rigmarole
My latest theory is that the continuing deterioration of my motivation can be attributed not to ADD, burn out, or depression, but to sheer boredom. Fortunately (or unfortunately), according to the DSM-IV-TR, boredom is not (yet) classified as a mental disorder. And if curiosity is really the cure to boredom, then my advisor’s comment that I “lack curiosity” might have been quite insightful. However, I’m not sure I really lack curiosity. In fact I know I’m curious about a lot of things, like, what the current weather is, the average number of junk emails I receive in a given hour, what random strangers have to say on their blogs, who won NSF and DOD fellowships this year, what 420 means, whether my labmate is related to the famous Bohr, what percentage of professors at MIT got one or more degrees from MIT, what former president Wilson majored in while at Hopkins, where the macaroon originated, what Freud’s interpretation of dreams were, what somewhat famous people have to say about boredom, and countless other things I spend my time looking up online or reading about. The truth is, I could be fairly curious about ITS, recycling statistics, how humans are destroying the environment, and other things essential to my education, but I suppose not curious enough to spend all day searching the web for data, reading insipid papers, and trying to write summaries and/or revealing commentaries (i.e., nonsense) on the topic. And when the competition includes creating Wikipedia entries on the Lefferts Crew, recycling, in comparison, becomes rather uninteresting. Perhaps I should visit a psychiatrist out of boredom.
But with a deadline in 13 days for the final paper and presentation for my EBM course, and another in 14 days for the final paper and presentation for my ITS course, I need to get very curious, very motivated, very quickly.
posted by Goldie @ 6:46 PM
2 Comments:
hey goldie, that was great fun. i definitely think you should seek out psychiatric help, boredom is . . .well, it's dangerous. . .we all know what happens to people who are bored.
except, like u say you do have a nice variety of random interests, but maybe you aren't passionate enough about any? well what do i know i certainly am bored, which is why, if you find a curiosity pill, or some other brilliant cure (e.g. a psychiatrist who so fascinates you, you forget to be bored) please give me a ring.
until then i remain,
bored
:-). Always glad to entertain.
I’ll be sure to keep you updated on any new developments.
I wasn’t always bored. I remember being horribly bored in 7th grade, but I think I got myself into enough trouble in high school to keep from getting too bored, and I don’t think I was bored when I served my time at Hopkins. Now, my boredom is not so much the absence of things that perk my interest, but probably, like you wrote, a lack of passion or drive in a particular direction.
Either way, I did find an inspirational boredom quote. According to F. Scott Fitzgerald: “Boredom is not an end-product, is comparatively rather an early stage in life and art. You've got to go by or past or through boredom, as through a filter, before the clear product emerges.”
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