Good Creative People are Never Bored | Hacker News Reader

Good Creative People are Never Bored

heywhipple.com

41 pointsshadowfiend39 comments

"Saying “I’m bored” suggests you’ve in fact seen and thought of every interesting thing in the universe, read every book, been down every street, looked into every window, talked to all 7 billion people and that until some NEW material comes along, frankly, you’re not at fault for mopin’ around the house and draggin’ your knuckles a little bit. “Sorry, but there’s nuthin’ ta DO.”

... I'm not sure I agree. I think "bored" may simply be a state of mind that people sometimes just have to cycle through.

Like, if you say "I'm depressed", I'm not going to claim that you've gone through every conceivable solution to every problem the world might have and that you've concluded every one of them is hopeless. You might be depressed about something, or you might have found something to be depressed about. I'm not sure which one is the cart and which one is the horse.

I think plenty of creative people get bored, and I don't think it's always because of an absence of things to be interested in, any more than depression is always caused by an absence of things to feel optimistic about.

No one can be "on" all the time. I would even go so far as to say that a creative person who doesn't periodically crash and burn isn't trying hard enough.

Many creative people are even prone to varying degrees of hypomania, cycling between periods of despondency and fits of irrepressible energy.

Is there a paper or article you know of I could read relations between creativity and hypomania/other psychological things? It interests me.

Never mind, found one

http://my.psychologytoday.com/files/attachments/33524/person...

Seems there are differing definitions of "bored" here. Methinks the more common is "I have no idea what to do".

I'm not bored ever, as the universe provides an infinite array of things to observe or do - and that's assuming I've gotten thru my "to do" list, which I start every few months and soon give up on because it grows so long so fast there is no point in so much as prioritizing it (even top priority items will be so numerous as to take the whole foreseeable future). To the contrary, sometimes I find the plethora of options paralyzing.

Heh, I find myself doing almost exactly that. Funny thing is I usually browse HN for posts about task management. I really get satisfaction from checking things off and definitely benefit from prioritizing myself, but does anyone here have any tips on how to manage things in such a way as to not want to trash everything and start from scratch pretty regularly?

Keep very detailed notes on everything you do, and if you ever decide to start something new then archive your notes, digitize them if possible and keep them until one day you decide to return to it. If you never decide to do that then give them to your children, (or the world if you think it's that good) etc.

As far as doing something and trying not to get to that point at all, focus on the one project until it's finished.

Maybe I'm not like all the rest, but I've never used that definition of 'being bored'.

To me, it's not about not knowing anything to do, but about not wanting to do anything. When I feel bored, I don't want to read, to watch, to listen, or do anything else that requires my attention or effort. I don't think I've ever felt like "today, I want to do something! But sadly I don't know anything to do."

What you're describing sounds more like temporary depression instead of being bored. Actually, I wonder if the state of boredom is actually a form of depression?

Yea, the author really means creative and motivated people.

That sounds more like depression or ahedonia than "being bored".

That's a classic description of depression. Seriously. Talk to your doctor about this and hit the gym/physical activity a bit more, especially if the episodes increase in length or intensity.

I get this too, generally on weekends when I don't have any obligations.

I don't think I would call it depression though. There's no sadness involved. It's more like nothing seems interesting enough to motivate me to action.

This is trivially refuted by the fact that "good creative people" with concentration/motivation defects, depression etc. exist.

The whole article is a non-sequitur.

I think your definition of “bored” is closer to my definition of “motivated”. I consider the two different things. As ctdonath points out above, the definition of “bored” I think this article is using (and the one I'm applying to it) is “I don't know what to do”, not “I don't want to do anything”. So if we talk about the latter, you're completely correct. I think if we talk about the former, the author/article makes a better point.

There's an unnecessary swipe at GW Bush there, unfortunately, but I think the article's point is nonetheless excellent.

Ah, but it worked for me! :-)

Perhaps it was an "extra", but it did serve as a well known example of the incurious.

I'm usually excited when I have nothing to do because I can finally spend ANY time on my own projects.

However, I'm often bored of doing particular tasks. Perhaps I'm boring at doing those tasks.

That's what I feel too.

I'm bored when doing home chores, when working on un-interesting projects, when stuck in transit, when waiting for things/people, and etc etc.

Man, I must be a really boring person!

Far be it from me to disagree with an ad blogger.

However, many of those we think of when we consider creativity seem to go through periods of something close to depression.

The author of this article is taking the statement too literally.

When someone tells you they're bored they're most likely saying "let's go do something together". That kid probably just wanted to play with her mother.

If a someone can find time now to actually be bored, it means they have a healthy disconnect with technology. It means they still have the itch to be social without going to Facebook, watching the Kardashians or texting white noise.

cached version: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?ix=hcb&sour...

Not that sure if I should agree the author's statement. I think that energy management is key and that it should be "allowed" for people to be bored. Every engine needs to cool down sometimes and instead of giving some lengthy explanation about "relaxing, regrouping, thinking without a specific purpose" (at least I) describe this time as "boring".