Book Reading : Bored and Brilliant

 These days all of us are in constant state of physical and mental motion. Especially with the advent of computing devices (laptop, mobiles etc) we have become like monkeys jumping from one branch to another branch in Internet, of which I am also guilty. So when I found this book by Manoush Zomorodi it was a must read for me. Here are some of the findings of this book.

In a world where entertainment is 24/7 and with a tap or click away (Facebook, Quora, Twitter, Youtube and myriads of such websites and apps). We don't every give ourself a chance to be bored. It would have been great if these activities helped us in getting more mental peace or advancement in life, but it does none of that. Instead of that it leaves us exhaused and confused.

Author argues that we have to give our brain a chance to be bored. Then only we can reflect and think of ideas which can change us and our lives or in a sense make us brilliant.

Have you noticed number of tabs open on your browser. In my case it definitely goes more than a dozen. Why do I have them open? Because I feel a need to absorb information from vastly different number of sources (listen, read, watch). What am I doing with all this information. Probably not much.

People are afraid of boredom, in one study a candidate preferred to shock himself 190 times instead of spending time in thinking. It is becoming ever harder to read a physical book, or even to concentrate on an article and derive learning and meaning out of it. Even taking notes on electronic devices in classroom and meetings are not making us focussed. Taking notes on pen and paper forces us to slow down and think.

People are getting afraid of conversation. They are preferring email/text over face to face communication. But communication over text/email doesn't have empathy. It may appear efficient, but it feels very transactional. Conversation happens because there is history and empathy among the group of people.

PGS (Phantom Gadget Syndrome)  Having a feeling that your phone is budging or ringing even when it is not. It is a symptom of our emotional dependence on these devices.

Enormous amounts of pictures are taken and shared everyday. We spend countless hours on looking at digitally enhanced pictures. It has become a photomania. Author asks the question - "Are we indulging in visual gluttony?"

Video gaming is another tech intrusion in our lives. My 14 year old's favorite is Minecraft. There are many addictive games like Candy Crush, Two Dots. These games suck up your time like anything. If left uncontrolled 10 minute thing will spiral to 2 hours. Game advocates claim to help in improving brain functions, but these claims have no solid scientific backing. Popular advice is to set a time limit of 10-20 minutes (self-regulation), but we know that self regulation is very hard to follow. Gaming and advertising industries are based on mind control.

It is getting harder and harder to do deep work. Work emails, text messages are claiming our attention all the time. In this fully connected environment we don't have time for being alone, which  is reducing our creativity. 

Book talks about challenges for readers. Here are them

1. Observe yourself - Without changing your habit, observe how many a times you are picking phone, browsing internet etc. As they say understanding self is very hard.
2. Keep your devices out of reach while in motion - Dependeing on individuals, but in short it can mean no phone usage while walking.
3. Photo free day - Restrain all your impulses of taking photo that day.
4. Delete that app - Is the app serving me or hurting me? Does the app make me feel bad about myself?
5. Take a Fakecation - Vacation in the form of break from digital onslaughts, which distracts us and keeps us from thinking beyond everyday.
6. Observe something else - Go to some public place. Spend some time there. Observe what is happening there. You can use your imagination to think of what is happening.
7. Bored and Brilliant 
1. Identify an aspect of life which is challenging or confusing to you
2. Do mind numbing or boring thing in isolation for 30 minutes. E.x. watching water boil
3. Now go back to step 1 above, and start writing down in physcial paper on how will you solve it.

The main essense is to bring focus back in our life. If you try to do a bit  of everything, you are going to make a millimeter of progress in million directions.