‘You Have To Be Bored’

‘You Have To Be Bored’

We’ve heard time and time again that boredom is a necessity for creativity. Musician Dan Deacon really drives that point home with the above quote from an interview with NPR.

Photo by Cristiano Betta

The whole interview is worth a read, but the above remark comes when Deacon’s talking about anxiety and stress:

I very much was a person who was motivated by stress; I would use a deadline as a motivator. I think a lot of people do that, where they’re like, “I’ll just wait until the last minute, and that will light a fire underneath me and I’ll get it done.” And I just kept thinking, “Well, that’s a terrible way to live. Why am I building a house and lighting a fire in the basement just to see if I can finish the roof before it burns down my whole house?”

I started realising how important it is to truly relax, and in relaxing, to be bored. You have to be bored. If you’re not bored, your mind is never gonna wander, and if your mind never wanders, you’re never gonna get lost in thought, and you’re never gonna find yourself thinking things you wouldn’t have otherwise thought.

Head over to NPR for the full interview.

‘You Have to Be Bored’: Dan Deacon on Creativity [NPR]


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