The Case for Boredom

“I wasn’t the fastest guy in the world. I wouldn’t have done well in an Olympiad or a math contest. But I like to ponder. And pondering things, just sort of thinking about it and thinking about it, turns out to be a pretty good approach: — Jim Simons (the most successful quant investor in history)

Starting in the 1980s, Bill Gates takes two weeks per year to isolate himself in a secret, remote cedar cabin to read papers, study, and think.

He called it “Think Week.”

Out of some of his Think Weeks came projects like Internet Explorer, and “Virtual Earth,” now Bing Maps.

Albert Einstein too, despite being an unskilled sailor, used water as a way to escape intense theoretical work.

He once famously said, *“creativity is the residue of time wasted.”

The same behavior has been seen many times across history.

Darwin used his daily walks, specifically by doing laps on a path at his home to solve complex scientific problems.

To keep track of his laps without interrupting his train of thought, Darwin would place a small pile of flint at the start of the path.

After each completed circuit, he would kick one stone away.

He would sometimes classify the complexity of a problem by the number of laps needed to ponder it, referring to some as “three-flint problems” or “four-flint problems.”

What do each of these examples have in common?

The answer is boredom.

Time away from distractions.

Time that, to others, looks wasted.

Whether you have writers block, or don’t know which project you should work, or need to make a decision, boredom could be your answer.

Here’s why.

You need to let your subconscious cook.

If you’re engrossed in your work all the time, you don’t give your brain the time it needs to rest, process and take an idea further.

You do work instead of thinking about why that work needed to be done.

Unfortunately, it is the damn phone that’s the problem.

Life-changing epiphanies unfortunately don’t occur when you’re on your phone. In fact, it actively blocks them out.

They only occur in times of silence such as in the shower, on a walk, or while literally staring at a wall.

No amount of TikTok scrolling can make up for staring at a wall.

Think of your brain’s information diet.

If you won’t feed yourself junk, why feed yourself crap information?

Now this doesn’t mean you have to cut yourself off.

Even twenty quality minutes of undistracted silence a day could make a night and day difference, after just a few days.

I beg you just try it.

It gets easier as you do it more often.

Here are some ways to do it:

Solution:

1. Engineered rest = great sleep = better silence = better ideas.
2. Rituals = ability to tolerate repetition = ability to tolerate boredom.
3. Noise-canceling headphones = more likely to have silence = more likely to have better ideas.
4. Meditation, walks, free-writing = ability to tolerate boredom.
5. Staring at a white wall with all devices in another room = type of meditation. Let the mind wander.
6. Nature = peace, silence, repetitive, unmoving = ability to tolerate boredom.
7. Physical exercise and movement = repetitive & reduces resources (blood) for the brain to overthink = ability to tolerate repetition, boredom.

Further Examples of Successful People Doing This

Eight showers a day

When Aaron Sorkin writes, he takes eight showers a day for resets. Eight! He uses it to overcome writer’s block and achieve a fresh start during long, challenging, or frustrating writing sessions. I believe it helps him as a ritual and to get silence. He uses the idea of “shower thoughts” on steroids. Take the idea figuratively here, not literally. Find your own “eight showers a day.” Silence, ritual.

Pavel Durov’s 4-hour swim

Durov uses repetitive exercise, swimming in actual lakes, to enhance mental clarity, resilience, and physical strength. Beyond swimming, he practices extreme, daily, high-repetition workouts, including 300 push-ups and 300 squats. Repetition, exercise.

Shonda Rhimes’ 5-mile run

Shonda Rhimes uses a metaphorical “5-mile run” to describe the intense, disciplined, and often exhausting daily effort required to achieve a state of “flow” in writing. She runs through a bunch of garbage before you get to the good stuff. Repetition, ability to tolerate boredom.. Original quote.

Paul Graham on productive procrastination

Use good procrastination. You have to ignore things that the world thinks is important. Think about big ideas if the idea you’re working on isn’t interesting to you in the moment. Don’t put yourself on your phone or think about easier ideas like what clothes to wear for the day (bad procrastination). Try procrastinating by giving yourself a moment of silence and let your mind wander.

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Give it a shot today, I believe in you.

-Armaan Agrawal