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Comment by rm_-rf_slash | Hacker News Reader

Each day at work I put in headphones, code for a bit, read HN for a bit, then back to code. I don't know if I could describe it as boredom, maybe confused context switching.

It brings to mind how the protagonist of Neuromancer gets hooked on amphetamines after being surgically banned from the Internet. We get so used to everything happening quickly and efficiently that our brains don't have time to rest. If you're not doing something, then what's wrong with you, the modern world seems to say.

We were led to believe technology would eventually alleviate us of our ills. Instead I feel...tired.

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I think that one of the helpful side effects of being on the go constantly is avoidance of unanswerable philosophical or existential questions. If you're busy, you're not going to get kneecapped by these depressions-in-disguise. Having time to wallow can be detrimental, because it can build a habit out of wallowing. Capitalism/materalism does a very good job of disguising that even at its best it doesn't necessarily provide a life that everyone would agree is worth living.

Of course, you could argue that existential and philosophical questions are critical to a studied life that is worth living, but meh.

I go back to the person above who mentioned mindfulness. That's what I really focus on in the attempt to stave off "boredom". Because ultimately I find that the existential and philosophical questions which have their place at times are ultimately just as much as a distraction as a cell phone. Spending too much time on those questions is just an avoidance of the present moment, the future and ultimately death. Like the delusion that if your were really smart, you could you think your way out of the human condition.

This is a bit philosophical, but I'd say the thing you're disdaining here is the ability to handle difficult concepts. It's tough to acquire, because it requires practice failing at it for a while until we begin to succeed at standing in the path of these ideas without getting "kneecapped" by them.

There does come a point, though, where they cease being so threatening. When you're practiced at handling ideas that threaten depression, they're no longer so effective when an attempt is made to use them against you.

Or maybe I just need coffee.

I've been struggling against boredom for the last 3 months. The reason for the constant context switching is to fight off boredom for a few minutes or a few hours to get something done, anything done at all.

Even when carving out time at work for what I want to do, it feels tiring.

When our time is owned by someone else or when our creativity is ignored by someone else we can feel boredom and we can feel tired. I thought it would be fun to hack on Python all day and to explore a new JavaScript web framework; instead I've felt tired and just waiting for 5 or 6pm to just leave and then come home and avoid computers completely.

Maybe we're just feeling like burnt out Colin Laney from All Tomorrow's Parties?

Not only "what's wrong with you", but I took his addiction to amphetamines as a response to his addiction to the instant gratification the Internet provides, which is 100% relevant today.

Now I want to read Neuromancer again. Great book.

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