Question of the Day - Tuesday, May 20th, 2025

[casportpony]

Today's question is from @Gill-b:

Which is worse, to lead a life so boring the you are easily enchanted, or a life so full of stimulus that you are easily bored?

[I read this in the book 'The Lost Continent' by Bill Bryson and thought it an interesting question to ask; although I think it a philosophical one which may not have a simple 'black-and-white' answer. I hope you enjoy thinking about it.]

Great question! Neither, lol. Something in between.

 

[500Chickens]

I agree with @casportpony

 

[Sally PB]

Love Bill Bryson's books! I will read any book he has written because he can make any topic interesting.

To the question... well, I think I'd go for the boring life/easily enchanted. It would seem that I could go find something interesting when I wanted to, and then go back into my shell when I wanted to rest.

I read about someone who went on safari for a summer with a magnifying glass and a camera. Every day he found something very interesting to look at and study.

He was in his own back yard.

 

[Gill-b]

Worse must be a life so full of stimulus that you are easily bored.

I went from easily enchanted to full of stimulus... except I was never bored; and now I am somewhere in between. I don't think it is about whether or not your life is boring or full of stimulus, rather your state of mind while living it?

I think Sally put it nicely:

...I think I'd go for the boring life/easily enchanted. It would seem that I could go find something interesting when I wanted to, and then go back into my shell when I wanted to rest.

 

[muddy75]

I agree somewhere in between

 

[The Moonshiner]

I'll go with the first one. Sounds like an easier life with something to look forwards to.
Second one sounds exhausting with a letdown.

 

[sourland]

I agree with 'somewhere in between'. People without a passion, whatever it might be, are rarely bored and are interesting.

 

[azurbanclucker]

A life of overstimulation can be hell. Ask anyone with ADHD or who may fall on the autism spectrum. You can end up shutting down completely, or get so locked into searching for that dopamine and serotonin fix, that you flit from interest to interest, leaving a littered path of hobbies in your wake.

 

[Lacy Duckwing]

I feel like I've suffered from both, and there's been way too many times my brain has shut down to being utterly useless for days to even weeks at a time thanks to overstimulation. If I had to choose one, I'd say boring, as being bored creates the most creativity and pushes me into being more active, doing the things I should do, and coming up with the best of stories which either has or hopefully will someday be written. My life full of stimulation causes me to sit around all day doing nothing of long-term importance, leaving me feeling useless like I don't have a purpose in life and fills me with regret because I could have and should have been doing something that would have left me feeling fulfilled, not empty.
And if lying on my couch daydreaming while it rains all day classifies as being enchanted, I'll take that. I'm a writer, so I need moments like that to develop my stories.

 

[5Australorpasaures]

One of those questions that I don't clutter my mind with, to busy appreciating the things life throws at me, good, bad or yawn. Had pretty much equal of all.