
Scott Adams: The Heady Thrill of Having Nothing to Do - mattjaynes
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903454504576486412642177904.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
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reinhardt
We have not won the war on boredom. At best we have won the war on idleness,
which is only a lite version of it. If anything, these kill-time gadgets
exacerbate the deep boredom problem, what Pessoa calls tedium:

 _Tedium is not the disease of being bored because there’s nothing to do, but
the more serious disease of feeling that there’s nothing worth doing. This
means that the more there is to do, the more tedium one will feel._

I can totally relate to this quote and attest to the ineffectiveness or even
negative effect most tech toys have in alleviating my chronic diminished
motivation and under-functioning reward system.

~~~
hugh3
That's well put. The internet provides us with a vast pool of borderline-
interesting activities, and almost nothing of actual interest.

This comment was borderline-interesting for me to write. I hope it was
borderline-interesting for you to read as well.

~~~
nazgulnarsil
"and almost nothing of actual interest."

I disagree strongly. More and more AAA content in accessible form is coming
online every month. People are just apathetic because they don't value things
they can obtain for free.

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mceachen
There was a comment on the site about this article being a "rip off" of Huxley
(once again, wikipedia delivers in spades):
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brave_New_World#Comparisons_wit...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brave_New_World#Comparisons_with_George_Orwell.27s_Nineteen_Eighty-
Four)

"Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those
who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism."

~~~
cowboyhero
Also, Neil Postman's _Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age
of Showbusiness_.

Postman references Huxley/Orwell in the introduction.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amusing_Ourselves_to_Death>

~~~
gavingmiller
Postman's book is fantastic. I read the book > 10 years ago and still talk
about it. One of his points that stuck with me was that if television were
actually entertaining we would never be able to leave it.

Also, have a look at some of his more famous quotes:
<http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/41963.Neil_Postman>

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Vivtek
There's boredom, then there's freedom from distraction.

I'm free from distraction when walking the dog in the woods by myself. I'm
bored when stuck in line at Meijer's behind the guy whose credit card expired
yesterday. The latter is _excruciating_ and exhausting.

But aside from that: Scott Adams has a weird way of mixing some decent
insight, like his thesis here, with some really inane stuff that sounds like
late-night college freshman bullshitting. I mean really: "You might see the
best-seller lists dominated by fiction "factories" in which ghostwriters churn
out familiar-feeling work under the brands of famous authors. Got it." Has he
never heard of Charles Dickens? Probably not, actually. But those fiction
factories have existed since books got cheap enough for the mass market.

Not saying he's wrong - I guess I'm saying he's got nobody in his life willing
to shoot down his pretty arguments before they hit the Wall Street freaking
Journal, and that's a little sad.

~~~
gruseom
What? Dickens wrote every word of his own stuff. And walked something like 20
miles a day, too -- often all the way out of London and all the way back.
There was no "fiction factory" about him, just prodigious genius, and a whole
lot of the best English ever written.

Adams is talking about stuff like this (chosen at random):
[http://www.amazon.com/Against-All-Enemies-Tom-
Clancy/dp/0399...](http://www.amazon.com/Against-All-Enemies-Tom-
Clancy/dp/0399157301). Note the critical little "with" on the cover.

Dickens' success as a bestseller proves Adams' point, not yours. If you want
an example of yours, pick Stratemeyer.

~~~
Vivtek
My God, you're right! I hate it when my memory doesn't match reality. Pretend
I said "Alexandre Dumas", then.

~~~
gruseom
Well, now I've learned something. I had no idea that Dumas wasn't the sole
author of his novels. (I'm not sure how he did it qualifies as a "factory",
but perhaps it does.) Not only that, I had no idea that Dumas was the grandson
of a Haitian slave. Or that Chirac had his body exhumed in 2002 and moved to
the Pantheon. Best Wikipedia learnage I've had in some time!

Edit: there's one interesting point about how Dumas worked. He relied on
collaborators to come up with the basic plots and characters. Then _he_ did
the detailed writing and stylistic fluorish. That's exactly the opposite of
how most ghostwriting works, or so I imagine.

~~~
meric
By definition, he was a _famous ghostwriter_.

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stcredzero
In Larry Niven's _A World Out of Time (1976)_ , a human mind is uploaded to a
computer, and finds himself running an interstellar spacecraft. Since he has
to be awake for centuries, he comes up with a trick. He writes a virus to
erase all of his memories of boredom, so the next time he becomes bored and
realizes he's experiencing a heretofore "new" emotion, he feels novelty. Then
somehow, he learns of the trick and does it to himself again.

I guess that once we're uploaded, we could use something like this to "solve"
the reddit and HN repost issue.

~~~
StavrosK
Once we're uploaded, we're no longer us.

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icebraining
<http://so12.edublogs.org/files/2011/03/bill1-2ecvk9b.gif>

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superuser2
I went to see Ira Glass speak about creativity and storytelling. I was a
beautifully crafted speech, and one rhetorical nugget I remember clearly was
this:

" _Ideas come from other ideas._ "

He argued that we cannot be creative in isolation, but that if we surround
ourselves with high-quality ideas and stories, we are more likely to produce
them ourselves. That is what he sees (and strives to create) in public radio.

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chubot
There is some degree of truth to this, but it is balanced out by the fact that
Internet gives you so many more ideas to combine. Creativity is essentially
combining different ideas, and technology puts at your dispisal a constant
stream of new ideas. You can follow in great depth the ones that tickle you.

The majority of people will always passively consume. That's nothing new; it's
possibly a lot more visible now with a lot of content-free blogs/twitter/etc.

But for those so inclined, technology helps a lot. For one example, look at
how many free programming languages are available for use now -- things that
you can build billion dollar businesses on. It wasn't like that in 1985. And a
pretty promiscuous combination of ideas that was required for this to come
into being. Or just consider open source in general.

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timinman
I think this is applicable:

"when you don't create things, you become defined by your tastes rather than
ability. your tastes only narrow exclude people. so create." -Why The Lucky
Stiff

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jsherry
"My period of greatest creative output was during my corporate years, when
every meeting felt like a play date with coma patients."

Love that line.

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tejaswiy
I agree with this. Creative bursts usually come at midnight when I force
myself to switch everything off and go sleep or when I'm stuck on an aeroplane
with nothing to do at all than sit and stare out of the window.

I however, won't miss staring at people while in line at chipotle. I also
disagree with the sentiment that innovation itself is dead because of readily
available distraction.

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zwieback
My experience with my kids is that boredom definitely breeds creativity. We
don't allow unlimited TV or computer time and when they are forced to be
"bored" a short burst of complaint is usually followed by creative play. When
they complain they are bored they hear Grandma's maxim: "Only the boring get
bored."

However, I think it's slightly different for adults. Creative play is not
something we're good at. I often find myself picking up some menial chore
around the house when I feel I have nothing to do instead of doing something
creative.

My best inspirations of creativity usually come when I'm thrown into some new,
unanticipated situation by some outside force. Let's say I go to the DMV and
wait in line and strike up a conversation with the next unlucky customer - all
of a sudden I learn something totally new and unexpected that causes me to try
or do something I have never done before.

In that sense our electronic gadgets are awful because they allow us to get
immersed in completely self-selected entertainment, reinforcing existing
feedback channels. Maybe it would be better to be receive only one channel on
your TV and be forced to sit through a rerun of a Lawrence Welk episode
(preferably with a lot of Polka.)

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PanosJee
It's very interesting to analyze the greek word for employment, working which
is απασχόληση (apasholisi).

It comes from two words απα - σχόληση (apa-sholisi). The first part of the
word απα (apa) is used when we want to give the opposite meaning so απασχόληση
(apasxolisi) is the opposite or the lack of σχόληση (sholisi).

So that does this word means? It comes from the verb σχολάζω, sholazo which
means study. For the greeks working was inferior to cultivating your mind,
going to the gym or the theater. Studying for them was whatever had to do with
the culture of the mind or the body. So employment or working prevented you
from studying.

Aristotle has said: \- "Ασχολούμεθα ίνα σχολάζομεν" (asholoumetha ina
sholazomen) which means that we are working in order to be able to study. More
or less he said that we work in order to have the means to improve our body,
soul and mind and not just work to live.

That's what the Greek said. (not the modern ones of course :) )

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6ren
I think a big aspect of creativity is finding new connections between things,
applying a technique to a different domain, and combining ideas.

I think you need alternation, between stimulation and boredom. And the
stimulation needs to have interesting ideas in it. Though, depending on the
type of person you are, you won't find it novel (and therefore not
stimulating) unless it does have new and interesting ideas in it.

But to be fair, I find my mind does tend to wander to creative problem solving
if it's not occupied. i.e. boredom does help me. I think it might be that
working out new ideas is hard work, and it's easier to be distracted.

~~~
j-kidd
This is where coffee comes in. It kicks your brain up a notch, such that when
you are busy reading blog posts, listening to podcasts, and chatting with your
pals, you still have some spare brain cells left to feel bored.

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terhechte
I guess there is some truth to this. I usually have my best ideas while I'm
jogging / walking. See, I've been jogging the same route (with minor
variations) for almost 4 years now. Around 20 minutes after I started walking
I can feel ideas pop up in my head. I've had some of my best ideas of the past
years while jogging.

So that even helps combining two useful things for me: I process the
happenings of the day, and I stay in form.

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justinhj
"To be fair, economics is to blame for some of the decrease in creativity. A
movie studio can make more money with a sequel than a gamble on something
creative."

More specifically people want to know that they will enjoy something so they
buy a brand that they're familiar with, even if it is repetitive.

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blackboxxx
When there are so many people in this world in need of a friendly visit, or
assistance in some way, shape or form, doing nothing is irresponsible.

Bottom line. HN pretty much qualifies for doing nothing. We should all abandon
HN immediately and forever and get on with our lives.

I dare you.

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twidlit
My best hack around this is commuting instead of driving a car and doing
something mindless like cleaning the house or laundry after being stumped by a
problem. Its in these times that ideas & solutions get formed or destroyed.

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resdirector
There's a startup in this, somewhere.

Has anyone tried the YC startup <http://www.rescuetime.com/>? (I've been
meaning to try it myself, but they want my credit card to begin.)

~~~
Jd
Yep, I didn't find Rescuetime very helpful. I tend to think employee
monitoring is evil and if I am personally not engaged in the work I am doing I
would rather find engaging work than look at the time I waste on other things
(HN, for example).

A proposed startup: web interface that would block all devices totally (or
simply from the internet) for certain period of time. For instance, you could
click a button when you get home from work that says, "I'm done for the
evening" that removes all electronic distractions until some set time in the
morning.

Possibilities exist on different devices for this, but nothing that ties them
all together. Of course, it may not be that popular since not all that many
people that are addicted to their devices treat it as a serious problem to be
remedied (HN addicts included).

~~~
resdirector
Yup, if you (or someone) built that, I'd use it.

 _Of course, it may not be that popular since not all that many people that
are addicted to their devices_

It's a growing problem. Every other day I see a mainstream news article about
device/app addiction.

~~~
Nicknameless
The big question is: would you pay for it?

~~~
resdirector
Good question.

Depends obviously on the implementation. If it was seemless, didn't need to be
configured, and actually worked, I'd pay something like, I dunno, $3.99 a
month.

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georgieporgie
I'm not too sure I agree with the specific notion that availability of
distraction destroys creativity. Here's my (off the top of my head) take on
creativity:

Problems 1: You come up with an idea, and tell yourself, "that's a good idea,
I should remember that!" and then you _don't_ remember, or you tell yourself
that you need to focus on fixing these bugs at work, or on whatever other task
is at hand.

Problem 2: Your mental energy is sapped by whatever you're currently doing.
It's like the classic Stephen King quote about how working simple manual labor
(laundry) was fantastic for creativity and writing.

The solution to problem one is to always have a means of taking notes, one
which you will _definitely_ revisit. This frees you from wanting to focus off-
task when you need to be on-task, and it allows you to revisit and refine your
thoughts. Problem two is tougher. Find a job doing exactly what stimulates
your creativity. Let's face it, though, that's not as easy as blogs and Dice
make it out to be. The only advice I can give is to quit your job and do
_exactly_ what you feel like doing until you've found a problem you want to
solve, but that's not a very constructive path.

I've found that by simply doing whatever I want each day, I'm exposed to way
more interesting problems that I _want_ to solve. I listen to things like
podcast while performing tedious, manual labor (cycling, weight lifting,
cleaning, wrenching, etc), and I feel like it's both easier to get the tasks
done, and I'm left with a feeling of better variety of mental exposure. I'm
currently experiencing a much more creative/inventive period in my life than I
have in years.

~~~
olliesaunders
_The solution to problem one is to always have a means of taking notes, one
which you will definitely revisit. This frees you from wanting to focus off-
task when you need to be on-task, and it allows you to revisit and refine your
thoughts_

This is exactly David Allen’s GTD mantra. But a number of creativity books
I’ve looked at talk about the importance of “giving yourself permission” to
have ideas, part of which means having the means to record them wherever they
happen. I found the number of ideas I have started to increase once I got into
this.

~~~
georgieporgie
Interesting, and that's probably where I heard of it, through second-hand
sources. I think it's very similar to (what I understand to be) a fundamental
concept of meditation: that when a thought pops into your head, you
acknowledge it, and put it aside. The notebook thing seems to be the same
concept on a different level.

~~~
olliesaunders
Yeah, Allen also co-opts the phrase “mind like water” from Karate to mean what
you refer to as meditation here.

