A margin note on boredom

Waiting rooms, long lines, the walk without headphones — I used to fill all of it. Recently I started leaving it empty, and the ideas that show up in the emptiness are embarrassingly better than the ones I schedule.

Boredom, it turns out, is not the absence of thought. It is the absence of input, which is the only condition under which thought finishes its sentences.

Twenty minutes. No phone, no book, no podcast. Just the walk or the window. I recommend it the way you recommend a vitamin: no evidence, just results.