Boredom: The Lost Superpower

My mom asked me the other day, "When you were a kid, how did you pass the time?"

I said, reading and playing a few games like carroms and chess, but mostly just...not doing anything.

Which really means spending an inordinate amount of time being bored and doing random things—like unspooling a cassette tape just to put it back together. Adding glycerine to soap to make giant bubbles and making a mess.

Like any good Indian mom, she’d try to smack me and make me clean it up, but I was scrawny and fast. Or I'd lock myself in the bathroom for 10 minutes, waiting for her to cool down.

Other times, I'd play football and break a lamp (or a TV—true story). Or visit my next-door neighbor, who had fancier games like Scrabble or Donkey Kong.

She was asking because my kids were on a week off from school—whining about being bored with "nothing to do."

Nothing to Do? Or Just No Devices?

Nothing to do… because I had confiscated all their devices. No TV, no dopamine hits.

Guess what happened?

At first, complaints. Then:

• They started reading (ok, comics, but still).

• Built a makeshift table tennis setup on the dining table.

• Played indoor football with a tennis ball.

• Built fake Legos.

• Wasted tons of printing paper making ships and planes.

• Even built a robot car with a Raspberry Pi kit.

• Painted zombies and alien ships

This wasn’t some grand parenting experiment. It was just me showing them who’s boss (hehe) and setting boundaries.

But watching them transform reminded me of something we all know deep inside:

When we unplug, our minds get free to do cool shit.

Not just kids. Us too.

French mathematician Blaise Pascal knew what was up when he said:

How true is that? If we could just be with ourselves, mind our own business, and do good stuff, wouldn't we be better as a species?

But no. Instead, we crave the constant hit of news, social media, and notifications—because it makes us feel alive. But really, it’s messing us up.

The Boredom Matrix

Here’s what’s happening:

Our devices promise escape from boredom. But they actually steal our ability to be creatively bored.

And the result? We’ve traded true creativity for passive consumption.

(Like a dirty, average buffet where everything tastes the same).

Look at Silicon Valley’s top execs. Many send their kids to tech-free schools and limit screen time at home. They know exactly what they’ve built—and they don’t want their kids using it.

• Bill Gates didn’t allow his kids to have phones until they were 14.

• Steve Jobs prohibited his kids from using the iPad and limited screen time.

• Sundar Pichai (Google) and Evan Spiegel (Snapchat) enforce strict screen limits for their children.

Meanwhile, the rest of us are afraid to sit alone with our thoughts for six minutes.

There was a study where people preferred giving themselves electric shocks over sitting quietly.

Yes. A study led by psychologist Timothy Wilson (published in Science) found that many people find it so hard to sit alone with their thoughts that they’d rather shock themselves.

67% of men and 25% of women chose to do so. Yikes.

Breaking the Cycle 

What I noticed with my kids is that boredom isn’t the problem—it’s the gateway to something better.

But you have to push through the withdrawal:

Stage One: The Complaints—"I’m bored" really means "I miss my dopamine hits."

Stage Two: The Wandering Mind—Starts searching for stimulation, gets frustrated.

Stage Three: The Breakthrough—Creativity emerges when the mind stops expecting external entertainment.

This is what we’ve lost. The superpower of being bored.

I’m not saying throw away your phone.

But maybe… try sitting with yourself occasionally. See what happens when you push through the withdrawal.

Because, I promise you: Your best ideas won’t come from scrolling.

They come from the moments you think nothing is happening.