Boredom, silence, wasting time
For me, from this boredom—this blankness of mind as I walk past sometimes fields and sometimes giant gambling pachinko parlors—words flow. I can’t stop them. My mind begins writing about what we see and refuses to shut up. That gap created by a lack of artificial stimulation is filled—thanks to the magic plasticity of our brains—with words and more words. Without Candy Crush, an inverted event horizon spawns, and out shoots: thoughts. I dictate as I walk. From afar, it looks like I’m either on a board meeting call with a CEO or am insane. Amidst all of this, in the lulls of dictation, I photograph—people, objects, mountains, trees, stumps, deer, shrines, temples, dogs depressed and dogs joyful, homes well used and those abandoned.
I’d seen this piece by Mod linked so many times before I finally read it myself and it’s good, it’s worth clicking through and reading. Right after I read it I read the following:
I am a strong believer in cultivating silence to let our minds go wild and start forming thoughts. It is not easy, though, modern civilization likes to flood us with distractions. Therefore, I try to find moments throughout the day where I embrace silence.
I don’t think the two are completely interchangeable, boredom and silence, but these two pieces are getting at the same idea, but from different angles. The second piece goes on to talk about AI and I don’t have much to say about it, it’s not something I use nor that I’ve delved into in any great detail. To be frank, I’m annoyed by it pushing itself into products I use more than anything else.
I agree with Mod, I walk with no distractions, often I don’t even have my phone with me. I’ve also found that walking with the phone in a place where it’s harder to pull out (say in a backpack), that’s even better for me. And it’s often on walks or in the garden or while knitting with no distraction, that I start to come up with ideas. The ideas that stick around, usually end up in a project that may or may not become public.
These two pieces also made me think of an older post by Mandy Brown quoting the excellent Mary Ruefle and then going on to say:
For there is so little time to waste during a life. What a lovely corrective to the advice we’re usually given, that wasting time is slothful or indolent. And note that Ruefle is careful not to suggest that wasted time is invisibly productive. This isn’t a backhanded lifehack—it’s a defense of inefficiency. And one we would be wise to heed.
I wonder how much better off we’d all be if we were able (and I realize not everyone is able) to be bored more, to waste more time, to sit in silence.