The Value of Being Bored

We have gradually arranged our lives so that almost no moment is left empty. A queue, a bus ride, or a short wait is immediately filled with a screen.

我们已经慢慢把生活安排得几乎没有一刻是空的。排队、坐车、短暂等待，都会被屏幕立刻填满。

Boredom feels like a problem to be solved, but it is also a useful signal. It tells the mind that the current task is not worth its attention, and that something else should be tried instead.

无聊感觉像一个待解决的问题，但它同时也是一个有用的信号。它在告诉大脑：眼前这件事不值得你再投入注意力，该试试别的了。

Psychologists have repeatedly found that dull, empty moments often precede creative ones. When the mind is unoccupied, it wanders, and that wandering quietly connects ideas that focused work keeps apart.

心理学家一再发现，枯燥而空白的时刻，往往出现在创造之前。当大脑空闲下来就会游走，而这种游走会悄悄把专注工作时彼此隔开的想法连起来。

The real danger of constant stimulation is not that we become lazy or shallow. It is that we lose the habit of tolerating emptiness long enough for an original thought to appear.

持续接受刺激的真正危险，不是我们变得懒散或肤浅。而是我们失去了「忍受空白」的习惯 —— 而一个原创的念头，恰恰需要那段空白才浮得上来。

This does not mean that we should go looking for boredom on purpose. It means we might stop treating every idle minute as a failure that must be corrected.

这并不是说我们该故意去找无聊。它的意思是：也许我们不必再把每一个空下来的分钟，都当成一个必须被纠正的失误。