How Boredom Can Boost Creativity

m.nautil.us

42 points·kernelv··8 comments

Open articleView on HN

Next up on the front page: "Breathe to become more creative."

> http://www.wired.com/2010/10/feeling-sad-makes-us-more-creat...

> http://nautil.us/issue/20/creativity/to-be-more-creative-che...

http://nautil.us/issue/20/creativity/to-be-more-creative-che...

http://www.wired.com/2010/10/feeling-sad-makes-us-more-creat...

Clearly everything boosts creativity

Boredom is the best way to boost creativity. Forcing yourself to sit in a really boring place without the stimulation of a cell phone or a laptop, and only a pen and a paper, works wonder. Intake of psychoactive drugs, makes you high or low, and thus can help you get started, but is not recommended. Note that I am talking about caffeine, alcohol and nicotine when I say psychoactive drugs. Stronger substances is of course not recommended at all for creative work.

boredom, cheerfulness, melancholy [1], guess everything makes us creative

[1] http://www.wired.com/2010/10/feeling-sad-makes-us-more-creat...

Seems like a dog eat dog world in 'creativity'.

If I'm sad, I'm too busy wallowing in self pity than to do anything meaningful.

It's almost like creative people are individuals; breathing beings who experience complex lives. Lives that will later be scrutinized and categorized by others trying to figure out the "secret sauce" to humanity's most prized possession.

http://kill-or-cure.herokuapp.com/

Interesting read. Recently I conceived a similar relationship between boredom and long-term productivity and wrote a blogpost about it. http://www.dhfromkorea.com/boredom-is-powerful/

Reply on news.ycombinator.com