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The Most Important Skill Nobody Taught You

posted by martyb on Wednesday November 28 2018, @02:38AM   Printer-friendly
from the tl;dr dept.

Phoenix666 writes:

Medium:

“All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” -- Blaise Pascal

According to Pascal, we fear the silence of existence, we dread boredom and instead choose aimless distraction, and we can’t help but run from the problems of our emotions into the false comforts of the mind.

The issue at the root, essentially, is that we never learn the art of solitude.
...
our aversion to solitude is really an aversion to boredom.

At its core, it’s not necessarily that we are addicted to a TV set because there is something uniquely satisfying about it, just like we are not addicted to most stimulants because the benefits outweigh the downsides. Rather, what we are really addicted to is a state of not-being-bored.

Deep thoughts by Blaise Pascal. Was he right? Are we addicted to not-being-bored? Is boredom good for us?

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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by legont on Wednesday November 28 2018, @02:47AM (2 children)

    by legont (4179) on Wednesday November 28 2018, @02:47AM (#767158)

    I prefer walking in the woods; alone. As much as possible.

    I never bored. Have a wish lists of things to do for a few lifetimes and tv is not one of them.

    --
    "Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
    Starting Score:    1  point
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  • (Score: 2) by cubancigar11 on Wednesday November 28 2018, @01:29PM

    by cubancigar11 (330) on Wednesday November 28 2018, @01:29PM (#767289) Homepage Journal

    Sex?

    Okay. Porn?

  • (Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Wednesday November 28 2018, @11:50PM

    by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us (6553) on Wednesday November 28 2018, @11:50PM (#767574) Journal

    Exactly the point. A person who is alone with things to do is not bored. Solitude isn't the problem, loneliness only comes from not finding enough to occupy oneself with.

    Although an extrovert might disagree.

    --
    This sig for rent.