quotes

Quote of the Day for June 26, 2023: Boring (and the need to be bored)

As seen on Mastodon:

I’m feeling more and more that smartphones are an enemy of creative thinking. If creativity requires boredom, a device that ensures you’re never bored is an effective barrier.

The internet is wonderful, but never being left to your own thoughts breeds conformity.

Ben Werdmuller

Werd, Ben1I swear I didn’t do this entire post just for this horrible bit of wordplay. But I maybe did just a little..

I’m not sure if I’d say the lack of boredom leads to conformity, per se, but I think it does dull the mind, and easy access to the internet 24/7 can train you to perpetually stimulate your brain, even if it’s with vacuous nonsense, which is found on the internet (and for most people via their smartphone) in quantities that are effectively endless. The smartphone makes it all the more insidious because of its ubiquity. Everyone has one, and it’s always right there on your person, in your pocket, or in your hand and…hey, put the phone down and look at me! Have you ever noticed how often people will take the slightest gap in a conversation as an opportunity to pull out their phone and start interacting with it? Think of those halcyon days of yore, where a few moments of thoughtful silence were just that.

Writer/artist Austin Kleon has written about the need for boredom as well: Boredom is a pit stop.

Being bored sometimes is good. Having a few minutes to just lose yourself in your own quiet thoughts is good. The next time you feel restless and pick up your phone, set it back down and give yourself a few minutes to just marinate in your own thoughts. You might come out of it pleasantly energized. And if you can’t set the phone down, maybe consider one of these.

Creativity, taste and practice: Blend together and enjoy

I came across this quote from Steve Jobs (by way of Ira Glass), and it speaks to me in a way that rings so true I can still hear the bells clanging in my head. Stupid bells. It also echoes what I read in Talented Is Overrated1I was originally going to link to my reivew, but it turns out I never reviewed this book. It’s short, so I’ll just re-read it and do a proper review. Short version: The first half is compelling, the second is mostly “be a better businessperson blah blah blah”., which posits the idea that we all have ability, we just need to nurture it and practice…a lot.

Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, and I really wish somebody had told this to me.

All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But it’s like there is this gap. For the first couple years that you’re making stuff, what you’re making isn’t so good. It’s not that great. It’s trying to be good, it has ambition to be good, but it’s not that good.

But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is good enough that you can tell that what you’re making is kind of a disappointment to you. A lot of people never get past that phase. They quit.

Everybody I know who does interesting, creative work they went through years where they had really good taste and they could tell that what they were making wasn’t as good as they wanted it to be. They knew it fell short. Everybody goes through that.

And if you are just starting out or if you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Do a huge volume of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week or every month you know you’re going to finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you’re going to catch up and close that gap. And the work you’re making will be as good as your ambitions.

I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It takes awhile. It’s gonna take you a while. It’s normal to take a while. You just have to fight your way through that.

Steve Jobs