In praise of boredom

Recently two blogs caught my eye, ‘Why I returned my iPad’ and ‘How to break your email addiction’, both of which linked neatly to a conversation we had at a recent Market Leader editorial meeting about creativity.  As you can imagine from the titles, both blog writers faced down the dark side of the miraculous technology that keeps us connected and entertained all day and all night. But the resulting absurdity of people sending emails to the person next to them in the office and the irksomeness of  dinner parties or indeed most any social event being interrupted with  frantic texting or at the very least ‘just checking’ seems an unavoidable part of the deal. I will happily live with all this since it is only via this miraculous technology that I’m able to edit Market Leader in an office, 10 stairs away from my bedroom. And as for the iPad, what’s not to like?  I am a late adopter by nature and without too much frustration, will wait till the 4th or 5th  iteration appears.  But my more impatient friends wave the slim tablet at me as THE invention of the age.

So what does this have to do with creativity? Our editorial meeting conversation went like this:  On one side were the purists who felt that all the guff about ‘everybody is creative’ was nonsense peddled by human potential consultants selling their wares, which included the notion that with a little bit of training, the inner creative genie will be released. Their view was that companies would be better off searching for ‘real’ creative talent rather than wasting their time on endless brainstorming sessions in the hope of making silk purses out of sow’s ears.  Me? As usual I want it both ways.  My agency experience has taught me that the ‘everyone is creative’ line is probably a convenient myth.  It has its utility in bonding, reminding people how messy and often difficult creative solutions can be, with the occasional reward of genuinely thinking something new and feeling good about it.  Clearly some people are much more creative than others.  But the lone creative genius may be a convenient myth too: geniuses, by definition, are very rare and often require more man management than they are worth.

But here’s the point.  Whatever the form of fresh thinking required, you need space in the mind for a new thought to creep in, take root, and flower.  A mind that is empty, even bored.  The cliché of having the best ideas in the bath is really a metaphor for moments of empty mindedness, the presence of nothingness.  A little boredom is good for us.  And this was the reason the fellow returned his iPad.  2000 plus apps, limitless books, magazines, newspapers, games and god knows what else the cornucopia of goodies available 24/7 at the touch of a button provides, leached time and mental energy away from what gave him the most  real pleasure –  thinking his own genuinely unique new thoughts. We pretend we’re more disciplined, but I wonder.