christina's posterous

food for thought - learnings & inspiration

CSCW learning - history of boredom, boredom essential for creativity

the following post is from an email which milton sent to staff and i thought was interesting

the closing keynote was by Genevieve Bell, Intel Fellow.
1. the word "bored", "boredom" first coined in 1850's by Charles Dickens in Bleak House; to describe the first time in history where people have free time.  now English has the most words for boredom than any other language.  boredom has been an active area of pondering by philosophers every since.  In India, the saying is that being bored is left to the Gods, everyone else, get to work.  In Turkish, bored means you are squeezed.  In Tibetan, means an inner itch that needs to be scratched. 

2. people always had to work.  industrial revolution changed this, thus the concept of boredom became possible.
3. early Marxist advocated being 'bored' as a rejection of work - a form of resistance to capitalists
4. now most philosophers believe being bored is an expression of lack of personal meaning.  everything is pre-packaged for you - lack of meaning/discovery for yourself.
5. when you are bored, your brain EKG activity is higher than when thinking
6. boredom state is great for heightened thinking and creativity.  Best ideas come when you are bored.  Learn to doodle, use boredom and doodle to stimulate your creativity
7. embrace boredom - it is defense to over stimulating, a way to preserve sanity when too much media, thus an important state of being.
8. some physical space tends to induce boredom, like train platform
9. people like to be bored together
10. life's overheads are increasing, how many devices to plug in, passwords, paying bills, etc
11. turn off your phone, and listen to signs of God
12. Facebook suicide - when people do not try to find meaning in life, they are sucked into superficial digital stream - where Facebook becomes life
13. people are paying to be allowed to be bored - American Airlines commercial for business class - you will be unplugged - now you can think
14. aim for isolation - to artificially create boredom
15. ancient chinese gardens are designed for aimless wondering - designed to create a monotony to stimulate creativity
16. every human society has structured down time - forced boredom or quiet time.  every religion has this element