WEBVTT

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ARTHUR BROOKS: You
need to be bored.

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You will have less
meaning and you

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will be more depressed
if you never are bored.

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I mean, it couldn't be clearer.

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Let me give you the good
side of boredom in general.

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Boredom is a tendency
for us to not be occupied

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otherwise cognitively, which
switches over our thinking

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system to use a
part of our brain

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that's called the
default mode network.

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That sounds fancy.

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It's really not.

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The default mode
network is a bunch

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of structures in your
brain that switch

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on when you don't have
anything else to think about.

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So you forgot your
phone and you're sitting

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at a light, for example.

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That's when your default
mode network goes on.

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We don't like it.

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My colleague in the
psychology department

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here at Harvard, Dan
Gilbert, he did experiments

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where people had to
sit in a room for 15

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minutes with instructions
to do absolutely nothing,

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and there was nothing
in the room to do,

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except there was a
button in front of them

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that they could push.

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And if they did,
they gave themselves

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a painful electric shock.

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Sit there bored, or get a shock.

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A big majority of
the participants

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gave themselves shocks instead
of thinking about nothing.

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We don't like boredom.

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Boredom is boredom is terrible.

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Why is boredom so bad?

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Well, because the default
mode network makes

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us think about things that
might be kind of uncomfortable.

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When you think about nothing
while your mind wanders

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and thinks about, for example,
big questions of meaning

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in your life.

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What does my life mean?

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You go to uncomfortable
existential questions

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when you're bored.

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That turns out to be incredibly
important, incredibly good.

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One of the reasons we have
such an explosion of depression

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and anxiety in our society
today is because people actually

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don't know the meaning
of their lives,

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much less so in
previous generations.

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Tons of data show this,
and furthermore, we're

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not even looking.

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Why not?

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I'll tell you why not.

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We figured out a way
to eliminate boredom.

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We've been able,
almost completely,

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to shut off the default
mode network in our brains.

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How?

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The answer is that thing in
your pocket with the screen,

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which you take out even when
you're standing on the street

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corner waiting for
the light to change,

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is like, I might have to
wait here for 15 seconds.

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What are you doing?

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You're actually trying to not be
bored because the default mode

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network is mildly uncomfortable,
because it sends you

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to the types of questions that
you can't get your mind around.

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You can't get your arms around.

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Well, that's a big problem.

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That's a doom loop of meaning.

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If every time you're slightly
bored pull out your phone,

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it's going to get harder and
harder for you to find meaning,

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and that's the recipe for
depression and anxiety

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and a sense of hollowness,
which, by the way,

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are all through the roof.

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I get it.

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You don't want to be bored.

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You need to be bored.

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Be bored more.

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Tomorrow, when you go to
the gym in the morning

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after you wake up,
don't take your phone.

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Can you handle it?

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Not listening to a podcast
while you're working out.

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Just being in your head.

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I promise you, you'll have
your most interesting ideas

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while you're working
out without devices.

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It's probably been a long
time since you've done that.

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Commute with nothing,
not even the radio.

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Can you do that?

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Start getting better
at periods that

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are 15 minutes and
longer of boredom,

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and watch your life change.

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Number one, you'll be less
bored with ordinary things

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in your life.

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If you get better at
the skill of boredom,

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you'll be less
bored with your job.

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You'll be less bored
with your relationships.

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You'll be less bored
with the things that

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are going on around you.

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But more importantly,
you'll start digging

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into the biggest questions in
your life, purpose, meaning,

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coherence, significance.

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And who knows?

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You might just get happier.

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People ask me all the
time, is the doctor

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taking his own prescriptions?

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And the answer is, yes.

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Yes, I am.

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I'm prone to the same
pathologies as anybody else

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because I have the same brain
chemistry as everybody else.

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So what do I do to fight that?

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And the answer is, well,
I do a number of things.

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I have a no device policy
after 7:00 in the afternoon.

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I don't sleep with my phone.

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We don't have devices when
we have meals in my family.

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Because we're there
for each other.

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We're not there for
people who aren't there.

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Three, I have
regular social media

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and screen cleanses where
I don't use my device

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for longer periods of time.

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First, it's like children
screaming in my head

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because that's how dopamine
is saying, get the phone,

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get the phone.

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That's addiction.

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But it calms down
and I feel better.

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And I feel sort of
blessed by the end.

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And I pick the
phone up by the end

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because I have to
check my emails.

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And I have to be a normal,
functioning, connected person

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in the world.

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But it does remind me that my
life doesn't have to revolve

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around these devices.

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These protocols are
really, really helpful

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and I recommend them to
anybody and everybody.

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Don't sleep with your phone.

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No phones during meals.

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Regular social media fasts.

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You'll get better.

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People worry that if
they do these things,

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they're going to miss something.

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There are ways that
you can remedy that.

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One of the things
that you can do

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is you can have your phone on.

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You're just not looking
at it, and there's

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only one or two numbers
that can reach you

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in case of emergencies.

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Phones can do that by the way.

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If you don't have to
do that, ask your kid.

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But don't use emergencies
in as an excuse.

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Here's something that's
not an emergency.

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What's going on Twitter.

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That's not an emergency
answer nothing.

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It doesn't matter.

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The news can wait.

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Seriously your
grandparents didn't

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what was going on every single
second in Washington, DC.

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You're killing yourself
with this stuff.

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Are you kidding me?

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It's bad for you.

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So let me say it
straight to my kids.

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Put down your phones.

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You need more
meaning in your life.

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And so do I.