What’s it about:

Goodreads has this summed up neatly: ‘It’s time to move “doing nothing” to the top of your to-do list. In 2015, Manoush Zomorodi, host of WNYC’s popular podcast and radio show 'Note To Self' led tens of thousands of listeners through an experiment to help them unplug from their devices, get bored, jumpstart their creativity, and change their lives. Bored and Brilliant builds on that experiment to show us how to rethink our gadget use to live better and smarter in this new digital ecosystem. Manoush explains the connection between boredom and original thinking, exploring how we can harness boredom’s hidden benefits to become our most productive and creative selves without totally abandoning our gadgets in the process.’

What Lynn learned:

• It’s not just me with a fear of boredom. I was reflecting on why I find doing nothing so terrifying and this book confirms that this is a common experience in our world today.

• Tech calls those who engage with it ‘users’, much like those with addictions. Digital designs itself to be addictive – ‘We’ve trained our brains to always have one thumb on Snapchat. But if we want to, we can also untrain them’ (p. 37).

• We can use our novelty and resources on creative projects…. Or on social media scrolling, ‘Research shows that great artists, scientists, and other types of creators have an abundance of dopamine in their system that allows them to deal with novelty,” Kaufman explained. In other words, they are extra-motivated to seek out the new and can then channel that novelty seeking into being creative. Kaufman calls dopamine “the mother of invention” and explains that because we have a limited amount of it, we must be judicious about choosing to spend it on “increasing our wonder and excitement for creating meaning and new things like art—or on Twitter.’ (p. 40).

• We actually are losing our ability to focus on reading as we engage increasingly with digital media. I thought that was just scaremongering. Skim reading online has replaced our ability to slow read (p.46).

• The word ‘wexting’ is fab – when you are walking and texting.

• It actually makes sense that we are wired to want novel information as this supports our survival instinct – but this is outdated when we are scanning for social media likes.

• Video games can be used to micro dose ‘hits’ that replace addictive behaviours.

Fave quotes:

• ‘When our minds wander, we activate something called the “default mode,” the mental place where we solve problems and generate our best ideas, and engage in what’s known as “autobiographical planning,” which is how we make sense of our world and our lives and set future goals.’

• ‘As a security guard at the Guggenhem, he spends his eight-hour shifts pacing around the New York City museum’s galleries… How does he manage to stay awake? By communing with his other colleagues: the artwork.’ (p. 73)

• With reference to taking lots of digital photos, ‘we have this constant stream of what’s next, what’s next, what’s next and never fully embrace any of the experiences we are having’ (p.80).

• Quoting Steve Wozniak, ‘I don’t believe anything really revolutionary has been invented by a committee’ (p. 123).

Why relevant right now:

Because I’m in a deloading phase of life and this certainly makes the case for doing less.

Interest factor: 4/5

Coffee table cred: 3/5

Ignorance of external world while reading: 4/5

Book cover design: 4/5

Help the existential crisis: 5/5