The brilliance of boredom

"My brain, conditioned by a decade of smartphone use, kept reaching for the familiar dopamine drip of constant input. And I know I'm not unique in this. Most of us have become habitual grazers of digital noise... which is the polite way of saying we've become information junkies, always craving our next hit. But about half an hour into the drive, once my initial agitation faded, my mind finally began to wander."

"Last Saturday, our four-year-old didn't sleep well. So on Sunday morning, I did what many semi-desperate parents have done for generations: I loaded her into her carseat, and set out for a long, pointless drive to get her to fall asleep. Thankfully, the ruse worked. As we wound our way toward the Oregon coast, she nodded off after a promised donut."

A parent took a long, purposeless drive to soothe a sleepless four-year-old, discovering unexpected mental clarity without headphones. The absence of habitual smartphone input initially produced agitation but soon allowed the mind to wander, leading to a resolution of a persistent problem. Modern culture has minimized opportunities for boredom by supplying constant digital stimulation. Boredom permits aimless mental wandering that acts as a creative engine, enabling insight and problem-solving. Treating boredom as a cognitive tool can improve creativity and productivity by creating space for undirected thought. Intermittent disconnection from devices can convert apparent wasted time into productive mental incubation.

Read at Big Think