps, let me know what else you try, might help me too!

Thanks! Reading makes a lot of sense. Especially fiction, since I'm so bored of all the tech books.

Whether fiction or technical, read a _physical_ book. As soon as I open the laptop I am sucked into a black hole and many times, I forget the reason why I opened it in the first place. I end up always reading the same sites, doing the same shit, ...

You could also cook: not necessarily complicated things. Just cook you meals from basic ingredients, fresh or frozen.

Re: Ask HN: How to Beat Boredom?

#6

Post by muzani »

I think it's really about being passive. If you're passive, nothing can hook you. Everything (anything?) is enjoyable when it's an active activity.

Books should not be downloading content to your brain. They should be more of a conversation. TV is only fun when you're asking questions back - that's why things like anime, drama, and Marvel movies have such dedicated fandoms.

There's the Pirsig's brick principle. To quote a site: https://www.thestrategyexchange.co.uk/2014/05/pirsigs-brick/

"There’s a point in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance where the author, Robert Pirsig, is describing semi-autobiographically his experience teaching English ('Rhetoric') at a college in Bozeman, Montana. One of his students, a clever but unimaginative girl, has set herself the task of writing an essay on the US. Pirsig gently suggests that she try narrowing her focus a little, perhaps to an essay about Bozeman.

A few days later the girl is back, quite upset this time, because she’s struggling to get started, and she can’t understand why she should be able to write about a small and incidental town like Bozeman when she’d wanted to write about the US.

Pirsig, angered, tells her to write about a street in Bozeman, about one building there – the opera house – and to start with the upper left hand brick.

Puzzled she goes away, and a few days later turns in a lengthy and outstanding piece of work. She had sat herself in a coffee shop across the street, started writing about the brick, and it was like taking a cork out of a bottle. She couldn't stop writing."

Re: Ask HN: How to Beat Boredom?

#7

Post by tluyben2 »

yashvanth wrote: post #3

Ah, boredom! This sure is a first world problem, I was there until a couple of weeks ago. Until I got into reading and meditation which has kept me busy for now. Give it a try! Hope this helps, let me know what else you try, might help me too!

I wrongly assumed boredom no longer exists (If I become a 1000 years old I still do not have the time to do the things I want and I only do things I want now... But I have ideas for 5 more projects daily and have had that since about my 10th. My friends more or less have the same thing); that assumption seems to be incorrect. How widespread would this be I wonder. I have seen it far more in poorer countries (2nd world?) because people have boring jobs or no jobs and spend their time hoping it will pass fast, so drink a lot and browse facebook all day.

Re: Ask HN: How to Beat Boredom?

#9

Post by yashvanth »

tluyben2 wrote: post #7
yashvanth wrote: post #3

Ah, boredom! This sure is a first world problem, I was there until a couple of weeks ago. Until I got into reading and meditation which has kept me busy for now. Give it a try! Hope this helps, let me know what else you try, might help me too!

I wrongly assumed boredom no longer exists (If I become a 1000 years old I still do not have the time to do the things I want and I only do things I want now... But I have ideas for 5 more projects daily and have had that since about my 10th. My friends more or less have the same thing); that assumption seems to be incorrect. How widespread would this be I wonder. I have seen it far more in poorer countries (2nd worl…

There was no question of whether if it's a 2nd world issue or not, nor did I assure it isn't. Boredom is inevitable to humans, everyone has to go through it. We just have to find ways to keep us out of long stretches of boredom!
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