Experiments show we prefer pain to boredom

Most of us hate waiting. Whether it’s standing in line, sitting in traffic, or waiting for a delayed flight, those idle moments feel irritating and pointless. Our instinct is to escape them as quickly as possible, almost always by reaching for our phones. But what if those moments of boredom are actually valuable?

Today’s episode of Office Hours is the first of my three-part series on The Meaning of Your Life, about boredom and how learning to sit with it can help us reconnect with reflection, insight, and the search for meaning.

I often talk about the trap of trying to eliminate discomfort from our lives. Boredom is no different. When we constantly distract ourselves, we miss the very mental space where insight and reflection occur. The truth is that boredom can be a gift. One that opens the door to deeper thought and a clearer sense of meaning.

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Where to find Arthur Brooks: 

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Timestamps:

(00:00) Intro

(04:02) Why we need to get better at being bored

(07:40) Research on boredom

(10:55) Why time slows down when we’re bored

(14:33) The benefits of boredom 

(18:20) How Tolstoy found meaning 

(23:49) The doom loop 

(26:33) A different orientation to your devices 

(30:46) The practice of boredom 

(36:37) Q&A: What is a highly sensitive person?

(39:20) Q&A: Should you “trust God’s plan” when looking for a partner?

(42:38) Q&A: How do you avoid wasting your time and talent?

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Referenced:

• The Meaning of Your Life: Finding Purpose in an Age of Emptiness: https://www.amazon.com/Meaning-Your-Life-Finding-Emptiness/dp/0593545427

• The Happiness Scale: https://learn.arthurbrooks.com/the-happiness-scale 

• The Pursuit of Happiness with Arthur Brooks: https://www.thefp.com/s/the-pursuit-of-happiness-with-arthur 

• Just think: The challenges of the disengaged mind: https://dtg.sites.fas.harvard.edu/WILSON%20ET%20AL%202014.pdf

• Self-inflicted pain out of boredom: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0165178116301524?via%3Dihub

• ...References continued at: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.arthurbrooks.com/office-hours⁠⁠⁠

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