The purpose of boredom

　　惊呆了!无聊感可激发创造力

　　Being bored can spur people’s creativity — partly to escape the horrible, frustrated, and meaningless feeling of boredom — recent studies find.

　　最近的研究发现，无聊可以激发人们的创造力，从而在一定程度上逃离可怕的，令人沮丧的，无意义的无聊感。

　　It could even be true at work.

　　工作中甚至也是如此。

　　Psychologists at the University of Central Lancashire had participants copy numbers out of the telephone book for 15 minutes, while others went straight into a standard creativity task (Mann &Cadman, 2013).

　　中央兰开夏大学的心理学家们让参与者连续15分钟抄写电话本中的号码，而其他人直接进入标准的创造力测试。(曼恩 &卡德曼， 2013)

　　Both groups were asked to come up with as many different uses as they could for a polystyrene cup. The group that were more bored came up with the most uses.

　　两组参与者都被要求尽可能多地想出塑料杯的不同用法，而更无聊的那一组想出的办法更多。

　　Dr Sandi Mann, one of the study’s authors said:

　　此篇研究文章的作者之一，桑迪-曼恩博士说：

　　“Boredom at work has always been seen as something to be eliminated, but perhaps we should be embracing it in order to enhance our creativity. What we want to do next is to see what the practical implications of this finding are. Do people who are bored at work become more creative in other areas of their work — or do they go home and write novels?”

　　“工作中的无聊情绪经常是被看做不可取的，但为了提高创造力，或许我们应该接受它。接下来我们要做的是看看这次发现会产生什么实际影响。在工作中感到无聊的人会在其他领域更具有创造性吗?---或者说他们会回家写小说吗?”

　　In a subsequent study they found that creativity was reduced when people were still bored but didn’t have the chance to daydream.

　　在接下来的研究中他们发现，当人们一直感到无聊而没有机会做白日梦的时候，他们的创造力会下降。

　　While we tend to think of boredom as something that inevitably leads to trouble — drinking, gambling, antisocial behaviour — this research suggests different possibilities.

　　虽然无聊感容易被我们当成导致酗酒，赌博以及反社会行为等问题的罪魁祸首，但这个调查向我们展示了它的其他可能性。

　　More than anything, the feeling of boredom is a strong signal that we are stuck in some kind of rut and we need to seek out new goals.

　　作为一个信号，无聊感比其他任何事情都更能提醒我们，现在我们陷入了一成不变的生活中，需要寻求新的目标。

　　In the study above, this search led participants to new ideas.

　　在上面的研究中，这种尝试帮助参与者们产生了新的想法。

　　Usually people will do anything to avoid being bored, as it’s such an aversive experience. But creative people, like writers, sometimes talk about seeking out boredom.

　　通常人们会做各种事情去避免无聊，因为这是一种非常糟糕的体验。但是有创造力的人们，比如作家，有时候会说起想要寻求无聊感。

　　Here is the comedy writer Graham Linehan talking about boredom to The Guardian:

　　喜剧作家格雷厄姆-莱恩汉在对卫报谈起无聊时这样说道：

　　“I have to use all these programs that cut off the internet, force me to be bored, because being bored is an essential part of writing, and the internet has made it very hard to be bored. The creative process requires a period of boredom, of being stuck. That’s actually a very uncomfortable period that a lot of people mistake for writer’s block, but it’s actually just part one of a long process.”

　　“我会尝试各种办法远离网络，强迫自己感到无聊，因为无聊感是写作很重要的一部分，而网络使人很难感到无聊。创作的过程中会有一段时间感到无聊并停滞不前，事实上这是一段很不舒服的时期，因为人们往往会误解认为作家遇到了瓶颈，但它其实只是漫长的创作过程中很平常的一部分。”

　　So, when you start to feel bored, instead of glancing at your smartphone, try being bored for a bit.

　　所以，当你开始感到无聊，停止浏览你的智能手机，尝试着让这种无聊保持一段时间。

　　Who knows what creative thought might come of it?

　　谁知道会有怎样的奇思妙想喷薄而出呢?

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