For me, there are two definitions of boredom:
- Not having anything to do
- Not having anything interesting to do
The latter implies that you are doing something, but it’s not very exciting to you. You’re just passing time and occupying space. It’s much more discouraging than the former.
As a kid not having anything to do never bothered me, since I always invented stuff to do, whether it resembled “work” or “play.” There wasn’t much difference between spending every minute of my summer painstakingly drawing a comic book or just riding bikes around the neighborhood. It was all play to me.
Then I grew up, and had to do things that weren’t interesting to me. Typesetting catalogs was fun at first, but it got old in a hurry.
The point is, I guess I’m naturally, internally motivated to find interesting things to do. It’s probably nothing noteworthy in the grand scheme of things compared with the rest of the world, but that’s one of the things that makes me tick.
Give me something stimulating. Otherwise, I’ll go create my own stimulation.
