Dien Rice
December 15, 2006, 12:15 AM
A person gets bored when they have nothing that they are interested in.
Boredom = lack of interest.
The way you beat boredom is to get interested in something.
You see, you have the power to be INTERESTED . . . just as you have the power to be BORED.
It's simply a choice.
Hi Hugh,
I don't know if this is what you mean... But sometimes when you look "deeply" enough into something, you'll find something interesting.
Let's take something like cow dung... Blecchhh!! What a boring (not to mention disgusting) topic... However...
Some people build their houses out of cow dung!
Other people burn cow dung - and use it for cooking! (It has a lot of fiber that can be burned...)
(Here's an article about using cow dung as a fuel - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/2636529.stm )
It's both important - and using cow dung this way can even save lives (as the article talks about)!
Anyway... Dig deep enough, and many otherwise boring topics can become interesting...
Just a few days ago I had a discussion with a friend about what it is about something that makes you find it "interesting". Anyway, he and I came to similar conclusions...
That was, for something to be "interesting" (at least for me), it seems it either has to be "surprising" or "potentially significant".
The "cow dung" example has both qualities. If you never heard of it before, the idea that cow dung could be used for housing and fuel is definitely surprising! And for people in certain places, it could be very significant too - and improve the quality of living, or even save lives...
I find a lot of business topics interesting, for the same reason... One reason I love reading some advertising is because many ads are quite surprising! They use "surprise" to get your attention - the "A" in the famous "AIDA" ad-writing formula... But, a lot of business topics are "potentially significant" to me too, since I try to apply them in what I do...
There's some (non-cow-dung cooked) food for thought... :)
- Dien
Boredom = lack of interest.
The way you beat boredom is to get interested in something.
You see, you have the power to be INTERESTED . . . just as you have the power to be BORED.
It's simply a choice.
Hi Hugh,
I don't know if this is what you mean... But sometimes when you look "deeply" enough into something, you'll find something interesting.
Let's take something like cow dung... Blecchhh!! What a boring (not to mention disgusting) topic... However...
Some people build their houses out of cow dung!
Other people burn cow dung - and use it for cooking! (It has a lot of fiber that can be burned...)
(Here's an article about using cow dung as a fuel - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/2636529.stm )
It's both important - and using cow dung this way can even save lives (as the article talks about)!
Anyway... Dig deep enough, and many otherwise boring topics can become interesting...
Just a few days ago I had a discussion with a friend about what it is about something that makes you find it "interesting". Anyway, he and I came to similar conclusions...
That was, for something to be "interesting" (at least for me), it seems it either has to be "surprising" or "potentially significant".
The "cow dung" example has both qualities. If you never heard of it before, the idea that cow dung could be used for housing and fuel is definitely surprising! And for people in certain places, it could be very significant too - and improve the quality of living, or even save lives...
I find a lot of business topics interesting, for the same reason... One reason I love reading some advertising is because many ads are quite surprising! They use "surprise" to get your attention - the "A" in the famous "AIDA" ad-writing formula... But, a lot of business topics are "potentially significant" to me too, since I try to apply them in what I do...
There's some (non-cow-dung cooked) food for thought... :)
- Dien
