Why You Shouldn’t Trust Boredom | Kevin H. Gary | TED

Translator: Malou Østergaard Reviewer: Lars Sarauw Hansen

I will always remember my son's first day of school.

Jeg vil altid huske min søns første skoledag.

Lucas was five years old

Lucas var fem år gammel,

and he was going to kindergarten,

på vej i børnehave,

and he was so excited.

og han var så spændt.

He was going to take the bus. and we were excited for him.

Han skulle selv tage bussen og vi var spændte.

And I’ll never forget that day when I came home,

Jeg glemmer aldrig, da jeg kom hjem,

I was eager to check in with him to hear, "How did it go?"

og ville høre hvordan det var gået.

And Lucas's response was,

Og Lucas’ svar var,

"Dad, I'm tired of hearing about hallway procedures."

“Far, jeg er træt af at høre om regler.”

(Laughter)

(Latter)

I found his response both amusing and sad.

Hans svar var både sjovt og trist.

Amusing because I thought, oh my gosh,

Sjovt fordi jeg tænkte,

you have a lifetime of hallway procedures you're going to have to work through.

du har et liv forude hvor du skal forholde dig til regler.

And also amusing because it captured so well

Og fordi det tydeligt viste

how schools and institutions can just grind us down

hvordan skoler og institutioner kan udmatte os

with their bureaucratic rules and monotonous procedures.

med deres rigide regler og kedelige procedurer.

But I found it sad because this was his first day of school,

Men jeg synes det var trist, fordi det var hans første dag

and his takeaway on that very first day, was that school is boring.

og han syntes at skole er kedeligt.

This is a boring place.

Det er et kedeligt sted.

However, he's going to have to learn to deal with boredom.

Men han må lære at leve med kedsomheden.

It's something we all learn to deal with.

Det gør vi alle.

Boredom is a common and familiar problem.

At kede sig er et normalt problem.

And I think at first it can seem like a trivial problem.

Ved første blik virker det som et trivielt problem.

If you're bored, just find something interesting,

Hvis du keder dig, må du lede efter noget sjovt,

move on to the next thing.

finde noget andet.

But actually, I’m going to argue that it’s far more complex.

Men jeg mener, at det er langt mere komplekst.

And that it needs our attention.

At det kræver vores opmærksomhed.

And I'm going to offer three takeaways for how to contend with boredom well.

Jeg vil komme med tre bud på hvordan man håndterer kedsomhed.

In schools, boredom is a big problem.

Kedsomhed i skoler er et stort problem.

An overwhelming majority of high school students

Størstedelen af gymnasieelever

report being bored in school.

fortæller at de keder sig i skolen.

And this is a problem because when students are bored in school,

Det er et problem, for når elever keder sig,

they begin to lose interest, they can't focus.

mister de interessen og evnen til at fokusere.

And when students are bored in school, they start to misbehave.

Og når elever keder sig i skolen, begynder de at lave ballade.

I was a high school teacher, and if my students were bored,

Jeg har været lærer, og når mine elever kedede sig,

I was petrified because I was going to have problems.

var jeg bange, for det betød problemer.

This was going to be a disaster.

Det ville blive slemt.

And if students are chronically bored year after year,

Hvis elever konstant keder sig år efter år,

eventually they just drop out and peel away from school altogether.

vil de ende med at droppe ud og opgive skolen helt.

But boredom is not just a problem in schools.

Kedsomhed er ikke kun et problem i skoler.

It's a problem that tracks us beyond schools.

Det er et problem, der også kan opstå andre steder.

There are several troubling addictions that are linked to boredom.

Kedsomhed er forbundet med forskellige former for misbrug.

When we're bored, we drink too much,

Vi drikker for meget,

we eat too much,

spiser for meget,

we spend too much money,

bruger for mange penge

we buy things we don't need.

på ting vi ikke har brug for.

There are entire industries

Der er industrier

that are designed around making us bored.

der lever af at få os til at kede os.

And so boredom has some really problematic behaviors linked to it,

Kedsomhed er altså forbundet med virkelig problematisk adfærd,

but even more than these troubling addictions,

men misbrug er ikke det eneste,

there are also these smaller things.

der er også mindre ting.

The half-listening to friends and acquaintances when we’re bored.

Når man kun lytter med et halvt øre når andre taler.

Or just the way we idle our time when we’re bored.

Eller blot hvordan vi spilder tiden, når vi keder os.

I'm dating myself,

Jeg arbejder på det,

but if I could take back the 10,000 hours I put into Tetris

men hvis jeg kunne tage de 10.000 timer jeg har brugt på Tetris

and put that into actually playing guitar,

og bruge dem på at lære guitar i stedet,

I'd be a professional musician right now.

ville jeg være professionel musiker nu.

That was kind of a joke, anyway.

Det var en joke.

So, boredom is something we need to look at,

Kedsomhed er noget vi må kigge på,

and we look at boredom, we tend to think about it objectively.

og når vi gør det, tænker vi normalt objektivt.

I’m bored by this teacher

Læreren er kedelig

or I’m bored by this book I’m reading

eller bogen jeg læser er kedelig

or this person I'm talking to.

eller personen jeg taler til er kedelig.

And boredom tends to objectify things

Kedsomhed objektiviserer ting

and actually be quite judgmental and arrogant.

og kan være ret dømmende og arrogant.

That's a boring person, that's a boring book.

Det er en kedelig person, det er en kedelig bog.

But in truth, boredom is both objective and subjective.

Men kedsomhed er faktisk både objektiv og subjektiv.

We're actually making a judgment call,

Vi bedømmer ting,

deciding whether something is boring or not.

beslutter os for om de er kedelige eller ej.

And we know that what bores one person

Hvad der keder én person,

could actually be very interesting to another.

kan en anden finde interessant.

So in this respect,

Så derfor

boredom is kind of a curious and perplexing mood state.

er kedsomhed en pudsig sindstilstand.

What do we make of it?

Hvad skal vi tænke om det?

It's kind of like a dashboard light,

Som lampen på instrumentbrættet,

when you're in your car and a light goes on

når du er i din bil og lyset tænder,

and it gives you very clear directives.

og det giver dig klare instruktioner.

You need to get gas, you need to get oil,

Bilen mangler benzin og olie,

you need to put air in the tires.

dækkene mangler luft.

The problem with the boredom light is it goes on and there's no clear direction.

Problemet med kedsomhedslyset er at det mangler instruktioner.

We're not sure what to do with it,

Vi ved ikke, hvad vi skal gøre ved det,

and most of the time we don't even notice the boredom dashboard light

og ofte lægger vi ikke engang mærke til at kedsomhedslyset tænder,

because it's going on all the time.

for det tænder hele tiden.

It's kind of blinking and it just becomes white noise

Det blinker og bliver til hvid støj

and we're dealing with it.

som vi vænner os til.

We're dealing without even realizing it.

Uden at vi lægger mærke til det.

Day in and day out, we're constantly navigating away

Dag ind og dag ud, navigerer vi

from boring spaces into interesting spaces.

fra kedelige til spændende situationer.

And how do we do this?

Hvordan gør vi så dette?

There are two dominant ways

Der er primært to måder

that we've evolved to contend with this troubling mood state.

hvorpå vi håndterer denne sindstilstand.

On the one hand, you've got avoidance.

Den første metode er undgåelse.

So if I'm in a boring situation, the first move we make is,

Hvis man keder sig et sted, spørger vi os selv,

how do I get out of this?

hvordan kommer jeg væk?

I can physically get out of this,

Jeg kan fjerne mig fysisk

or what do I do?

eller hvad gør jeg?

I daydream.

Jeg kan dagdrømme.

Or the most obvious thing we do is we check our phones.

Eller vi kan kigge på vores mobil.

Our phones are these sophisticated boredom-avoidance devices.

Mobiler er gode til at undgå kedsomhed.

And we avoid boredom because it’s actually painful.

Vi forsøger at undgå kedsomhed fordi det er smertefuldt.

I don't know if you've ever felt the pain of boredom.

Jeg ved ikke om I har oplevet smerten ved kedsomhed.

The pain of boredom was illustrated in a recent study

Smerten blev undersøgt i en ny undersøgelse

at the University of Virginia.

fra University of Virginia.

They asked subjects to come into a room

De bad testpersonerne tage plads i et rum

and just sit with their thoughts for 15 minutes.

og sidde med deres tanker i 15 minutter.

And these are folks that were 18 to 70.

De var i alderen 18 til 70.

And they could do that,

De kunne enten sidde

or they could put their finger in a machine

eller putte deres finger i en maskine

and receive a painful shock.

der gav et smertefuldt stød.

The results of the study were, pun intended, shocking:

Resultaterne var chokerende:

30 percent of the women and 60 percent of the men

30 procent af kvinderne og 60 procent af mændene

chose to shock themselves rather than sit with their thoughts

valgte at give sig selv stød i stedet for at sidde

for 15 minutes.

i 15 minutter.

All of this is to say that we would rather have physical pain,

Mange foretrækker altså fysisk smerte

many of us, than the pain of boredom.

over smerten ved kedsomhed.

So avoidance is the common go-to way that we contend with it

Undgåelse er altså den typiske strategi vi bruger

without even thinking about it, it's automatic.

uden at tænke over det.

The other strategy that we employ is resignation.

Den anden strategi er at give op.

You've perhaps heard grown-ups say to children

Du har måske hørt voksne sige til børn

when they complain of boredom, "That's life. Get used to it."

“Sådan er livet. Væn dig til det,” når de brokker sig over kedsomhed.

And so the idea is that you just have to endure it.

Idéen er at man bare må lære at leve med det.

You just have to push through it.

Du skal bare kæmpe dig igennem.

I'm a teacher of teachers and a privilege I get

Jeg underviser lærere, og jeg er så heldig

is I get to see teachers across all grade levels.

at opleve lærere på alle klassetrin.

And I've seen some incredible spaces where the teaching is dynamic, engaging,

Jeg har set dynamisk, engagerende læring

it's meaningful.

som er meningsfyldt.

If there is boredom, it passes.

Hvis der er kedsomhed, går det over.

The students know how to deal with it in a good way.

Eleverne ved hvordan de overkommer den på en sund måde.

But sometimes I go to classes and it's boring.

Andre gange oplever jeg kedelige timer.

And usually in those classes the students are misbehaving,

I disse timer opfører eleverne sig typisk dårligt,

and that's completely understandable.

hvilket er helt forståeligt.

And I would say even appropriate, sometimes,

Endda passende nogle gange,

to let the teacher know that they need to change it up here.

for at få læreren til at forstå, at han skal ændre noget.

But sometimes I go into a boring classroom

Jeg har også besøgt kedelige klasselokaler

and the students are not misbehaving.

hvor eleverne ikke er uartige.

I was in a classroom a few years ago, a seventh-grade classroom,

For nogle år siden besøgte jeg en 7. klasse

and the students were tasked with copying a PowerPoint,

hvor eleverne skulle kopiere et PowerPoint

word for word, for 45 minutes.

ord for ord i 45 minutter.

I was bored out of my mind.

Jeg kedede mig ekstremt.

And I turned to the student next to me and I said,

Jeg spurgte eleven ved siden af:

"Is this kind of what you do?"

“Er det her hvad I laver?”

And he said, "We do this every day."

Og han sagde “Vi gør det hver dag.”

And what amazed me was the students were docile.

Jeg var forundret over at de var så føjelige.

They were compliant.

De var medgørlige.

I expected, I actually hoped there would be a protest or a revolution.

Jeg troede, håbede faktisk, at de ville protestere.

I thought this teacher should be punished for having such a boring class.

Jeg syntes læreren skulle straffes for at have så kedelig undervisning.

But instead, the students just were passive.

Men eleverne var bare passive.

They were just resigned.

De var opgivende.

When my kids were younger, they would complain to me,

Da mine børn var yngre, brokkede de sig,

"Dad, I'm so bored, there's nothing to do."

“Far, jeg keder mig, der er intet at lave.”

And there are two things going on there in that comment.

Den kommentar siger to ting.

The first is a lack of imagination.

Den første er mangel på fantasi.

"I'm so bored, I can't see anything worthwhile to do."

“Jeg keder mig så meget, at der ikke er noget værd at lave.”

That's resignation.

Det er opgivelse.

And then there's also a loss of agency.

Der er også mangel på handlekraft.

"I'm so bored, there's nothing I can do to get out of this."

“Jeg keder mig, der er intet jeg kan gøre for at ændre det.”

So we have resignation on the one hand and we have avoidance.

Så vi har opgivelse og undgåelse.

These are the two common strategies

Det er de to mest udbredte strategier

that we employ without even recognizing it.

vi bruger uden at tænke over det.

I'm interested in what is a practically wise way,

Jeg er interesseret i en bedre metode,

a middle way between avoidance on the one hand

en gylden middelvej mellem undgåelse

and resignation on the other.

og opgivelse.

And I think about this in light of two stories from my own life.

Jeg tænker på det i lyset af to historier fra mit eget liv.

After college, I lived in a house in Chicago with with three teachers.

Da jeg var færdiduddannet, boede jeg i et hus i Chicago med tre lærere.

And one of my roommates, Mark,

En af mine bofæller, Mark,

I met him the first day and probably within the first day,

mødte jeg den første dag, og besluttede på dagen

I decided he was just kind of dull.

at han var ret kedelig.

He kind of took his time to make his points,

Han var lang tid om at komme til pointen,

and I decided that I was going to limit the amount of time I spent with Mark.

og jeg besluttede mig for at bruge så lidt tid som muligt sammen med Mark.

I was going to avoid him.

Jeg ville undgå ham.

We were roommates, though.

Men vi var bofæller.

I would see Mark every day.

Jeg ville se Mark hver dag.

We used the same bathroom.

Vi delte badeværelse.

Every day after school, we would talk about teaching.

Vi talte om det at undervise hver dag efter skole.

And I discovered that Mark actually was a really thoughtful teacher.

Og jeg opdagede at Mark var en meget betænksom lærer.

He was a creative teacher, he was an innovative teacher.

Han var en kreativ og innovativ lærer.

And he wasn’t just trying to improve his teaching,

Han forsøgte ikke kun at forbedre sin undervisning

he was also trying to improve himself.

men også at forbedre sig selv.

And he was always thinking about work and life

Han tænkte altid på arbejde og livet,

and figuring out the right balance.

forsøgte at finde en balance.

And over time, I realized Mark is not boring.

Senere forstod jeg, at Mark ikke er kedelig.

Actually he's wise.

Han er faktisk klog.

And he's a dear friend to this day.

Og i dag er han en kær ven.

But my initial assessment of Mark as a boring person

Mit første indtryk af at Mark var kedelig

was just completely wrong.

var helt forkert.

The mood state was giving me information

Min sindstilstand gav mig information

that I was not reading correctly.

som jeg ikke læste korrekt.

The second story is from my first year of high school teaching,

Den anden historie er fra mit første år som gymnasielærer,

which, the first year is demanding work,

hvilket var et krævende arbejde,

and you're kind of looking for shelter and comfort.

hvor du leder efter tryghed og komfort.

And I found a group of teachers to have lunch with

Jeg fandt en gruppe lærere, jeg kunne spise frokost med

and would go there to eat lunch.

og spiste med dem.

But eventually the conversations were just complaint sessions,

Men samtalerne var ikke andet end brok

day in and day out.

dag ind og dag ud.

And we usually complained about administrators.

Vi brokkede os mest over administratorerne.

That was our number one target,

De var vores primære mål,

especially administrators who hadn't taught.

især administratorer som ikke underviste.

Our second complaint was maybe a difficult student or parent,

Vi brokkede også over besværlige elever eller forældre,

but day in and day out, it was this negative loop.

en negativ spiral dag ind og dag ud.

It was like being stuck in the first part of the movie "Groundhog Day,"

Det var som at være fanget i den første del af filmen “Groundhog Day,”

and it was just unending.

og det blev bare ved.

And eventually I just got bored with this conversation.

Jeg blev til sidst træt af det.

And I pulled away.

Jeg trak mig fra dem.

I began to eat lunch in my classroom by myself.

Jeg begyndte at spise frokost alene i et klasselokale.

But eventually I found other teachers

Med tiden fandt jeg andre lærere

who were also vigilant about steering away from complaint culture,

der også forsøgte at styre uden om brokkeriet,

which is addictive.

som jo var vanedannende.

It seems interesting, but eventually, it gets very, very boring,

Det virker interessant, men den bliver hurtigt meget kedelig,

complaint culture.

denne brok-kultur.

And instead of complaining,

I stedet for at brokke sig,

they would talk about books they were enjoying

snakkede de om bøger de kunne lide

or hobbies that they loved

eller hobbyer de elskede

or what went well in their teaching.

eller det gode ved deres undervisning.

And these were conversations that I found very interesting.

Det var disse samtaler jeg fandt interessante.

And also they were restorative.

De var også opløftende.

They lifted my spirits to go in and teach my classes.

De løftede mit humør.

I share these two stories because in both instances

Jeg deler disse to historier fordi i begge

I was experiencing boredom.

oplevede jeg kedsomhed.

But what to make of it was not clear.

Men pointen er ikke helt klar.

And so I want to offer three takeaways.

Så jeg vil dele tre hovedpointer.

And I'm thinking of young people as they figure out strategies

Og jeg tænker på de unge som forsøger at finde strategier

for contending with this troubling mood state.

mod denne forstyrrende sindstilstand.

The first takeaway is that boredom should not be trusted.

Den første hovedpointe er at man ikke bør stole på kedsomhed.

We tend to trust boredom.

Det gør vi ofte.

We make an implicit judgment about something or someone

Vi vurderer noget eller nogen og beslutter

and decide it's boring.

at det er kedeligt.

And it’s arrogant, it’s judgmental

Det er arrogant, dømmende

and often is wrong.

og ofte forkert.

We need to take a careful look

Vi må kigge ordentligt

and make sure that there might be something here worthwhile,

og se om der ikke noget værdifuldt,

worth attending to.

værd at tage sig af.

So don't trust boredom is takeaway one.

Så stol ikke på kedsomhed.

The second takeaway is we need to protect our attention.

Den anden hovedpointe er at vi må beskytte vores opmærksomhed.

A bored mind is primed to get distracted from distraction by distraction.

Keder man sig, bliver man distraheret og går fra distraktion til distraktion.

It is looking to be distracted.

Man leder efter distraktioner.

And when we think about the things we care about, our friends

Når vi tænker på de ting vi holder af, vores venner

or something we’re trying to get good at

eller noget vi øver os på

or a hobby that we love,

eller en hobby vi elsker,

each of these things will be afflicted by boredom.

disse ting vil påvirkes negativt.

It will come.

Det kommer til at ske.

And if we are in an environment where we're easily distracted,

Hvis vi er i et miljø, hvor vi nemt bliver distraheret,

boredom will get the better of us.

vil kedsomheden overtage.

Don't trust boredom, protect our attention.

Stol ikke på kedsomhed, beskyt din opmærksomhed.

And then finally, we need to talk about boredom.

Til sidst må vi tale om kedsomhed.

We all have strategies that we employ.

Vi bruger alle strategier.

We need to name those strategies.

Vi må give disse strategier et navn.

There was a great writer in the '80s who described our modern life

Der var en forfatter i 80′erne som beskrev vores moderne liv

as a sophisticated boredom-avoidance scheme.

som en sofistikeret kedsomhedsundgående ordning.

Walker Percy said that.

Walker Percy hed han.

The scheme is far more sophisticated today.

Ordningen er endnu mere sofistikeret i dag.

We know that.

Det ved vi.

But to the extent that we're not reflecting on it and thinking about it,

Hvis vi ikke reflekterer over det og tænker på det

boredom plays us and gets the better of us.

får kedsomhed magten over os.

But the extent that we're reflecting on it and thinking about it,

Men hvis vi reflekterer og tænker på det,

we can put boredom in its place and give our attention

kan vi holde kedsomheden i skak

and protect our attention

og bruge vores opmærksomhed

to those things we love and the people we care about.

på de ting vi elsker og dem vi holder af.

Thank you very much.

Mange tak.

(Applause)

(Klapsalve)