December 2, 2020
#958 – Adaptive Boredom | Tinkered Thinking
Check out the Tinkered Thinking Podcast Page & Episode Notes
Key Takeaways
- Just as we adapt to pleasure, we can also adapt to boredom
- “The more boredom that is endured, willingly and with effort, the easier it becomes to handle that boredom” Tinkered Thinker
- Eventually, we can thrive in boredom and get access to the flow state more often
Intro
- Host: @TinkeredThinker
- Check out the Tinkered Thinking website
- In this episode, Tinkered Thinker discusses how learning to endure boredom can help us access the flow state more often
Have We Conquered Boredom?
- We may think that due to the endless entertainment that our phones provide, we would have banished boredom
- This is far from the truth
The Unappreciated Utility of Boredom
- We feel bored when we sit down and focus on a single task
- If we stick with it long enough, we get into flow
- Suddenly it becomes fun and productive
- Why then don’t we actively seek “boring” single-task work?
Evolutionary Roots for Distraction
- Animals who single-mindedly focused on one task were more likely to not notice when a predator was sneaking up on them
- Natural selection might have selected animals that would get distracted enough to notice predators
- “The Darwinian world of natural selection doesn’t really optimize for the deeply contemplative creature, but civilization rewards for it” – Tinkered Thinker
- Considering this evolutionary pressure, it surprising that we manage to sit and focus on our work
Enduring Boredom to Adapt to it
- If our attention slices cannot endure boredom, how can we enter the flow state?
- We’ll easily fall prey to the dopamine hits provided by our phones
- With hedonic adaptation, we always need more dopamine to satisfy our needs
- We become incapable of enduring boredom
- Difficult work is the opposite of scrolling our phones
- It can be boring and even painful (especially at the start)
- Just as we adapt to pleasure, we can also adapt to boredom
- “The more boredom that is endured, willingly and with effort, the easier it becomes to handle that boredom” Tinkered Thinker
- Eventually, we can thrive in boredom and get access to the flow state more often
