⚡️ Is boredom worse than being electrocuted?

With a baby due soon, my wife wanted to switch our kids bedrooms and redecorate. And if we redecorate, she wants to repaint. But if we repaint, I want to retexture.

So I bet you can’t guess what I did over the weekend 😉

.

.

You walk into an empty room - nothing but a table and chair.

You’re asked to sit alone for 15 minutes.

Only rule is you have to think about whatever you want.

But there’s a catch - you’re told there’s a button under the table that will electrocute you.

What do you do for those 15 minutes?

Are you tempted to zap yourself?

In this real experiment, apparently 67% of men and 25% of women chose to hit the button.

They literally preferred electrocution over being left to their own thoughts for 15 minutes.

Some pressed the button multiple times.

One zapped himself a whopping 190 times.

The kicker?

All the participants had previously experienced this electrocution before entering the room and had all said it was painful enough they would pay money to avoid being shocked like that again.

Yet they chose to shock themself, for free, unprovoked.

Okay, now think: Where in your house do you tend to get your best ideas?

If you’re like 72% of the population, your brain does best in the shower.

So being bored with nothing to do leads to masochism… while bored in the shower leads to million dollar ideas?

It’s a bit of an oversimplification, but in essence, yes.

When you’re forced to do nothing but think, your brain starts to panic - it’ll do anything to entertain itself, even self harm if necessary.

But doing something moderately engaging, like showering, walking, or raking leaves somehow triggers the brain differently.

It’s active enough that your brain isn’t bored, but monotonous enough that your brain can kinda check out into its own world of creative thinking - that’s where the golden ideas come in.

So if you’re bored to death today, you don’t have to electrocute yourself - just go on a walk.

And if you’re going on that walk, leave the headphones at home just this once.

Give your brain a chance to think, and normalize the good kind of boredom.

.

.I .

.

1. Go on a walk, do the dishes, drive somewhere, take a shower, or do some kind of other simple task that requires little thought.

2. At least once a week during those activities, don’t listen to music, books, or podcasts while you do it.

3. Give your mind a chance to just think, undistracted and undeterred.

   (I do this somewhat regularly and seriously get my best ideas from these moments)

.

.

.

/.

.

“Dad, you need to give me candy corn or else I will eat you.

I already ate your wife, so you can go in my stomach and be with her and it will be so happy.

You can bring whatever toys you want, but you need to give me candy corn.

So what do you decide?

Actually, while you think about it, I’m gonna go potty.

Think about it!”

.

.

Question!

Do you like sitting and thinking with no distractions, or do you prefer thinking while doing something else? Hit reply and lemme know!

Thanks for reading!

- Kody

.

.

P.S. This took 3 hours to write. It only takes you 3 seconds to share.