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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 pipedwho on Wednesday November 28 2018, @03:29AM (3 children)

    by pipedwho (2032) on Wednesday November 28 2018, @03:29AM (#767178)

    I think you're on to something. When the mind is quiet, it becomes very creative and receptive to learning. Early humans would have had many opportunities for quiet contemplation.

    Modern day humans are now at the mercy of externalities that relentless and forcibly intrude into their lives preying on these mental instincts. It takes great effort to push these temptations aside.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 28 2018, @11:49AM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 28 2018, @11:49AM (#767270)

    so why do we have open plan offices?

    • (Score: 4, Informative) by Freeman on Wednesday November 28 2018, @04:15PM

      by Freeman (732) on Wednesday November 28 2018, @04:15PM (#767339) Journal

      -$$$ per person spent by company or at least -$$$ per person for this quarter.

      --
      Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"

    • (Score: 2) by rondon on Wednesday November 28 2018, @04:20PM

      by rondon (5167) on Wednesday November 28 2018, @04:20PM (#767341)

      They are cheaper to do and easier to micromanage