Boredom Is Your Superpower

Plus: Seven Things all about ChatGPT and AI art

Hello friends!

新年快乐 - Happy (Chinese) New Year! Apologies for the delayed letter this week. Festivities and pottery classes have kept me busy this weekend and cut into my writing time. So for this Sunday, here is what I wanted to share with you this week:

• One — About three reasons why you need more boredom in your life

• Two — Seven Things all about generative AI

1. Boredom: Your Superpower

One thing I would change about my life? Be more bored. More often. More fully. Boredom galore! Webster defines boredom as “the state of being weary and restless through lack of interest.” I think we can all agree that there’s too much interest going around. Too much of the wrong interest. The kind that lures you in, distracts, and leaves you spent and frazzled. More than once, I’ve reached for my phone after waiting somewhere for less than a second. I unlocked it only to stare at the home screen. I froze. Why? Because I didn’t even know why I took the darn thing out of my pocket in the first place. Had no intention of messaging anyone or reading the news. I just followed an impulse. This impulse is the enemy.

But boredom is your friend. A skill. Every skill requires practice for the practitioner to reap its rewards. The amateur boredist does not recognise its potential. Will fight it at any cost. It takes focus and dedication to work with boredom and use it to access its glorious cousins: deliberation, mind wandering, observation, and reflection.

Boredom For Creativity

Artists have an innate appreciation for boredom as a driver of creativity. Salvador Dali often intentionally put himself in boring situations to spark his imagination, and J.K. Rowling famously devised the idea for Harry Potter while stuck on a delayed train with nothing to do. When we allow ourselves to be bored, we stop merely reacting to challenges the moment they arise. We stop to settle for the first-best idea that comes to mind when faced with a problem. We create the conditions that let us see different sides, think through scenarios, possible outcomes, and consequences, and do so unhurriedly. I’ve previously written about the Deliberation-Without-Attention Effect, which provides the neuro-psychological explanation for why we experience eureka moments:

»Once you stop, the magic happens: Your grey matter won’t just waste that time sitting idle. Instead, and without you knowing it, it starts to process some of the soaked-up information, building connections, trying combinations (This period is referred to by psychologists as incubation). Then, whenever it thinks it has something good and you’re not too busy with anything else, it brings it to the surface of your thinking, seemingly at the most random of times. A new idea is born.«

What’s fascinating about this is that if you try too hard to be productive, this won’t work. You must have faith in boredom to unlock your creativity.

Boredom For Reflection

The power of boredom is not limited to solving creative challenges. It forces us to reflect on our lives and priorities, leading to a better understanding of what matters to us. When I moved to England from my native Austria for the first time, I drove there. Alone. It was a 13-hours-spread-over-two-days journey, and for most of it, I didn’t even have the radio on. It gave me a chance to reflect on all I was leaving behind and all I might find at the other end. I formulated letters to friends in my head and explored goals for my future. The move significantly impacted my life, but so did the journey.

Boredom For Empathy

Boredom builds empathy. With nothing more interesting to look at, we might consider the people around us and reflect on their story and their needs. When stuck in a long line at the post office, say, you might observe the people around you and reflect on their stories: like the mother with a crying baby, the older gentleman who seems to be struggling with his packages, the young girl who appears to be anxious about something. This could help be more compassionate rather than angry at the fact that these people forming a queue ahead exist in the first place.

Boredom is power. So, next time your hand twitches to reach for your phone for no conscious reason, stop. Train your boredom muscle, and great things will come to you.

//Above: Timelapse of my entire drive from Austria to England

//Title image: Dall·E2 responding to “A woman standing in a crowded post office, looking at her phone, in the style of Eliseu Visconti.”

2. Seven Things on ChatGPT and AI art

Folks, almost all my curiosity in those past few weeks has been drawn to AI-generated stuff. After spending the Christmas break having ChatGPT write poems and DALL·E make art for me, there’s been an absolute explosion in resources related to it. So today, I wanted to break form and focus on sharing a few of my favourite AI-related things:

1. AI Prompts: Not sure what to do with AI? Here’s a list of fascinating ChatGPT prompts. Also: The ROI of an Olive Tree is an excellent illustration of how one can use AI to brainstorm business ideas.

2. AI Tools: Access the power of ChatGPT through these browser extensions. Also resharing Futurepedia, the up-to-date directory of AI tools.

3. AI Art: Muzli Design Inspiration now has a dedicated series on AI-generated art. Also: Midjourney’s own showcase and a Vox video on What AI Art Means To Human Artists.

4. AI Search: Perplexity.ai is what Google Search was meant to be, returning a clear statement and sources when presented with a question. I tried asking it a few controversial questions as well and found its responses to be informative and balanced. You’ll see what I mean.

5. AI Design: How designers can use AI to generate uniform icon sets. You can also browse complete user interfaces generated by machines.

6. Counter-AI: GPTZero is an app built to detect GhatGPT-generated text.

7. AI Business: Following whether Microsoft’s integration with OpenAI will drive its full comeback.