“Boredom: the great engine of creativity. I now believe with all my heart that it’s only in the crushing silences of boredom — without all that black-mirror dopamine — that you can access your deepest creative wells.”
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Comments 4
True, so true. Best state of mind, apart from euphoria, is being bored.
I wanted to resist this title and phrasing because I hate the concept of boredom. (Why? Because I think of childhood dull days and being admonished to do something if I were bored?) I'm never bored. Like ever. But then I realized this was written by Craig so I clicked through to read it and voila: "this boredom—this blankness of mind" [emphasis mine]
YES! Blankness of mind. Perfect. I love to walk and run and I never listen to music or a podcast or talk on the phone or do anything but the thing. And when I'm fully in it, my mind opens up to so much and makes so many connections that I'm now ridiculously greedy with that walk/run time. I won't share it or even allow the thought "oh I could bang out that phone call while I walk..."
It really saddens me to see almost everyone "mediated" (not the meaning of the word but it should be!) constantly with airpods in, music or a book or a podcast filling their ears, eyes on the phone. If something is always filling your head, when do you hear your thoughts?
I'm leaning into the word "boredom" when I talk about this stuff as a kind of pointed phrase — for the reasons you describe above. (I want folks to bristle a little.) In "contemporary times" (i.e., smartphone times), boredom is effectively any millisecond of downtime, so I'm trying to poke at that as well.
"If something is always filling your head, when do you hear your thoughts?" What a beautifully succinct way to say it.
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