6 ms·

Children should be allowed to get bored

102 points by equilibrium 14y ago

non-sense 14y ago
Boredom is when we let our mind run free, in search of things that would be interesting to us. If our mind is occupied with distractions, it becomes harder to focus.
general_failure 14y ago
From where I come from, it's normal to let children get bored :)
- gbog 14y ago
  And where do you come from?
zobzu 14y ago
getting myself bored is actually the only way i know to feel like "resetting" and getting fresh idea, views, etc. suppressing hn would be a good idea for this to happen more often tho...
zobzu 14y ago
getting myself bored is actually the only way i know to feel like "resetting" and getting fresh idea, views, etc. suppressing hn would be a good idea for this to happen more often tho...
ibrow 14y ago
My mother always used to tell me "only boring people get bored". Now with a small child and business to run, some days I would love to be bored and have nothing to do!
- jennyjenjen 14y ago
  Ha, well I first heard that one on Mad Men.
jennyjenjen 14y ago
Some amazing artists come from boring places. There are great rockers from places nobody would remotely associate with great music (Bob Dylan and Prince are both from Minnesota, for instance).
- lostlogin 14y ago
  I always ponder the number of great musicians who had messed up childhoods, like having the person who they thought was there other turn out to be any aunt or grandmother. The stability my parents provided has always held me back...
  - hilko 14y ago
    Maybe you're right, but there are plenty of 'luminaries' where you could argue it was their stable family life that made it possible. At the very least it shouldn't be an excuse ;-).
- gbog 14y ago
  Balzac is a better example, he had a frivolous mother and was left alone in a room most of the time. He started telling himself stories and became expert in imagination.
- raverbashing 14y ago
  All the Irish authors for instance I'm sorry to say that, but there was probably very little to do (in their time - today it's slightly better) besides doing the daily chores and going to the pub.
- LargeWu 14y ago
  I'm not sure where this reputation that Minnesota is some sort of cultural wasteland comes from. If you ask people associated with the arts, many of them will tell you that Minneapolis has an exceptionally vibrant arts community. Outstanding music scene for both local and national artists, highly regarded theatres, excellent museums, etc.
  - 14y ago
scotty79 14y ago
When I was bored as a child I was miserable. Jumping from one idea of what to do to another, one by one verifying that they will not bring me joy I seek. The only way out of boredom was just wait till I get physically tired of sobbing and feeling horibble, and then having a nap.
- erezsh 14y ago
  Sounds like some of my evenings..
- cycojesus 14y ago
  Depression in a nutshell.
grose 14y ago
School gives plenty of time for children to be bored.
teekert 14y ago
I think "getting bored" is the wrong term, she is talking about the fact that children should learn to find things to battle their boredom themselves. Was she still bored when she had a piece of blank paper and nothing to do? Her conclusion seems to be that only letting the brain consume is numbing but that creation and creativity come when the media that lets you mindlessly consume is not available. This media is acting as a drug, numbing creativity. I agree with that notion.
middayc 14y ago
my take on this subject a year or two ago :P http://jankom.posterous.com/kid http://jankom.posterous.com/kid
abalone 14y ago
The other day I was reading a lamentation about the rise of team sports for kids. Little league, etc. Before that you could just put a group of kids in a park and they would make up their own game. It was a creative process. Now you tell them exactly what to do -- and it's totally rigid and even a bit jingoistic.
- up_and_up 14y ago
  Another related issue is the lack of safe open public space in which children can play. With the rise of subdivisions and a general downturn in neighborliness the only way to get access to open play space is to join a 'team' or club sport of some kind. As a parent I also fear sending my kid down to the park on their own honestly, even in my relatively safe neighborhood. Which is sad.
  - hilko 14y ago
    Are public spaces really that unsafe though? Or, at least, less safe than they have been in the past? Honest question. I've read a bunch of articles (that I cannot look up right now) that argue that this decrease in safety is mostly perception, and I'm inclined to agree. I grew up in the 'ghetto' of my hometown, and then from 8 tot 17 I lived in what was considered a dangerous, third-world country. Still, my parents mostly raised me as any kid in earlier times: be home before dark, don't go too far, but do whatever you want the rest of the time outside of school. By and large, my experience has not been too different from other kids I know in safer environments, and I've had few 'scary' experiences involving other people. Most 'dangers' involved general kids-being-stupid things: crossing streets without looking, or climbing things at the risk of falling down on the pavement head-first, egging each other on to do something stupid, etc. My point is, I can't really see the danger, and would like to know what you consider 'lacking'. Kidnapping is rare, sexual harassment is vastly more common in family circles, playgrounds have mostly become safer (and less fun, IMO), and violence of any kind by adults to children is (I think) relatively uncommon too. Even in dangerous areas. Of course, I am no parent. And I admit I present no actual supporting evidence (right now) other than my own experience. But I'm not really trying to prove something, just interested in your take on this. Maybe I'm missing something important that I would be aware of with some context, or with the experience of being a parent
iuguy 14y ago
I recently spent some time in hospital fighting pneumonia. Hospitals are exceptionally boring places. I loved it. I loved not having to do anything, not having to make decisions, not having to constantly think. The highest priority of my day at one point was moving things from my table to my drawer. It was awesome. I think we fill our lives with so much stuff that there's so little space for little things, but when I was rearranging things on my table I hadn't felt so free of responsibilities and decisions in years.
p6v53as 14y ago
Isn't boredom just response of a body that what he is doing is not effective? So it encourages going doing something that's more effective, efficient and productive.
narrator 14y ago
I recently was on a long solo hike and my smartphone ran out of batteries. With no music or anyone to talk to I had to find something to think about for the 2 hours it would take to complete the hike. I ended up going through each year of my life and thinking about where I lived and what I was doing at the time and memories associated with each time and place. It was actually quite entertaining.
- gbog 14y ago
  Sorry but I think you missed something. You should have let the emptiness and the boredom fill your self instead of proactively and orderly going through the years of your life.
  - speeder 14y ago
    The point of the article is that boredom spurs stuff like this guy mentioning, it is you that missed the point.
  - tehwalrus 14y ago
    a mindful / "zen" meditation would ask you to return to the state of being (i.e. not thinking) after you've noticed that you're thinking, but that's not the technique the scientists are suggesting in the OP, nor what the parent comment is talking about. Searching for a topic to think about is the kind of creative process they're trying to encourage, and indeed it's not unlike a brief bit of mindfulness, in this case followed by a lengthy period of introspection. Assuming that the introspection doesn't fall into a negative spiral of memories and emotions, this is reasonably mindful in itself.
- carlesfe 14y ago
  I go through this process while running. I highly recommend everyone to jog/run for about 30-40 minutes every day, alone, wit no music. It performs a "defrag" of your brain and relieves most of the stress and worries.
tokenadult 14y ago
I thought about this among my Facebook friends before replying here. I agree with the premise that children need plenty of time in their youth that isn't overly structured by adults. That's one of the reasons that my family homeschools rather than sending our children to our fine local public school system (which draws in students from all over the state through open enrollment). By test, and by verification through conversation with other adults who know our children, our children have no problem learning the essential information that children need to learn in childhood for independent adult life. But they learn more efficiently, because of the flexibility of homeschooling, and they thus have more time to pursue personal interests and creative activities. (The creative activities include short story writing for all our children, programming in a variety of languages for our oldest, and visual art for all the younger children.) We do have our children in some external programs that structure some of their time. We particularly like our local youth soccer association because its coaching philosophy strongly emphasizes letting the young players make their own decisions on the field and not coaching from the sidelines. I never knew that there was such a thing as "creativity" in soccer until I watched dozens of games over several years and saw how each of our children expresses a different personality on the soccer field, all while coordinating effort with teammates. Soccer truly is a beautiful game when played by players who have played together for a decade and who know one another. AFTER EDIT: I beg to differ with the comment quoted below, There are great rockers from places nobody would remotely associate with great music (Bob Dylan and Prince are both from Minnesota, for instance). from another top-level comment in this thread. I associate Minnesota with great music, because I live here. (Dylan and Prince are all right, but I'm not sure I'd even agree that they are the peak of what Minnesota has to offer in music. And Minnesota is by no means the most boring state in the United States, as my mother who moved here from elsewhere is glad to let people know.)
- enraged_camel 14y ago
  >> And Minnesota is by no means the most boring state in the United State That's true. We still have Wisconsin. :)
  - awj 14y ago
    I think the Dakotas would like to have a word with you. Also, Wyoming.
kris121 14y ago
Not Every children but children should be allowed to get bored. Run everyone on same track never make anything better. Like People do a single kind of work. When Someone get bored with something they come with a beautiful solution.
strongvigilance 14y ago
It's slightly sad when science journalism relies on "an expert says", without feeling the need to reference any data.
dogface 14y ago
Less focus on "boredom", more focus on unstructured time. Boredom implies the child's own attempts at entertaining themselves has failed. Then again, I consider myself a pretty creative person, even though I insist on plenty of instructions when it comes to work -- but that may come from needing to deal with other people's expectations vs. my own. "Creativity" does not win out over pre-existing brand guidelines.
hexagonc 14y ago
Before I leave the house, I always try to line up a set of topics to think about while I'm in transit to where I'm going. Usually, these are design challenges in the projects I am working on or plans for the next thing to work on. Sometimes, I even allow myself to think about blue-sky type applications as a reward for getting more down to earth work done. Yes, I am a nerd, through and through! Many times I have wondered what I would do if I were confined in prison or became blind. I think, so long as I was mentally okay and had access to a computer to write software, I would be fine. I even considered that if I didn't have a computer, I would be able to entertain myself by implementing the rules of a game that exhibited computational ideas. After all, John Conway's Game of Life[1] was originally played by hand on a board. [1]http://www.math.com/students/wonders/life/life.html http://www.math.com/students/wonders/life/life.html
n2dasun 14y ago
I completely agree with this writeup, but I believe it depends on the child. Some people feed off of the energy and creativity of outside influences. As an introvert, however, I get overwhelmed over time of being unable to quiet my mind. There are times when listening to my radio will make me feel I'll, and I'll shut it off for weeks as a result, until a time comes along when I want to drown out the chaos rolling around up there. Also, having someone constantly talk to me to try and help me stay awake on a road trip actually has the effect of putting me to sleep, because my brain starts to idle when it's being fed constant stimulation. Imagine explaining that to a loved one who thinks they're helping you out. Definitely an arduous learning experience for all parties involved. I now spend my 6+ hour road trips in complete silence (radio turned off and everyone else asleep), and it's infinitely helpful time to reconnect with myself and my ideas and aspirations. When I got bored as a kid or young adult, I'd do things like: learn orgami, draw something, learn a programming language, start and commit to a workout plan, create something interesting. Now my life doesn't really allow time for boredom. That's why I needed to get into grad school: to force myself to set aside time to learn and create. I would love a stimuli drought right about now.
- hilko 14y ago
  I'm still trying to figure this one out, and should probably dive into the literature on the subject for some more enlightenment (or perhaps someone with more knowledge can share something?) Here's the thing. I consider my huge lack of formal education one of the best things that happened to me. I was home-schooled from 8 to 18, and the last five years or so I didn't even really have a teacher. I think for a full year I'd just 'phone in' the bare minimum of work, about two hours a day in the study room in our house, and pass the required tests. I feel like the boredom got out of my system really quickly because of this, and my natural inclination to explore and learn took over, with nobody to tell me learning was dumb or stupid or uncool. So I read every book I could find, learned programming, and had and developed an active imagination. Two more years of high school and six years of university got a long way to beat this out of me, but it's still mostly there, and I feel it's one of the primary reasons that I feel like I'm 'doing ok'. Is this just me specifically, or can it be applied to most children/young adults?
untothebreach 14y ago
My parents came up with a great way to make sure my brother and I always found ways to entertain ourselves: saying "I'm bored" to my parents was the same as saying "I need a chore to do around the house."
- tehwalrus 14y ago
  me too - equally, sitting staring into space was an invitation to a "you look like you have time to..." from my Dad.
nhebb 14y ago
When I was a kid we were somewhere that was boring as hell, so I laid on a bench and stared up at the tiled ceiling. I noticed that for a square (n x n) block of tiles that n^2 = sum(1..n) + sum(1..n-1). From playing with the numbers in my head, I was able to derive the formula the sum(1..n) = n(n+1)/2. Later when I learned Gauss' formula in school for the sum if integers, I was like "Hey, I invented that!". Those kinds of thought experiments just don't happen if you're staring at an Xbox all day.
- wowfat 14y ago
  wow, that would not happen to me if i was bored!
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
- taejo 14y ago
  Nice. I figured out sum(1..n) = n(n+1)/2 in a slightly way (well, sum(0..n-1) = n(n-1)/2). My grandfather played chess in a club, and he had these sheets of game results where everybody played everybody else once. I wondered how many blocks there were in the table. Well, it looks like a right triangle of height n and base n (which has area nn/2) but with n little triangles notched out (total area n/2). So the area of the blocks is (nn-n)/2, and each has area 1, so there are n(n-1)/2 of them.
lifeisstillgood 14y ago
Old Jasper Carrot joke: Straight man - There's a report that children are bored 3/4 of the time at school. This means they are not being prepared for working life Jasper - really? That sounds like excellent preparation for working life

102 points by equilibrium 14y ago

Boredom is when we let our mind run free, in search of things that would be interesting to us. If our mind is occupied with distractions, it becomes harder to focus.

general_failure 14y ago

From where I come from, it's normal to let children get bored :)

gbog 14y ago
And where do you come from?

zobzu 14y ago

getting myself bored is actually the only way i know to feel like "resetting" and getting fresh idea, views, etc. suppressing hn would be a good idea for this to happen more often tho...

zobzu 14y ago

getting myself bored is actually the only way i know to feel like "resetting" and getting fresh idea, views, etc. suppressing hn would be a good idea for this to happen more often tho...

ibrow 14y ago

My mother always used to tell me "only boring people get bored". Now with a small child and business to run, some days I would love to be bored and have nothing to do!

jennyjenjen 14y ago
Ha, well I first heard that one on Mad Men.

jennyjenjen 14y ago

Some amazing artists come from boring places. There are great rockers from places nobody would remotely associate with great music (Bob Dylan and Prince are both from Minnesota, for instance).

lostlogin 14y ago
I always ponder the number of great musicians who had messed up childhoods, like having the person who they thought was there other turn out to be any aunt or grandmother. The stability my parents provided has always held me back...
- hilko 14y ago
  Maybe you're right, but there are plenty of 'luminaries' where you could argue it was their stable family life that made it possible. At the very least it shouldn't be an excuse ;-).
gbog 14y ago
Balzac is a better example, he had a frivolous mother and was left alone in a room most of the time. He started telling himself stories and became expert in imagination.
raverbashing 14y ago
All the Irish authors for instance I'm sorry to say that, but there was probably very little to do (in their time - today it's slightly better) besides doing the daily chores and going to the pub.
LargeWu 14y ago
I'm not sure where this reputation that Minnesota is some sort of cultural wasteland comes from. If you ask people associated with the arts, many of them will tell you that Minneapolis has an exceptionally vibrant arts community. Outstanding music scene for both local and national artists, highly regarded theatres, excellent museums, etc.
- 14y ago

scotty79 14y ago

When I was bored as a child I was miserable. Jumping from one idea of what to do to another, one by one verifying that they will not bring me joy I seek. The only way out of boredom was just wait till I get physically tired of sobbing and feeling horibble, and then having a nap.

erezsh 14y ago
Sounds like some of my evenings..
cycojesus 14y ago
Depression in a nutshell.

grose 14y ago

School gives plenty of time for children to be bored.

teekert 14y ago

I think "getting bored" is the wrong term, she is talking about the fact that children should learn to find things to battle their boredom themselves. Was she still bored when she had a piece of blank paper and nothing to do? Her conclusion seems to be that only letting the brain consume is numbing but that creation and creativity come when the media that lets you mindlessly consume is not available. This media is acting as a drug, numbing creativity. I agree with that notion.

middayc 14y ago

my take on this subject a year or two ago :P http://jankom.posterous.com/kid http://jankom.posterous.com/kid

abalone 14y ago

The other day I was reading a lamentation about the rise of team sports for kids. Little league, etc. Before that you could just put a group of kids in a park and they would make up their own game. It was a creative process. Now you tell them exactly what to do -- and it's totally rigid and even a bit jingoistic.

up_and_up 14y ago
Another related issue is the lack of safe open public space in which children can play. With the rise of subdivisions and a general downturn in neighborliness the only way to get access to open play space is to join a 'team' or club sport of some kind. As a parent I also fear sending my kid down to the park on their own honestly, even in my relatively safe neighborhood. Which is sad.
- hilko 14y ago
  Are public spaces really that unsafe though? Or, at least, less safe than they have been in the past? Honest question. I've read a bunch of articles (that I cannot look up right now) that argue that this decrease in safety is mostly perception, and I'm inclined to agree. I grew up in the 'ghetto' of my hometown, and then from 8 tot 17 I lived in what was considered a dangerous, third-world country. Still, my parents mostly raised me as any kid in earlier times: be home before dark, don't go too far, but do whatever you want the rest of the time outside of school. By and large, my experience has not been too different from other kids I know in safer environments, and I've had few 'scary' experiences involving other people. Most 'dangers' involved general kids-being-stupid things: crossing streets without looking, or climbing things at the risk of falling down on the pavement head-first, egging each other on to do something stupid, etc. My point is, I can't really see the danger, and would like to know what you consider 'lacking'. Kidnapping is rare, sexual harassment is vastly more common in family circles, playgrounds have mostly become safer (and less fun, IMO), and violence of any kind by adults to children is (I think) relatively uncommon too. Even in dangerous areas. Of course, I am no parent. And I admit I present no actual supporting evidence (right now) other than my own experience. But I'm not really trying to prove something, just interested in your take on this. Maybe I'm missing something important that I would be aware of with some context, or with the experience of being a parent

iuguy 14y ago

I recently spent some time in hospital fighting pneumonia. Hospitals are exceptionally boring places. I loved it. I loved not having to do anything, not having to make decisions, not having to constantly think. The highest priority of my day at one point was moving things from my table to my drawer. It was awesome. I think we fill our lives with so much stuff that there's so little space for little things, but when I was rearranging things on my table I hadn't felt so free of responsibilities and decisions in years.

p6v53as 14y ago

Isn't boredom just response of a body that what he is doing is not effective? So it encourages going doing something that's more effective, efficient and productive.

narrator 14y ago

I recently was on a long solo hike and my smartphone ran out of batteries. With no music or anyone to talk to I had to find something to think about for the 2 hours it would take to complete the hike. I ended up going through each year of my life and thinking about where I lived and what I was doing at the time and memories associated with each time and place. It was actually quite entertaining.

gbog 14y ago
Sorry but I think you missed something. You should have let the emptiness and the boredom fill your self instead of proactively and orderly going through the years of your life.
- speeder 14y ago
  The point of the article is that boredom spurs stuff like this guy mentioning, it is you that missed the point.
- tehwalrus 14y ago
  a mindful / "zen" meditation would ask you to return to the state of being (i.e. not thinking) after you've noticed that you're thinking, but that's not the technique the scientists are suggesting in the OP, nor what the parent comment is talking about. Searching for a topic to think about is the kind of creative process they're trying to encourage, and indeed it's not unlike a brief bit of mindfulness, in this case followed by a lengthy period of introspection. Assuming that the introspection doesn't fall into a negative spiral of memories and emotions, this is reasonably mindful in itself.
carlesfe 14y ago
I go through this process while running. I highly recommend everyone to jog/run for about 30-40 minutes every day, alone, wit no music. It performs a "defrag" of your brain and relieves most of the stress and worries.

tokenadult 14y ago

I thought about this among my Facebook friends before replying here. I agree with the premise that children need plenty of time in their youth that isn't overly structured by adults. That's one of the reasons that my family homeschools rather than sending our children to our fine local public school system (which draws in students from all over the state through open enrollment). By test, and by verification through conversation with other adults who know our children, our children have no problem learning the essential information that children need to learn in childhood for independent adult life. But they learn more efficiently, because of the flexibility of homeschooling, and they thus have more time to pursue personal interests and creative activities. (The creative activities include short story writing for all our children, programming in a variety of languages for our oldest, and visual art for all the younger children.) We do have our children in some external programs that structure some of their time. We particularly like our local youth soccer association because its coaching philosophy strongly emphasizes letting the young players make their own decisions on the field and not coaching from the sidelines. I never knew that there was such a thing as "creativity" in soccer until I watched dozens of games over several years and saw how each of our children expresses a different personality on the soccer field, all while coordinating effort with teammates. Soccer truly is a beautiful game when played by players who have played together for a decade and who know one another. AFTER EDIT: I beg to differ with the comment quoted below, There are great rockers from places nobody would remotely associate with great music (Bob Dylan and Prince are both from Minnesota, for instance). from another top-level comment in this thread. I associate Minnesota with great music, because I live here. (Dylan and Prince are all right, but I'm not sure I'd even agree that they are the peak of what Minnesota has to offer in music. And Minnesota is by no means the most boring state in the United States, as my mother who moved here from elsewhere is glad to let people know.)

enraged_camel 14y ago
>> And Minnesota is by no means the most boring state in the United State That's true. We still have Wisconsin. :)
- awj 14y ago
  I think the Dakotas would like to have a word with you. Also, Wyoming.

kris121 14y ago

Not Every children but children should be allowed to get bored. Run everyone on same track never make anything better. Like People do a single kind of work. When Someone get bored with something they come with a beautiful solution.

strongvigilance 14y ago

It's slightly sad when science journalism relies on "an expert says", without feeling the need to reference any data.

dogface 14y ago

Less focus on "boredom", more focus on unstructured time. Boredom implies the child's own attempts at entertaining themselves has failed. Then again, I consider myself a pretty creative person, even though I insist on plenty of instructions when it comes to work -- but that may come from needing to deal with other people's expectations vs. my own. "Creativity" does not win out over pre-existing brand guidelines.

hexagonc 14y ago

Before I leave the house, I always try to line up a set of topics to think about while I'm in transit to where I'm going. Usually, these are design challenges in the projects I am working on or plans for the next thing to work on. Sometimes, I even allow myself to think about blue-sky type applications as a reward for getting more down to earth work done. Yes, I am a nerd, through and through! Many times I have wondered what I would do if I were confined in prison or became blind. I think, so long as I was mentally okay and had access to a computer to write software, I would be fine. I even considered that if I didn't have a computer, I would be able to entertain myself by implementing the rules of a game that exhibited computational ideas. After all, John Conway's Game of Life[1] was originally played by hand on a board. [1]http://www.math.com/students/wonders/life/life.html http://www.math.com/students/wonders/life/life.html

n2dasun 14y ago

I completely agree with this writeup, but I believe it depends on the child. Some people feed off of the energy and creativity of outside influences. As an introvert, however, I get overwhelmed over time of being unable to quiet my mind. There are times when listening to my radio will make me feel I'll, and I'll shut it off for weeks as a result, until a time comes along when I want to drown out the chaos rolling around up there. Also, having someone constantly talk to me to try and help me stay awake on a road trip actually has the effect of putting me to sleep, because my brain starts to idle when it's being fed constant stimulation. Imagine explaining that to a loved one who thinks they're helping you out. Definitely an arduous learning experience for all parties involved. I now spend my 6+ hour road trips in complete silence (radio turned off and everyone else asleep), and it's infinitely helpful time to reconnect with myself and my ideas and aspirations. When I got bored as a kid or young adult, I'd do things like: learn orgami, draw something, learn a programming language, start and commit to a workout plan, create something interesting. Now my life doesn't really allow time for boredom. That's why I needed to get into grad school: to force myself to set aside time to learn and create. I would love a stimuli drought right about now.

hilko 14y ago
I'm still trying to figure this one out, and should probably dive into the literature on the subject for some more enlightenment (or perhaps someone with more knowledge can share something?) Here's the thing. I consider my huge lack of formal education one of the best things that happened to me. I was home-schooled from 8 to 18, and the last five years or so I didn't even really have a teacher. I think for a full year I'd just 'phone in' the bare minimum of work, about two hours a day in the study room in our house, and pass the required tests. I feel like the boredom got out of my system really quickly because of this, and my natural inclination to explore and learn took over, with nobody to tell me learning was dumb or stupid or uncool. So I read every book I could find, learned programming, and had and developed an active imagination. Two more years of high school and six years of university got a long way to beat this out of me, but it's still mostly there, and I feel it's one of the primary reasons that I feel like I'm 'doing ok'. Is this just me specifically, or can it be applied to most children/young adults?

untothebreach 14y ago

My parents came up with a great way to make sure my brother and I always found ways to entertain ourselves: saying "I'm bored" to my parents was the same as saying "I need a chore to do around the house."

tehwalrus 14y ago
me too - equally, sitting staring into space was an invitation to a "you look like you have time to..." from my Dad.

nhebb 14y ago

When I was a kid we were somewhere that was boring as hell, so I laid on a bench and stared up at the tiled ceiling. I noticed that for a square (n x n) block of tiles that n^2 = sum(1..n) + sum(1..n-1). From playing with the numbers in my head, I was able to derive the formula the sum(1..n) = n(n+1)/2. Later when I learned Gauss' formula in school for the sum if integers, I was like "Hey, I invented that!". Those kinds of thought experiments just don't happen if you're staring at an Xbox all day.

wowfat 14y ago
wow, that would not happen to me if i was bored!
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
taejo 14y ago
Nice. I figured out sum(1..n) = n(n+1)/2 in a slightly way (well, sum(0..n-1) = n(n-1)/2). My grandfather played chess in a club, and he had these sheets of game results where everybody played everybody else once. I wondered how many blocks there were in the table. Well, it looks like a right triangle of height n and base n (which has area nn/2) but with n little triangles notched out (total area n/2). So the area of the blocks is (nn-n)/2, and each has area 1, so there are n(n-1)/2 of them.

lifeisstillgood 14y ago

Old Jasper Carrot joke: Straight man - There's a report that children are bored 3/4 of the time at school. This means they are not being prepared for working life Jasper - really? That sounds like excellent preparation for working life