Boredom Enthusiasts Discover the Pleasures of Understimulation

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703395904576025482554838642.html

by jamesbritt • 16 years ago

62 25 16 years ago

online.wsj.com

I think it's very true that most people are overstimulated, but I don't really get how people find a lack of stimulation boring. The things described in the article definitely do not sound interesting, but I can only imagine letting my mind wander off into more interesting/productive territory when confronted by them. The possibility of just wallowing in a lack of interest seems kind of lacking in creativity...

ZoFreX• 16 years ago

"Then he began reciting the names of every single one of 415 colors listed in a paint catalog: damson dream, dauphin, dayroom yellow, dead salmon…and on and on and on."

I had that paint catalogue! We made a game out of trying to remember the names based on their (frequently ludicrous) descriptions. Good time killer on a long journey.

AlecSchueler• 16 years ago

Reminded me of the moment in Stockhausen's Hymnen when the names of each shade of red in the Windor & Newtown water colour range are repeated several times in various languages.

javert2• 16 years ago

This article doesn't explain how boredom is "pleasurable" or why people would want to go to a boredom conference. Could somebody explain it to me? Is this some kind of a joke?

wccrawford• 16 years ago

I was that kid that always said, "I'm bored." When I grew up, I started a lot of hobbies. Now, I'm -never- bored... Unless I want to be.

I've taken a couple vacations where my goal was to get bored. I'd pick a hobby and do it until I didn't feel like it any more, and then just kinda bum around.

When you -choose- to be bored, it's a refreshing experience. If it's forced on you, it's just painful.

endtime• 16 years ago

I think this is an example of extremely dry English humor being absolutely baffling to Americans (I'm a bit of each, so I think I can get away with saying things like that).

From the article:

>Boring 2010 sprang to life when Mr. Ward heard that an event called the Interesting Conference had been canceled, and he sent out a joke tweet about the need to have a Boring Conference instead. He was taken aback when dozens of people responded enthusiastically.

javert2• 16 years ago

But people would waste money and the entire time it takes to go to a conference, just for the sake of dry humor?

steveklabnik2• 16 years ago

> After a much-needed break, a drawing was held. Some of the winners got a DVD called "Helvetica," a 2007 documentary about typography.

This one really cracked me up.

yan• 16 years ago

I actually really loved "Helvetica" and really recommend it. Ditto for "Objectified." Both are available from Netflix Streaming

klbarry2• 16 years ago

His other documentary, "Art and Copy" is also great, especially for entrepreneurs who want to pick up a little on advertising/marketing.

steveklabnik2• 16 years ago

Yes, both were really awesome, though my girlfriend _hated_ objectfied.

clistctrl• 16 years ago

I watched that documentary, honestly I find any sporting event far more boring.

binarymax• 16 years ago

Sadly I can think of many instances where I encountered boardroom powerpoint just as uninteresting and pointless as that of Mr. Ward's tie collection.

epochwolf• 16 years ago

A tie collection would be infinity more interesting that the last presentation I was required to attend.

leif• 16 years ago

IBM should host next year's. Two years ago I was forced to sit through a three-hour talk of theirs about ajax (which they thought was new) and OCRing licence plates.

bingaman• 16 years ago

"Boredom is counter-revolutionary"

JoshCole• 16 years ago

I got bored halfway through this and didn't finish it. The section on the conference itself felt so much like the Onion I think it could be copied verbatim into one of their articles without seeming out of place.

petercooper• 16 years ago

Yet in trying to be boring, they ended up choosing unusual novelty topics that are relatively interesting when compared to truly dull pop culture pursuits like American Idol or Dancing With The Stars.

dkarl• 16 years ago

"We're all overstimulated," said Ms. Lee. "I think it's important to stop all that for a while and see what several hours of being bored really feels like."

There's a difference? To me, overstimulation is incredibly boring. Overstimulation is the siren that tempts me to the next thing before I grasp the thing in front of me. Overstimulation is the nagging fear of missing something that makes me miss everything. I have to narrow things down and slow things down before I can engage with anything. Like alcohol, overstimulation is a depressant that feels deceptively like a stimulant, and reliably makes me stupider though it often makes me feel smarter. Maybe I'm just too slow for the 21st century.

endgame• 16 years ago

"Overstimulation is the nagging fear of missing something that makes me miss everything."

That's a wonderful quote. Have you considered writing at length on this?

dan00• 16 years ago

Overstimulation isn't boring, otherwise people wouldn't seek for it.

Overstimulation is emotionally very engaging, but unfulfilling. It's a short emotional high, which people want to feel all the time, so they're searching for the next stimulus, in the hope to find the endless high.

But by doing this, they will never get into a fulfilling state, which isn't a emotional hight. It's a more settled but longing state.

JoeAltmaier• 16 years ago

Its the junk food of experiences

klbarry2• 16 years ago

The conference actually seemed quite interesting to me (as well as some of his blog posts). But my tastes would be called boring by many.

Boredom Enthusiasts Discover the Pleasures of Understimulation

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