Is Boredom Your Brain’s Superpower?

On our minds

As humans, we are compelled to create myths—about how the earth came to be, about why going into the forest alone may be dangerous, about what makes our family extraordinary. Stories help us define our identity collectively and individually. But our brains are easily overwhelmed in a world of constant digital notifications, where we listen to a podcast while doing housework, make a phone call while walking the dog, binge-watch a series after dinner. To be able to organize all this input into a narrative that grounds us, our minds need down time and the freedom to wander. Being bored is good for our brains.

Manoush Zomorodi, a foreign correspondent turned tech journalist, gives a TedTalk called the “ Beauty of Boredom,” about the long, lonely walks of her maternity leave. Per neuroscientists, boredom allows our minds to go deeper, into something called “default mode.” This means our thoughts dance between our consciousness and subconsciousness, making unexpected connections. In this way, boredom is essential to creativity and innovation. Zomorodi explains that, in default mode, “autobiographical planning” occurs—when we “look back at our lives, take note of the big moments, create a personal narrative,” and figure out what we need to do to reach our goals.

Essentially, we are placing ourselves in our own “hero’s journey” (the topic of an episode of the Hidden Brain podcast that we enjoyed!), which is a way of framing our lives and especially our challenges in a positive light, focused on growth and overcoming. In art, we understand this trope as a “coming of age” narrative—but since learning is lifelong, we still experience these moments of epiphany well beyond the transition from adolescence to adulthood.

While we’re on the topic of archetypal themes (ahem, summer romance), let’s talk meet-cute meets neuroscience—or at least that’s what the psych professors-cum-hosts of the podcast Love Factually do. They apply a technical lens to romcom storylines and discuss the neuroscience that compels characters to act a certain way—or what the writers got wrong about human behavior.

Stories help us understand our place in the world; they are an essential tool of our overall consciousness. In the spirit of adult learning, this summer book list from behavioral scientists explores how we think about thinking—and how this touches other aspects of our lives, such as economics, the criminal legal system, and connecting with others.

On that last point, one of the most amazing benefits of stories is that they help us empathize. One study shows that as we hear a story, our brain waves start to synchronize with those of the storyteller. Here’s a five-minute youth TedTalk that succinctly sums up this story superpower.

Stories even help us empathize with non-human actors. Keep an eye out for Gohan, a Thai feel-good drama which is making the rounds of film festivals and indie theaters. The film follows a dog over a decade, through three different owners. It explores love, loss, and belonging, but it also touches on temporality—how the beings we love shape our stories, even when our paths cross only briefly.

If you’re staycationing this weekend, a great story will allow you to travel in the least resource-intensive way—in your marvelous mind! Currently PLASTARC is working with a longtime client, Logitech, in a new (to us) location: Hsinchu, Taiwan. This inspired one member of our team to check out Taiwan Travelogue, a layered novel that immerses the reader in Taiwanese food and culture.

Want the deeper story on a familiar place? Those in the New York area may be particularly interested in The Staten Island Problem, the latest season of Malcolm Gladwell’s Revisionist History podcast. It revisits Staten Island’s largely forgotten 1990s movement to secede from New York City, and probes how urban planning, political representation, geography, and resentment nearly pulled the city apart.

While we’re on the subject of going deep, The New York Times had a recent article on how to keep a travel journal, but many of its suggestions can help you document your adventures (write your hero’s journey!) and engage more fully in your own city. Sometimes all it takes is paying attention or taking a new route or mode of transportation, and something old feels shiny and new.

It’s the end of summer, when we’re groggy from heat and primed for daydreaming—but we’re also feeling the push to collect ourselves and get “back to school.” Don’t forget to build time into your schedule to just be—to float lazily on a raft, hang in your backyard hammock, lie on a blanket under a tree. Visit your neighborhood pool, eat ice cream outside at night, linger in these last few days of ennui. Use the freedom and space of this season to “ woolgather”—but then, tell yourself a story to bring structure and shape to your brilliant, amorphous experiences. However, keep your hero’s journey dynamic. Leave yourself room to change and thrive.

And in the spirit of storytelling, heroes’ journeys, connecting with others, and yes, The Odyssey, we’ll leave you with this video that gives an overview of myths shared by geographically dispersed ancient cultures—because as the midterms news cycle cranks into high gear, it’s nice to remember that we’re similar, even if we’re different.

From the archives

What can workplaces learn from the education sector? Since we’re gearing up for back to school, let’s stroll through the (locker-lined!) halls of memory lane. A couple of years ago, PLASTARC helped Hawkeye Community College utilize space to create more student engagement through merging labs into a centralized, multidisciplinary hub. (We’ve discussed this project at a few conferences.) In 2023, we were thinking about optimizing learning in multigenerational workspaces. We were also looking to be schooled by online education, as we considered the most effective tools and methods for remote and hybrid work. Last year, we looked to two buildings at MIT to understand why hackable spaces are so valuable. And back in 2017, we were thinking about how universities influence the location of tech centers.