Boredom

I almost always have earphones in, filling up the time in which I’m not actively focusing on something else with a steady patter of podcasts or mildly interesting books. But occasionally I wonder: aren’t I missing out on being alone with my thoughts, the serendipitous free flow borne of tedium? Maybe it isn’t worth it.

So I have a control: one day a week, I forswear all electronic devices, and when I go for walks it’s just me and my own thoughts. I guess the ideal would be for me to ponder hard problems, or come up with a more efficient solution to a maths problem (this actually did happen the other day, for this! But most of the time the topics seem to be:

• Inventing the perfect response for situations where I didn’t have one
• Getting angry about the news
• Imagining situations where someone tries to beat me up, but then it turns out that I have superpowers and I beat them up (is this normal for an adult??? What does this say about me!?)

Tentative conclusion: I’m not missing out on much. Although it’s possible that the “boredom premium” is cumulative, and only after building up a long period of boredom does true creativity flourish. By cycling between long periods of hyperstimulation and brief pauses, I’m just letting my overstimulated mind lapse into white noise on its off days. ¯_(ツ)_/¯