In fact, I have the opposite problem: I often have trouble enjoying things that are not on my To Do List because there are too many things on my To Do List that aren't getting done.
I don't think I can even remember being bored. Even stuck in an airline terminal with a long wait and no internet, I'd still find something to amuse myself with, even if it was just a local paper or a conversation with a fellow traveler.
From my observations I think it's a much better problem to have than the opposite I've seen in some people where they are constantly bored when not involved in some kind of structured activity or social event.
Spending time with my girlfriend. Usually trips around the Bay Area (it's amazing what's there within an hour's driving distance), dining, cooking (it's actually more expensive then dining out, but well worth it in terms of using exactly the ingredients that you want), movies.
Coding. Right now I am an airport (waiting for a flight) implementing something (a CS concept) I've implemented at work in Java, in OCaml just to refresh my knowledge of OCaml (and my understanding of what I actually did). I'll write toys just for fun of it, for myself. It's okay to re-invent the wheel if you have to, do it for enjoyment.
Reading. Can be technical, can be non-fiction, can be fiction. Presently I am reading Richard Rhodes' Dark Sun and Benjamin Pierce's Types and Programming Languages.
Keep in mind that your brain is a lot like a heap of a run-time with generational garbage collection or a log-structured file system / database. Occasionally, the throughput at which you can write and read information from it goes down as it moves the bytes around and deletes the un-needed stuff. If you never let it do that, you'll run out of space / your knowledge will become incredibly fragmented.
It's important that if if you don't feel like being productive (read: your NewGen is full) you shouldn't force yourself to be. Go for a walk, watch a movie, work out, go out and eat (even if by yourself). I wonder how much money companies lose due to the rule or convention that one should work in a single contiguous chunk during the day (sitting comatose at their screen, when they should be taking a nap or going on a walk).
Yep - usually I read, but today I was cheering my home team as they became division champions. I'm not really into sports but every year I dare to hope this might be year the pennant finally comes to San Francisco.
Github. Momentum is key here. If you don't pick a project you are interested in and keep at it, coding for fun won't actually be fun; it will feel overwhelming and boring. But on a Sunday evening it's a great feeling to just hammer out an incremental change to a library you own and push it to the world. :)
Wow....bored. I remember that phenomena. Used to happen to me ever so occasionally before I had kids. Now, the little time I get to myself when I am not hacking is called 'peace and quiet'.
I honestly can't remember the last time I was bored.
I hang out with my fiancee, we love cooking a lot and watching movies, especially old ones. I practice Starcraft II with a coworker, which works out the strategy-planning part of my brain. Every other Sunday or so I go R/C racing with my future-father-in-law. Otherwise I'm hacking on a project for pay or for fun, sometimes both. ;)
I am also never bored. There is just so much to do! I'm a stickler for writing down random thoughts and ideas, like "I want to try hang gliding", or, "I've never been whale watching", or, "I wonder how much plane tickets are to Paris right now". My someday/maybe list is sitting at 249 items.
Just ask yourself, why are you bored? Be honest with yourself. Your answer may surprise you, but that's fine. Try new things, different things. Break away from habit and routine. Do a hand-stand, then go run in the park. Smell the flowers. Think about their life-cycle, and why humans think they're pretty, or why they smell so good. Is it genetic or learned? Like coffee, you probably hated it at first, but it's grown on you. Or maybe we were meant to drink coffee!
Then go work on something you're passionate about -- create. Just like _why said: "when you don't create things, you become defined by your tastes rather than ability. your tastes only narrow & exclude people. so create."
Bring things into the world. Beautiful things. Things that should've been here in the first place, you were just the one to think of it and do it. Share whatever defines you with people. Get surprised or angered or duped into believing something fashionable. Live.
My wife likes to tell people that I program to decompress, which is true. It's probably a bit like a mechanic coming home from working on other people's cars to put loving hours into rebuilding a 1965 mustang.
Bored? Never! I spend all my time either talking with fellow hackers or non-hacker friends, or working on at least _something_. There's always stuff on the To Do List. Create a "Someday" category and just look into what's there when you don't feel like real work.
For example, today messed around with a new startup's home page design and advertised on Reddit. Also, booked flights.
Exactly. I only get bored when I -choose- to get bored. Which is a huge change from when I was young, I can tell you.
Now, I have so many hobbies that I have to put some aside for others. And even without them, I have so many personal projects I like to work on, and so much to learn, that I would never have free time just from that alone.
I often find myself stressed out about my hobbies, and have to take a break from them!
And someone mentioned Minecraft... -sigh- Why is that game so addictive? I just keep going back.
As a knitter, this sounds truly awesome. Seems to not work though. But I'd love to collaborate with you on this, since it's something I need as well at times and never thought to make (I tend to draw charts directly for my own designs, but far too many published patterns have instructions only). Interested in the reverse transform? Webcam integration for pattern reading?
The only time I'm really bored is when I can't decide what to do, because of the "paradox of choice." My personal library has more than enough books to keep me busy for the next couple of decades, and the Internet provides a seemingly unlimited amount of reading material. That alone creates a strong "paradox of choice" situation, but I also like listening to music (classical and metal, recorded or live), going to the theater, running, mountain biking, hiking, going out to eat, hanging out with friends at bars/clubs, etc. And between physical media and bittorrent downloads, I have enough unwatched movies and TV programmes to consume hundreds of hours of my time.
So what do I actually do? Usually some combination of the above... an average weekend includes some time reading fiction (reading the "Harry Potter" series ATM), some time studying $SOMETHING, where $SOMETHING could be greek history, philosophy, physics, math, statistics or FSM knows what, and some time boning up on whatever the technical "topic of the day" is... some time surfing the Internet, a trip out to eat somewhere, and some time exercising (walking or running).
I don't know if that helps much or not, but there ya go. If I had to single out one activity that I spend the most time on during "idle time" it's reading, both fiction and non-fiction.
Oh, and never mind the time on weekends that I spend writing code.
Now that I think about it, no wonder I show up for work on Monday feeling more tired than I was when the weekend started. :-(
I have setup a server for HN users, #startups regulars and friends. Leave a comment here with your Minecraft username and make sure that your profile has contact information and I will give you access.
I play pick-up soccer with a regular group, read, cook, occasionally ride my bike around. Used to go on a ton of hikes until I exhausted those in the LA area.
I used to play ultimate (frisbee) but didn't like the rules. Good group though and plenty of geeks. When I played in Seattle, it seemed that all of us either worked for Boeing, Amazon, Microsoft or Google. You can find out about plenty of pick-up groups online.
beer on the deck, play with cats, go for a walk outside if it's nice (it's just getting to be fall weather around here which is great), really, anything but the computer
played some diablo 2 the other night with some friends though, fun times
TV: College football on Saturday; Rubicon, Boardwalk Empire and Madmen* on Sunday. (*Although Madmen is seemingly plotless and is becoming a source of boredom instead of a cure.)
Code: Weekend coding is usually reserved for work on side projects and personal / in-house tools.
Read: Veering toward the non-technical and fiction lately.
People: Gotta stay connected to the important stuff.
There is never enough time to do all the things I love to do, so, I don't get bored on the weekends. My first pick when the weather is nice is rock climbing. Just ran up 5 pitches of trad on Beacon rock today.
Gardening takes up some time, and it is now end of year, so I spent 18 hours this weekend cooking tomatoes into sauce and salsa.
[+] [-] edw519|15 years ago|reply
In fact, I have the opposite problem: I often have trouble enjoying things that are not on my To Do List because there are too many things on my To Do List that aren't getting done.
[+] [-] brc|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] robryan|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] strlen|15 years ago|reply
Coding. Right now I am an airport (waiting for a flight) implementing something (a CS concept) I've implemented at work in Java, in OCaml just to refresh my knowledge of OCaml (and my understanding of what I actually did). I'll write toys just for fun of it, for myself. It's okay to re-invent the wheel if you have to, do it for enjoyment.
Reading. Can be technical, can be non-fiction, can be fiction. Presently I am reading Richard Rhodes' Dark Sun and Benjamin Pierce's Types and Programming Languages.
Keep in mind that your brain is a lot like a heap of a run-time with generational garbage collection or a log-structured file system / database. Occasionally, the throughput at which you can write and read information from it goes down as it moves the bytes around and deletes the un-needed stuff. If you never let it do that, you'll run out of space / your knowledge will become incredibly fragmented.
It's important that if if you don't feel like being productive (read: your NewGen is full) you shouldn't force yourself to be. Go for a walk, watch a movie, work out, go out and eat (even if by yourself). I wonder how much money companies lose due to the rule or convention that one should work in a single contiguous chunk during the day (sitting comatose at their screen, when they should be taking a nap or going on a walk).
[+] [-] revorad|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mikeryan|15 years ago|reply
I'm watching baseball today however Go Giants!
[+] [-] anigbrowl|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ashitvora|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] poet|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] marcamillion|15 years ago|reply
I honestly can't remember the last time I was bored.
[+] [-] perplexes|15 years ago|reply
I am also never bored. There is just so much to do! I'm a stickler for writing down random thoughts and ideas, like "I want to try hang gliding", or, "I've never been whale watching", or, "I wonder how much plane tickets are to Paris right now". My someday/maybe list is sitting at 249 items.
Just ask yourself, why are you bored? Be honest with yourself. Your answer may surprise you, but that's fine. Try new things, different things. Break away from habit and routine. Do a hand-stand, then go run in the park. Smell the flowers. Think about their life-cycle, and why humans think they're pretty, or why they smell so good. Is it genetic or learned? Like coffee, you probably hated it at first, but it's grown on you. Or maybe we were meant to drink coffee!
Then go work on something you're passionate about -- create. Just like _why said: "when you don't create things, you become defined by your tastes rather than ability. your tastes only narrow & exclude people. so create."
Bring things into the world. Beautiful things. Things that should've been here in the first place, you were just the one to think of it and do it. Share whatever defines you with people. Get surprised or angered or duped into believing something fashionable. Live.
[+] [-] megamark16|15 years ago|reply
My wife likes to tell people that I program to decompress, which is true. It's probably a bit like a mechanic coming home from working on other people's cars to put loving hours into rebuilding a 1965 mustang.
[+] [-] aaronblohowiak|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sahillavingia|15 years ago|reply
For example, today messed around with a new startup's home page design and advertised on Reddit. Also, booked flights.
[+] [-] wccrawford|15 years ago|reply
Now, I have so many hobbies that I have to put some aside for others. And even without them, I have so many personal projects I like to work on, and so much to learn, that I would never have free time just from that alone.
I often find myself stressed out about my hobbies, and have to take a break from them!
And someone mentioned Minecraft... -sigh- Why is that game so addictive? I just keep going back.
[+] [-] Rantenki|15 years ago|reply
Consider this, you are a hacker, and you have a computer, and (since are reading this), the internet.
If you cannot think of a way to entertain yourself, then your creativity is toast. You need a vacation.
[+] [-] a-priori|15 years ago|reply
But, today I wrote a tool for my fiancee to help her make knitting charts. Very minimal, but it's a start.
http://knitting.heroku.com/
[+] [-] Kliment|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] socialbutterfly|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mindcrime|15 years ago|reply
So what do I actually do? Usually some combination of the above... an average weekend includes some time reading fiction (reading the "Harry Potter" series ATM), some time studying $SOMETHING, where $SOMETHING could be greek history, philosophy, physics, math, statistics or FSM knows what, and some time boning up on whatever the technical "topic of the day" is... some time surfing the Internet, a trip out to eat somewhere, and some time exercising (walking or running).
I don't know if that helps much or not, but there ya go. If I had to single out one activity that I spend the most time on during "idle time" it's reading, both fiction and non-fiction.
Oh, and never mind the time on weekends that I spend writing code.
Now that I think about it, no wonder I show up for work on Monday feeling more tired than I was when the weekend started. :-(
[+] [-] Rabidgremlin|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] vyrotek|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] absconditus|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] starpilot|15 years ago|reply
I used to play ultimate (frisbee) but didn't like the rules. Good group though and plenty of geeks. When I played in Seattle, it seemed that all of us either worked for Boeing, Amazon, Microsoft or Google. You can find out about plenty of pick-up groups online.
[+] [-] leif|15 years ago|reply
played some diablo 2 the other night with some friends though, fun times
[+] [-] nhebb|15 years ago|reply
Code: Weekend coding is usually reserved for work on side projects and personal / in-house tools.
Read: Veering toward the non-technical and fiction lately.
People: Gotta stay connected to the important stuff.
Go outside: Try it. It's great!
[+] [-] cullenking|15 years ago|reply
Gardening takes up some time, and it is now end of year, so I spent 18 hours this weekend cooking tomatoes into sauce and salsa.
[+] [-] nandemo|15 years ago|reply
But I didn't do these things to kill time.