The Long Road Ahead

Recently, I’ve had an interesting series of thoughts about boredom from a friend, and seeing as how I never really dug into those thoughts with him, I’m choosing to take that to task here when he told me he wasn’t liking his work because he was unmotivated due to the effort he has put in over the last coupler of years and hasn’t really gotten anywhere from that. I’m here to say that that might be what’s best for him, due to the fact that he may have more free time while working to focus on his passion (music production & DJ-ing).

It was 4-5 years ago when I heard about Einstein, no hold on. I had already heard of him. You know changed our perception of light. theory of relativity & who was thought to be a subpar at the time by today’s standards, although I wasn’t keen or bothered by any of this at the time. As my brain was still undergoing its emergence from a cocoon of trauma & recovery, the one thing that did stick in there was the story of Einstein’s “Miracle Year”.

This was one of the most captivating stories of how a man whose work has benefited the scientific community was also a flunky, and his professors thought as much. According to them, “Einstein’s professors cast him aside as a lazy student destined for a mediocre career in physics”, but yet that is not the story written. Why was that? Well, to those who wandered like myself those years ago, his “Miracle Year”, he published 4 papers, 2 of which challenged the general consensus at the time. The 1st that light wasn’t a wave, but a particle. A 2nd paper went against the thought that atoms don’t exist, providing proof to the contrary. Then came the granddaddy papers, 2 papers that led fundamental development in quantum mechanics, and also the reason why you might know the phrase “E=MC^2” despite not understanding its meaning, or maybe you’re a nerd who does no shame in that either haha. 

Also, I suppose I should say that all this didn’t happen in a year, it was more like 7 months whilst working a job BTW, which is crazy when you think about, or maybe that’s just me anyway on to the next. Why was he able to do all this? Well, to put it simply, he was bored. Although that’s not satisfying to hear, it is the truth that in 5 of his 7 years working for the patent office, he became good at his job, at least good enough that it could afford him free time to work on his own experiments. It had also worked as inspiration for his first paper, and he was free to ponder whatever he wanted in that time.

Something else I should share is that this wasn’t his preferred choice when it came to employment in 1900. After finishing his studies, Einstein applied for teaching positions far and wide, but wasn’t accepted due to his already lax results and attitude. It was only because of a friend of his father that he could get a job with the patent office. Otherwise, where would the world be at this moment? Who knows?

That story has stuck in my head and as i sit in my room slightly bored at this moment as i type this i think of this as proof of concept that boredom isn’t a bad thing the world in which we live has become even louder and i don’t mean sound i mean socially we have an expectation to always be plugged in & alert we spend hours on our phones, computer & television during the day & our phones are often the first thing we often pickup in the morning its a distraction for your brain to avoid that awkward silence to disconnect from everything & listen to those thoughts & ideas for things you maybe are putting off or even taking that risk for yourself to me it would the equivalent of thinking that a doctor giving you medication can heal you no thats not the case they only offer a bandaged / plaster solution its up to you to fix you! So be bored, let your mind wander and see where it takes you.

So try listening to yourself (your brain) and you might grow to like it. After all, I often say that when I talk/listen to myself, it’s because I’m the only one that makes sense.

extra reading: Einstein & productivity