I think boredom is basically the result of a mismatch between small and big concepts of identity. By that I mean the feeling of being bored arises when the foll

I think boredom is basically the result of a mismatch between small and big concepts of identity. By that I mean the feeling of being bored arises when the following conditions are true: 1. You don’t enjoy the thing you’re doing for itself, intrinsically 2. You can’t see how doing this thing now adds up to a greater purpose and long-term goal. This lack of a path leads to a loss of interest in the particular moment. For #1, I really like what Japanese thought has to say about this. More specifically, Zen Buddhist-adjacent ideas like wabi sabi and the haiku poetry form. [1] They really help you center yourself on the moment and appreciate the impermanence of existence, which gets rid of that “wasted time” feeling. #2 is more tricky and this problem is more endemic to modernity as a whole. I’m not sure what the solution is, other than to make long-term life plans and consistently fight off all of the cultural pressure to discard them and YOLO instead. 1. I wrote about wabi sabi and haiku on my (somewhat inactive) Substack last year, which you might find interesting: https://onthearts.com/p/how-to-write-a-proper-haiku https://onthearts.com/p/how-to-write-a-proper-haiku https://onthearts.com/p/what-does-wabi-sabi-really-mean https://onthearts.com/p/what-does-wabi-sabi-really-mean