Be More Bored: The Hidden Power of Doing Nothing [9781399433174]

Overview

You need to be bored. But maybe not for the reasons you expect.

The world is full of things that demand your attention: from addictively-engineered short-form video and dopamine-driven social media, to language-learning apps designed to fill every moment of your downtime.
But what if the best thing to do is nothing at all?

We all need to be bored. Not because boredom itself is an especially nice experience, but because it's a stairway to other states, helping to unlock incredible creativity and exhilarating moments of flow. In an era of autoplay and infinite scrolling, staring out of the window or doing the washing-up without a podcast aren't a waste of time: they're a way to get our brain working on everything from everyday problems to the meaning of our lives.

Written by journalist Joel Snape, this insightful and accessible guide to one of our most misunderstood emotions explains how generations of thinkers have approached boredom, how it's being destroyed by the arms race of social media and hustle culture… and how to fight back.

From his own phone-addicted starting point, Snape chronicles his journey into boredom: attending tea ceremonies and silent retreats, learning from Tibetan monks and watching Belgian arthouse films. He speaks to artists and advertising executives, neuroscientists, psychologists and the happiest man in the world, all to understand how to better use this essential mental tool.

Being more bored isn't just accepting boredom when it happens, but actively seeking it out. To encourage this kind of intentional boredom, Snape provides dozens of practical tools and systems for us to switch off and zone out – leaving room for us to ponder, muse and daydream.

Be More Bored is a game-changer: a manifesto for doing less, not more.