501 Laws: Boredom

Law #116. Boredom

effect: discontentment

Notes

Doing the same thing over and over again—even making money– is boring. Workplace boredom infects all professionals, including thieves, lawyers, and physicians. Boredom means dissatisfaction with what you have: job, relationship, achievements. Boredom is not simply an ungrounded thought process but a genuine discontentment with current personal matters. Reacting negatively to boredom is easy, if not neuro-driven. Teenagers, when bored, deface public property, and adults drink, gorge, gamble, or watch scary films. Boredom is not a defense to committing a crime. The idea of penitentiary commissioned boredom, unsuccessfully, as therapeutic loneliness. Responding positively to boredom is a skill, though reading books rarely alleviates boredom. Preempting boredom through pointless excitements intensifies boredom. Boredom is a godsend for brilliant individuals, for it is a forerunner to creativity. Bored with painting, Picasso started writing poetry for a while. God created the universe out of absolute boredom.