Michelle: A study found people would rather give themselves a mild electric shock than sit alone with their thoughts for 15 minutes. Honestly, Mark, some days I think I'd choose the shocker too. That's how uncomfortable we've become with being bored. Mark: It's a shocking finding, isn't it? But it perfectly sets the stage for the book we're diving into today: Bored and Brilliant by Manoush Zomorodi. It tackles that exact feeling—our deep, profound discomfort with doing nothing. Michelle: Zomorodi... she's the host of that popular tech podcast, right? I've heard her on NPR’s TED Radio Hour. She has a really engaging way of talking about technology and humanity. Mark: Exactly. And what's fascinating is that this whole book grew out of a massive, interactive experiment she ran with tens of thousands of her podcast listeners. It wasn't just her sitting in a room thinking up theories; it was a public investigation into what our phones are actually doing to our brains. Michelle: Wow, so it's crowd-sourced science, in a way. I like that. So what was Zomorodi's big discovery? Why is boredom suddenly the new 'brilliant'? Mark: Well, her journey started in a very relatable place: with her newborn son. She describes these endless, monotonous hours pushing him in a stroller, just to get him to sleep. At first, it was pure, mind-numbing frustration. She felt isolated, angry, and incredibly bored. Michelle: Oh, I know that feeling. The sheer tedium of early parenthood is real. You feel like your brain is turning to mush. Mark: Precisely. But then, something shifted. After weeks of this, she started noticing things—the architectural details on buildings, the way the light hit the street. Her mind, free from its usual professional hustle, started to wander. And in that wandering, she began having new ideas, planning her future, and connecting with her son on a deeper level. The boredom wasn't the enemy; it was the incubator. Michelle: Huh. So the boredom forced her to pay attention to the world in a different way. Mark: It did. And she contrasted that with her later experience at her dream job, hosting her podcast. She hit a creative wall. No new ideas. She felt blank. And she realized the culprit was her phone. She was filling every single crack of her day—the elevator ride, the line for coffee—with digital stimulation. She had eliminated all boredom from her life, and with it, her creativity.

Michelle: Wait, Mark. Are you seriously telling me that being bored is the secret to being brilliant? My whole life I've been taught the opposite. It sounds like a justification for procrastination. Mark: It feels counter-intuitive, I know. But the science Zomorodi presents is compelling. She points to a psychologist named Dr. Sandi Mann who ran a fascinating experiment. She wanted to see if boredom could actually spark creativity. So she gathered a group of people and gave them the most mind-numbingly boring task she could think of. Michelle: Let me guess, watching paint dry? Mark: Close. Copying numbers out of a phone book for twenty minutes. Michelle: That sounds like actual torture, not a creative retreat. Mark: It was designed to be. Then, she gave them a creative task: come up with as many uses as possible for a pair of paper cups. The result? The group that did the boring phone book task was significantly more creative than the control group. And in a follow-up, she made the task even more boring—they had to just read the numbers aloud. That group was the most creative of all. Michelle: Okay, but how does that translate to actual brilliance? I'm still not seeing the connection between phone books and, say, writing a great novel. Mark: It's about what happens in your brain when it's under-stimulated. Zomorodi explains that when we're bored, our brain switches into something called the "default mode network." Michelle: Hold on, you mentioned the 'default mode network.' That sounds very technical. Can you break that down? What is it, and why should I care? Mark: Think of it as your brain's screensaver mode. When you're not actively focused on a task—like answering an email or watching a video—your brain doesn't just shut off. It goes into this default mode, and it starts to do some incredible things. It connects disparate ideas, it accesses old memories, it simulates future scenarios. It’s where we do our autobiographical planning, our goal-setting, our most creative problem-solving. It's our brain's internal innovation lab. Michelle: So it's basically productive daydreaming. Mark: Exactly. And Zomorodi gives a perfect example. J.R.R. Tolkien was a professor at Oxford, and he was grading a huge, boring pile of exam papers. He came across a blank page in one of the booklets, and in that moment of pure, blissful nothingness, he scribbled a sentence: "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit." That moment of boredom, of mental space, gave birth to Middle-earth. Michelle: Wow. So without a boring exam paper, we might not have The Lord of the Rings. That's a powerful thought. But it also feels like that kind of mental space is a luxury we just don't have anymore. Mark: That's the crux of the problem. We don't have it because we've actively engineered it out of our lives.

Michelle: That makes sense. When our brain is idle, it gets creative. But my brain is never idle. The moment I'm bored, my hand reaches for my phone. It feels like a reflex I can't control. Mark: And Zomorodi argues that's not a personal failing. It's by design. We're living in what's called the "Attention Economy," where our attention is the product being sold to advertisers. And tech companies have become masters at capturing it. Michelle: So this isn't an accident? These apps are designed to do this to us? Mark: Absolutely. They're built around what are called dopamine feedback loops. Dopamine isn't the pleasure chemical, as many people think; it's the anticipation chemical. It's the neurotransmitter of wanting, of seeking. Every time you see a notification, or pull down to refresh your feed, you get a little hit of dopamine. It’s the thrill of the "maybe"—maybe I have a new like, maybe there's a new email, maybe this next video will be the one. It’s a slot machine in your pocket. Michelle: That's a chilling analogy. And it explains why it feels so compulsive. Mark: It is. And it's rewiring our brains. Zomorodi tells the story of a writer for The Washington Post who picked up a book of short stories and found he couldn't read it. His eyes kept skipping around the page, scanning for keywords, just like he would on a website. He had lost the ability for deep, linear reading because his brain was optimized for the frantic, non-linear world of the internet. Michelle: I have to confess, I've felt that. I'll be reading a book and my thumb will twitch, like I'm trying to scroll down the page. It's unsettling. Mark: It is. And for some, the consequences are even more severe. The book tells the story of Cynan Clucas, a successful digital marketing executive. He started having memory lapses, he couldn't manage his team, his life felt chaotic. He was terrified he had early-onset dementia. Michelle: Oh my gosh. What was it? Mark: After extensive testing, his doctor diagnosed him with adult-onset ADHD. And when Clucas looked back at what had changed in his life, he realized he had systematically "outsourced his brain" to technology. His calendar, his to-do lists, his social life, his memory—it was all on his phone. His brain, with nothing left to do, had essentially become disengaged. The very tools meant to make him more productive had diminished his cognitive abilities. Michelle: That is terrifying. He outsourced his own thinking. Mark: And that brings us back to the electric shock experiment. We are so desperate to avoid the discomfort of an idle mind that we'll do anything for a distraction. Zomorodi quotes a tech insider who said something that has stuck with me: "The only people who call their customers 'users' are drug dealers and technologists." Michelle: Wow. That hits hard. It reframes the whole relationship we have with our devices. We think they're serving us, but we're the ones being used.

Michelle: Okay, I'm convinced. And a little terrified. We're fighting against billion-dollar companies for control of our own minds. What can we actually do about it? Is the only answer to throw our phones in a river? Mark: It can feel that way! But Zomorodi's approach is much more optimistic and practical. She's not a Luddite. She's a tech journalist. Her solution isn't to abandon technology, but to find a new equilibrium with it. The "Bored and Brilliant" project was a series of weekly challenges, small experiments to help people reclaim their mental space. Michelle: Like what kind of challenges? Mark: Some were simple, like "Keep your phone out of sight while you're in transit." No checking email on the bus, no podcasts while walking. Just look out the window. Let your mind wander. Another was "Delete That App"—just for the week, delete the one app that is your biggest time-suck. Michelle: Oof. Deleting my favorite app feels like a punishment. Did people actually do it? Mark: Thousands did. And they found it wasn't a punishment; it was a liberation. They suddenly had all this time and mental energy back. But the most powerful examples of this principle come from the corporate world, where you'd least expect it. Michelle: You mean it's not just for artists and writers? Mark: Not at all. Zomorodi tells the story of the Boston Consulting Group, a high-powered, high-stress consulting firm. Their employees were burning out because they were expected to be available 24/7. So they ran an experiment. They mandated that each team member take one night off per week. Completely off. No email, no phone, no work. Michelle: I can imagine the panic. In that kind of culture, being offline is a liability. Mark: That's what they thought. But the results were stunning. The teams that implemented this "predictable time off" weren't just happier; they were more productive. Communication improved because they had to be more efficient and clear with each other before someone signed off. They were more collaborative. And their work was more innovative. They proved that even in the most demanding environments, building in time for disconnection—for boredom—is a competitive advantage. Michelle: So it’s not about becoming a Luddite. It’s about creating small, intentional pockets of boredom in our day. It’s about being the master of the tool, not the other way around. Mark: Precisely. It's about making conscious choices. Do I really need to check my phone right now, or can I just be here, in this moment? The book is filled with stories of people who made these small changes and felt like they were waking up from a long mental hibernation.

Michelle: So the big takeaway isn't just 'phones are bad.' It's that we've forgotten how to be alone with ourselves, and in doing so, we've silenced the part of our brain that generates our best ideas, our future plans, our very sense of self. Mark: Exactly. We've traded the deep, sometimes messy, work of our own minds for the easy, fleeting hit of digital distraction. And Zomorodi's challenge to us is simple. It's not about a dramatic, week-long digital detox that you'll abandon. It's about the small moments. Michelle: What's one thing someone listening could do today? Mark: The next time you're waiting in line, or on the elevator, or just have a two-minute gap—resist the urge. Put the phone away. Look around. Let your mind go where it wants to go. You might not invent a hobbit in those two minutes, but you might just solve a problem you've been stuck on all week. Or you might simply notice something beautiful you would have otherwise missed. Michelle: I love that. It’s a micro-rebellion against the attention economy. We'd love to hear what our listeners think. What's the one app you'd have the hardest time deleting? Let us know on our socials. It’s a fascinating thought experiment. Mark: It really is. The goal isn't to get rid of technology, but to put it back in its proper place—as a tool that serves us, not a master that commands us. Mark: This is Aibrary, signing off.