Even Astronauts Get The Blues: Or Why Boredom Drives Us Nuts

NPR:

The poet John Berryman once wrote, “My mother told me as a boy (repeatingly) ‘Ever to confess you’re bored means you have no inner resources.’ I conclude now I have no inner resources, because I am heavy bored.”

We’ve all been there: bored in class, bored at work, bored in stand still traffic. But why do we find boredom so unbearable? And, if we hate boredom so much, why do we still take boring jobs? This week on Hidden Brain, we try to answer these questions and more – hopefully, without boring you.

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The researcher Peter Ubel and his colleague, David Comerford, were curious about why people elect to do boring work. Ubel says, imagine applying to be one of those guards at the museum who stand around all day, telling visitors not to touch the paintings.

Read the whole story: NPR