Bored and Brilliant

Mark’s lab has found that the more people switch their attention, the higher their stress level.

“By delegating to technology, we think that technology somehow is going to resolve problems for us,” he said. “But it doesn’t, because the more that you delegate, the less your brain has to be engaged.”

Every day, so many decisions. So many choices. It can feel exhausting, but if the Bored and Brilliant experiment teaches us nothing else, it proves that if you don’t make these decisions, there is a company or app or social media site that will make them for you.
There is no sitting this one out.

I was already at level 82. And I was back in love. But I did do one thing: I filed the game in a virtual folder on my phone labeled PRODUCTIVITY. That way, every time I go to play Two Dots, I’m forced to take two extra steps and laugh at my absurd compulsion. Does it stop me? Rarely. I feel sheepish for a moment and then play anyway. But I do try to limit it to five to ten minutes, as McGonigal suggests.

Harris and the social scientist Joe Edelman are working on a “Hippocratic oath” for software design that includes a code of ethics, ratings system, and certification standards. Soren Gordhamer, the creator of Wisdom 2.0, a popular conference dedicated to the “intersection of wisdom and technology,” believes that Silicon Valley’s leaders are ready for something like this. “They feel guilty,” he told The Atlantic. “They are realizing they built this thing that’s so addictive.”

Immediately after you’ve completed Step II, and are mind-numbingly bored, sit down with a pen and pad and put your mind to the task of solving the problem identified in Step I. Just as with Dr. Sandi Mann’s experiment involving the phone book and paper cups, you will bring new creativity and focus to whatever subject you’ve chosen.

“You can get into a state where there’s no thought at all,” said Tan, who recalled having a lunch with the famed spirituality writer Eckhart Tolle. The author of The Power of Now, which has sold millions of copies and been translated into thirty-three languages, told Tan, “My biggest achievement in my life is whenever I don’t want to think, I don’t have to think.”

Here’s a brief exercise Tan crafted to prove that meditation can be as quick and useful as a Google search. This one is geared to upping your kindness quotient (which Tan says makes you happier).
1. Bring a person into your mind, preferably someone you care about.
2. Think I wish for this person to be happy.
3. Maintain the thought for three breaths, in and out.
4. Do this every day to turn your wish for other people’s happiness into a habit . . . that will bring you happiness, too.

In Joy on Demand, the first exercise is a single breath. “One in breath, one out breath, taken with total but gentle attention,” he said. “And when people do that, already they feel better.”
That’s all it takes, according to Tan, to activate the relaxation response, which lowers the heart rate and loosens muscles. “If you practice with intensity, just a very short amount of practice can bring you a lot of benefit,” he said. “That is what allows beginners to have very short practices that are immediately effective.”

He created a program that had the end goal of inner transformation, but with a more relatable incentive: personal success. What better way to appeal to the type-A achievers surrounding him at Google headquarters in Silicon Valley? He could teach them to be better at their jobs but also give them the sneaky side effects of peace, joy, and compassion. Tan made sure to develop a curriculum for his colleagues that was thoroughly backed by science, was precise in its terminology, and had an application in the business world (yes, even love and kindness).