How Boredom Can Lead to Your Most Brilliant Ideas | Manoush Zomorodi | TED

Summary

In this talk, the speaker reflects on her experience with motherhood and the advent of the iPhone, which coincided with her son's birth in 2007. She discusses how being constantly connected through smartphones has affected creativity and productivity. Through her 'Bored and Brilliant' project, she explores the impact of digital devices on our brains and encourages finding balance by occasionally disconnecting to foster creativity and deeper thinking.

Takeaways

• 📱 The speaker humorously compares her son's birth to the release of the iPhone, highlighting the transformative impact of technology on her life.
• 🚶‍♀️ She describes how walking with her colicky baby, while initially boring, led to creative thinking and eventually to her dream job as a radio show host.
• 🤔 The speaker questions the impact of constant connectivity on creativity and problem-solving, suggesting that boredom can be a catalyst for innovation.
• 🧠 Neuroscience insights reveal that boredom triggers the 'default mode' in the brain, which is crucial for daydreaming, connecting disparate ideas, and autobiographical planning.
• 📉 The speaker's research indicates that multitasking depletes neural resources, contrary to the popular belief that it increases productivity.
• 📈 She cites statistics showing the frequency of attention shifts in modern life, highlighting the constant battle for our attention by technology.
• 🔄 The 'Bored and Brilliant' project aimed to reclaim 'cracks' in the day by encouraging mindful phone use and challenging participants to disconnect briefly.
• 📉 Despite the challenge, participants only reduced their phone usage by an average of six minutes, yet reported feeling empowered and more creative.
• 👥 The speaker emphasizes the importance of teaching digital literacy, including self-regulation, to help people, especially children, use technology to enhance their lives.
• 🌟 She concludes that embracing boredom can lead to increased creativity and productivity, urging listeners to be intentional about their technology use.

Q & A

What significant event happened in the speaker's life in June 2007?

The speaker's son was born in June 2007, coinciding with the release of the first iPhone.

Why was the speaker walking 10 to 15 miles a day after her son was born?

The speaker was walking that much because her baby had colic and would only sleep in a moving stroller with complete silence.

How did the speaker's experience with her baby influence her creativity?

The speaker's boredom during long walks with her colicky baby led her mind to wander, which eventually helped her imagine her dream job and inspired creativity.

What was the speaker's dream job after her experience with boredom?

The speaker's dream job was hosting a public radio show, which allowed her to be both a mother and continue her career as a journalist.

What problem did the speaker encounter when she tried to brainstorm for her podcast?

The speaker experienced a lack of ideas, different from writer's block, where she felt there was nothing to unearth, which she later connected to her constant state of non-boredom due to technology.

What is the 'default mode' in the brain and why is it significant?

The 'default mode' is a network in the brain that is ignited when one gets bored. It is significant because it's when the brain connects disparate ideas, solves problems, and does autobiographical planning.

How does multitasking, as described by Dr. Daniel Levitin, deplete the brain's resources?

According to Dr. Daniel Levitin, every time one shifts attention from one task to another, the brain engages a neurochemical switch that uses up nutrients, depleting neural resources.

What is the 'Bored and Brilliant' project mentioned in the script?

The 'Bored and Brilliant' project was an experiment where participants tried to reclaim their attention from constant digital connectivity by reducing phone usage and embracing boredom to boost creativity.

What was the average time spent on phones before and after the 'Bored and Brilliant' challenge?

Before the challenge, participants averaged two hours a day on their phones. After the challenge, they reduced it to an average of 114 minutes per day.

What was the main outcome of the 'Bored and Brilliant' challenge according to the speaker?

The main outcome was not just the reduction in phone usage time but the empowerment of participants, who transformed their phones from taskmasters back into tools, and experienced improvements in sleep and happiness.

Why is creativity important according to the speaker and what is its connection to boredom?

Creativity is important because it allows for solving complex problems and imagining futures. Boredom can lead to creativity by allowing the mind to wander and make unexpected connections.

Outlines

00:00

📱 The Birth of a Baby and the iPhone

The speaker humorously compares the birth of her son with the release of the iPhone in June 2007. While tech enthusiasts were eager to get the new device, she was preoccupied with her colicky baby who only slept when being pushed in a stroller in silence. This led to long, boring walks where she daydreamed about her future, which eventually led to her creating a public radio show. However, she later realized that her constant connectivity through her smartphone was hindering her creativity, as she was never bored anymore, a state she associated with her most creative ideas.

05:02

🧠 The Neuroscience of Boredom and Productivity

The speaker delves into the science behind boredom, explaining that when bored, our brains enter the 'default mode' which is crucial for creativity and problem-solving. She interviews Dr. Sandi Mann, who explains that daydreaming allows the mind to wander into the subconscious, fostering new connections. The speaker contrasts this with the modern habit of constant multitasking and connectivity, which Dr. Daniel Levitin explains, depletes the brain's resources and reduces productivity. The speaker then introduces a project called 'Bored and Brilliant,' aiming to help people reclaim their downtime and potentially boost their creativity.

10:02

📉 The Impact of Digital Distractions on Creativity

The speaker discusses the findings from the 'Bored and Brilliant' project, which showed that people were spending an average of two hours daily on their phones with numerous interruptions. Participants were challenged to put away their phones and experienced a significant emotional response to doing so. The speaker highlights the manipulative design of tech platforms to capture our attention, as explained by former tech industry insiders. Despite the challenges, participants reported feeling more empowered and in control over their digital usage, suggesting that short periods of boredom can lead to increased creativity and self-awareness.

15:04

🌟 Embracing Boredom for Enhanced Creativity

In the final paragraph, the speaker summarizes the outcomes of the 'Bored and Brilliant' project, noting that while the reduction in phone usage was modest, the qualitative changes in participants' experiences were profound. People reported sleeping better, feeling happier, and experiencing increased clarity and goal-setting. The speaker argues for the importance of teaching digital literacy, which includes the ability to self-regulate technology use. She encourages listeners to be intentional with their tech use, suggesting that allowing oneself to be bored can lead to greater creativity and productivity.

Keywords

💡Boredom

Boredom is a state of being uninterested or feeling a lack of stimulation. In the video, the speaker explores how boredom can lead to creativity and problem-solving, as it allows the mind to wander and make unexpected connections. The speaker's own experience of being bored while walking with a stroller led to imagining new career paths, illustrating how boredom can be a catalyst for innovation.

💡Default Mode Network

The Default Mode Network (DMN) is a network in the brain that is activated when an individual is not focused on the outside world and the mind is free to wander. The video discusses how engaging the DMN through boredom can lead to daydreaming and subconscious thinking, which is crucial for connecting disparate ideas and solving complex problems. The speaker's narrative about her brain activity during boredom underscores the importance of this network in fostering creativity.

💡Multitasking

Multitasking refers to the act of juggling multiple tasks simultaneously. The video challenges the effectiveness of multitasking, suggesting that it depletes neural resources and reduces productivity. The speaker cites neuroscientist Dr. Daniel Levitin, who explains that the brain does not truly multitask but rather rapidly switches attention, leading to inefficiency. This concept is central to the video's message about the importance of focused attention over fragmented multitasking.

💡Cognitive Switching

Cognitive switching is the process of shifting attention from one task or thought to another. The video discusses how constant cognitive switching, often facilitated by technology, can be exhausting and unproductive. The speaker uses the example of checking emails and social media throughout the day, which interrupts focus and diminishes the brain's ability to engage in deep thinking and creativity.

💡Neuroscientist

A neuroscientist is a scientist who specializes in the study of the nervous system and brain function. In the video, the speaker consults neuroscientists to understand the effects of technology and boredom on the brain. Their insights are crucial for the video's exploration of how the brain functions during states of rest and stimulation, and how these states impact creativity and cognitive performance.

💡Autobiographical Planning

Autobiographical planning is a cognitive process where individuals reflect on their past experiences, create a personal narrative, and set future goals. The video explains that this type of planning occurs during periods of boredom when the mind is not occupied with immediate tasks. The speaker's own experience of planning her career while walking with a stroller exemplifies how autobiographical planning can emerge from boredom.

💡Digital Literacy

Digital literacy refers to the ability to access, understand, evaluate, create, and communicate digital content. The video argues for the inclusion of self-regulation in digital literacy, emphasizing the need to teach people, especially children, how to use technology mindfully. The speaker suggests that understanding when and how to disconnect is as important as knowing how to use technology effectively.

💡Cognitive心理学家

Cognitive psychologists study mental processes such as thinking, perception, and memory. In the video, the speaker interviews cognitive psychologists to understand how boredom impacts cognitive functions like creativity and problem-solving. Their expertise helps to explain the psychological mechanisms behind the benefits of boredom and the drawbacks of constant connectivity.

💡Bored and Brilliant

Bored and Brilliant is a project mentioned in the video that encourages people to reduce their reliance on technology and experience boredom intentionally to boost creativity. The project's success, with thousands of participants, demonstrates a widespread desire to reclaim cognitive freedom and highlights the video's central theme of the benefits of boredom in an over-connected world.

💡Connectivity

Connectivity in the context of the video refers to the constant state of being connected to the internet and digital devices. The speaker discusses the downsides of constant connectivity, such as reduced creativity and increased stress. The video suggests that occasional disconnection can lead to deeper thinking and more meaningful engagement with the world, aligning with the theme of embracing boredom for cognitive benefits.

Highlights

The speaker humorously compares her son's birth with the release of the iPhone, highlighting her transition from a journalist to a mother.

The speaker's experience of walking long distances with her colicky baby led to weight loss but also boredom.

Despite the challenges of motherhood, the speaker managed to create her dream job as a public radio show host, blending motherhood with journalism.

The speaker's realization that constant connectivity through her smartphone hindered her creativity and problem-solving abilities.

Neuroscientists and cognitive psychologists explain that boredom triggers the 'default mode' network in the brain, which is crucial for creativity and problem-solving.

Boredom allows the brain to make connections between disparate ideas and engage in autobiographical planning, which is essential for goal-setting.

Multitasking, contrary to popular belief, depletes neural resources as the brain rapidly switches attention, according to Dr. Daniel Levitin.

The speaker's initiative 'Bored and Brilliant' aimed to help people reclaim their attention by reducing unnecessary smartphone usage.

Participants in the 'Bored and Brilliant' challenge reported feeling empowered as they transformed their phones from taskmasters back into tools.

The challenge week involved a series of experiments, including 'Put it in your pocket' to break the reflex to check phones constantly.

The speaker discusses how technology is designed to trigger addictive behaviors, with examples from former tech industry insiders.

Deleting apps that are time-consuming can lead to feelings of loneliness but also empowerment over one's attention.

The challenge resulted in modest reductions in phone usage but significant qualitative changes in how participants perceived their relationship with technology.

The speaker argues for digital literacy that includes teaching people, especially children, how to self-regulate their technology use.

Boredom, when embraced, can lead to increased creativity and productivity, contrary to the belief that it is unproductive.

The speaker concludes by encouraging the audience to be intentional with technology use, to avoid letting platforms dictate how they spend their attention.

Transcripts

My son and the iPhone were born three weeks apart

in June 2007.

So while those early adopters were lined up outside,

waiting to get their hands on this amazing new gadget,

I was stuck at home with my hands full of something else

that was sending out constant notifications --

(Laughter)

a miserable, colicky baby

who would only sleep in a moving stroller with complete silence.

I literally was walking 10 to 15 miles a day,

and the baby weight came off.

That part was great.

But man, was I bored.

Before motherhood, I had been a journalist

who rushed off when the Concorde crashed.

I was one of the first people into Belgrade

when there was a revolution in Serbia.

Now, I was exhausted.

This walking went on for weeks.

It was only until about three months in that something shifted, though.

As I pounded the pavement,

my mind started to wander, too.

I began imagining what I would do when I finally did sleep again.

So the colic did fade,

and I finally got an iPhone

and I put all those hours of wandering into action.

I created my dream job hosting a public radio show.

So there was no more rushing off to war zones,

but thanks to my new smartphone,

I could be a mother and a journalist.

I could be on the playground and on Twitter at the same time.

Yeah, well, when I thought that,

when the technology came in and took over,

that is when I hit a wall.

So, I want you to picture this:

you host a podcast, and you have to prove

that the investment of precious public radio dollars in you

is worth it.

My goal was to increase my audience size tenfold.

So one day, I sat down to brainstorm,

as you do,

and I came up barren.

This was different than writer's block, right?

It wasn't like there was something there waiting to be unearthed.

There was just nothing.

And so I started to think back:

When was the last time I actually had a good idea?

Yeah, it was when I was pushing that damn stroller.

Now all the cracks in my day were filled with phone time.

I checked the headlines while I waited for my latte.

I updated my calendar while I was sitting on the couch.

Texting turned every spare moment

into a chance to show to my coworkers and my dear husband

what a responsive person I was,

or at least it was a chance to find another perfect couch

for my page on Pinterest.

I realized that I was never bored.

And anyway, don't only boring people get bored?

But then I started to wonder:

What actually happens to us when we get bored?

Or, more importantly: What happens to us if we never get bored?

And what could happen if we got rid of this human emotion entirely?

I started talking to neuroscientists and cognitive psychologists,

and what they told me was fascinating.

It turns out that when you get bored,

you ignite a network in your brain called the "default mode."

So our body, it goes on autopilot while we're folding the laundry

or we're walking to work,

but actually that is when our brain gets really busy.

Here's boredom researcher Dr. Sandi Mann.

(Audio) Dr. Sandi Mann: Once you start daydreaming

and allow your mind to really wander,

you start thinking a little bit beyond the conscious,

a little bit into the subconscious,

which allows sort of different connections to take place.

It's really awesome, actually.

Manoush Zomorodi: Totally awesome, right?

So this is my brain in an fMRI,

and I learned that in the default mode is when we connect disparate ideas,

we solve some of our most nagging problems,

and we do something called "autobiographical planning."

This is when we look back at our lives,

we take note of the big moments, we create a personal narrative,

and then we set goals

and we figure out what steps we need to take to reach them.

But now we chill out on the couch also while updating a Google Doc

or replying to email.

We call it "getting shit done,"

but here's what neuroscientist Dr. Daniel Levitin says

we're actually doing.

(Audio) Dr. Daniel Levitin: Every time you shift your attention

from one thing to another,

the brain has to engage a neurochemical switch

that uses up nutrients in the brain to accomplish that.

So if you're attempting to multitask,

you know, doing four or five things at once,

you're not actually doing four or five things at once,

because the brain doesn't work that way.

Instead, you're rapidly shifting from one thing to the next,

depleting neural resources as you go.

(Audio) MZ: So switch, switch, switch, you're using glucose, glucose, glucose.

(Audio) DL: Exactly right, and we have a limited supply of that stuff.

MZ: A decade ago, we shifted our attention at work

every three minutes.

Now we do it every 45 seconds,

and we do it all day long.

The average person checks email 74 times a day,

and switches tasks on their computer

566 times a day.

I discovered all this talking to professor of informatics,

Dr. Gloria Mark.

(Audio) Dr. Gloria Mark: So we find that when people are stressed,

they tend to shift their attention more rapidly.

We also found, strangely enough,

that the shorter the amount of sleep that a person gets,

the more likely they are to check Facebook.

So we're in this vicious, habitual cycle.

MZ: But could this cycle be broken?

What would happen if we broke this vicious cycle?

Maybe my listeners could help me find out.

What if we reclaimed those cracks in our day?

Could it help us jump-start our creativity?

We called the project "Bored and Brilliant."

And I expected, you know, a couple hundred people to play along,

but thousands of people started signing up.

And they told me the reason they were doing it

was because they were worried that their relationship with their phone

had grown kind of ... "codependent," shall we say.

(Audio) Man: The relationship between a baby and its teddy bear

or a baby and its binky

or a baby that wants its mother's cradle

when it's done with being held by a stranger --

(Laughs)

that's the relationship between me and my phone.

(Audio) Woman: I think of my phone like a power tool:

extremely useful, but dangerous if I'm not handling it properly.

(Audio) Woman 2: If I don't pay close attention,

I'll suddenly realize that I've lost an hour of time

doing something totally mindless.

MZ: OK, but to really measure any improvement,

we needed data, right?

Because that's what we do these days.

So we partnered with some apps that would measure how much time

we were spending every day on our phone.

If you're thinking it's ironic

that I asked people to download another app

so that they would spend less time on their phones:

yeah, but you gotta meet people where they are.

(Laughter)

So before challenge week,

we were averaging two hours a day on our phones

and 60 pickups,

you know, like, a quick check, did I get a new email?

Here's what Tina, a student at Bard College,

discovered about herself.

(Audio) Tina: So far, I've been spending

between 150 and 200 minutes on my phone per day,

and I've been picking up my phone 70 to 100 times per day.

And it's really concerning,

because that's so much time that I could have spent

doing something more productive, more creative, more towards myself,

because when I'm on my phone, I'm not doing anything important.

MZ: Like Tina, people were starting to observe their own behavior.

They were getting ready for challenge week.

And that Monday,

they started to wake up to instructions in their inbox,

an experiment to try.

Day one:

"Put it in your pocket."

Take that phone out of your hand.

See if you can eliminate the reflex to check it all day long,

just for a day.

And if this sounds easy,

you haven't tried it.

Here's listener Amanda Itzko.

(Audio) Amanda Itzko: I am absolutely itching.

I feel a little bit crazy,

because I have noticed that I pick up my phone

when I'm just walking from one room to another,

getting on the elevator,

and even -- and this is the part that I am really embarrassed

to actually say out loud --

in the car.

MZ: Yikes.

Yeah, well, but as Amanda learned,

this itching feeling is not actually her fault.

That is exactly the behavior that the technology is built to trigger.

(Laughter)

I mean, right?

Here's former Google designer, Tristan Harris.

(Audio) Tristan Harris: If I'm Facebook or I'm Netflix or I'm Snapchat,

I have literally a thousand engineers

whose job is to get more attention from you.

I'm very good at this,

and I don't want you to ever stop.

And you know, the CEO of Netflix recently said,

"Our biggest competitors are Facebook, YouTube and sleep."

I mean, so there's a million places to spend your attention,

but there's a war going on to get it.

MZ: I mean, you know the feeling:

that amazing episode of "Transparent" ends,

and then the next one starts playing

so you're like, eh, OK fine, I'll just stay up and watch it.

Or the LinkedIn progress bar says you are this close

to having the perfect profile,

so you add a little more personal information.

As one UX designer told me,

the only people who refer to their customers as "users"

are drug dealers and technologists.

(Laughter)

(Applause)

And users, as we know, are worth a lot of money.

Here's former Facebook product manager and author,

Antonio García Martínez.

(Audio) Antonio García Martínez: The saying is, if any product is free

then you're the product; your attention is the product.

But what is your attention worth?

That's why literally every time you load a page,

not just on Facebook or any app,

there's an auction being held instantly, billions of times a day,

for exactly how much that one ad impression cost.

MZ: By the way, the average person will spend two years of their life

on Facebook.

So, back to challenge week.

Immediately, we saw some creativity kick in.

Here's New Yorker Lisa Alpert.

(Audio) Lisa Alpert: I was bored, I guess.

So I suddenly looked at the stairway that went up to the top of the station,

and I thought, you know,

I had just come down that stairway, but I could go back up

and then come back down and get a little cardio.

So I did,

and then I had a little more time, so I did it again and I did it again,

and I did it 10 times.

And I had a complete cardio workout.

I got on that R train feeling kind of exhausted,

but, like, wow, that had never occurred to me.

How is that possible?

(Laughter)

MZ: So creativity, I learned, means different things to different people.

(Laughter)

But everyone found day three's challenge the hardest.

It was called "Delete that app."

Take that app -- you know the one;

that one that always gets you, it sucks you in --

take it off your phone,

even if just for the day.

I deleted the game Two Dots and nearly cried.

(Laughter)

Yeah, Two Dots players know what I'm talking about.

But my misery had good company.

(Audio) Man 2: This is Liam in Los Angeles,

and I deleted Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, Snapchat and Vine

from my phone

in one fell swoop.

And it was kind of an embarrassingly emotional experience at first.

It felt weirdly lonely to look at that lock screen

with no new notifications on it.

But I really liked deciding for myself

when to think about or access my social networks,

not giving my phone the power to decide that for me.

So thank you.

(Audio) Woman 3: Deleting the Twitter app was very sad,

and I feel I maybe, over the last year when I've been on Twitter,

have developed an addiction to it,

and this "Bored and Brilliant" challenge has really made me realize it.

After a brief period of really horrible withdrawal feeling,

like lack-of-caffeine headache,

I now feel lovely.

I had a lovely dinner with my family,

and I hope to continue this structured use of these powerful tools.

(Audio) Woman 4: I don't have that guilty gut feeling

I have when I know I'm wasting time on my phone.

Maybe I'll have to start giving myself challenges and reminders like this

every morning.

MZ: I mean, yes, this was progress.

I could not wait to see what the numbers said

at the end of that week.

But when the data came in,

it turned out that we had cut down,

on average,

just six minutes --

from 120 minutes a day on our phones

to 114.

Yeah. Whoop-de-do.

So I went back to the scientists feeling kind of low,

and they just laughed at me,

and they said, you know, changing people's behavior

in such a short time period

was ridiculously ambitious,

and actually what you've achieved is far beyond what we thought possible.

Because more important than the numbers, were the people's stories.

They felt empowered.

Their phones had been transformed

from taskmasters

back into tools.

And actually, I found what the young people said most intriguing.

Some of them told me

that they didn't recognize some of the emotions

that they felt during challenge week,

because, if you think about it,

if you have never known life without connectivity,

you may never have experienced boredom.

And there could be consequences.

Researchers at USC have found -- they're studying teenagers

who are on social media while they're talking to their friends

or they're doing homework,

and two years down the road, they are less creative and imaginative

about their own personal futures

and about solving societal problems, like violence in their neighborhoods.

And we really need this next generation

to be able to focus on some big problems:

climate change, economic disparity,

massive cultural differences.

No wonder CEOs in an IBM survey

identified creativity as the number one leadership competency.

OK, here's the good news, though:

In the end, 20,000 people did "Bored and Brilliant" that week.

Ninety percent cut down on their minutes.

Seventy percent got more time to think.

People told me that they slept better.

They felt happier.

My favorite note was from a guy who said he felt like he was waking up

from a mental hibernation.

Some personal data and some neuroscience

gave us permission to be offline a little bit more,

and a little bit of boredom gave us some clarity

and helped some of us set some goals.

I mean, maybe constant connectivity

won't be cool in a couple of years.

But meanwhile, teaching people, especially kids,

how to use technology to improve their lives

and to self-regulate

needs to be part of digital literacy.

So the next time you go to check your phone,

remember that if you don't decide how you're going to use the technology,

the platforms will decide for you.

And ask yourself:

What am I really looking for?

Because if it's to check email, that's fine -- do it and be done.

But if it's to distract yourself from doing the hard work

that comes with deeper thinking,

take a break,

stare out the window

and know that by doing nothing

you are actually being your most productive and creative self.

It might feel weird and uncomfortable at first,

but boredom truly can lead to brilliance.

Thank you.

(Applause)