I discovered this article over the weekend and have been pondering it quite a bit since then. The quote that really got me was this: 

"People vastly prefer passive activities like reading or listening to music over spending just a few minutes by themselves. Being alone with no distractions was so distasteful to two-thirds of men and a quarter of women that they elected to give themselves mild electric shocks rather than sit quietly in a room with nothing but the thoughts in their heads."

This was shocking (no pun intended) to me and at I had a hard time believing it at first. Then this morning on a packed bus, I sat down and quietly looked out the window for a few minutes. There was a new concept in probability that I had been reading and thinking about and I wanted to take some time to wrestle with the concepts in my head. When I looked up I noticed that all but two people were staring at their mobile phones. The first one was me and the other was a child who couldn't have been more than five years old. For many years now I have always tried to have quiet moments where I can reflect on what is happening in my life. Some people call this meditation, but it isn't quite like that for me. There are always thoughts reverberating through my mind and sometimes it feels best to just reflect and think on them. Focus is the key element here. But I haven't always been successful doing this and the rise of smart phones has made it a bit more difficult to actually accomplish such deep thought. 

Lately I've been thinking about very specific things (algorithms) and focused thought has become a key to understanding the way I think through a problem and solve it. Or at least understand it on a deeper level. My process has been very simple. Normally I will review, study, and apply new concepts when I am at home, but I can't always be at home to work. So I write down a problem or concept in a small notebook I keep in my pocket, glance over it throughout the day, and then when there is time, I exercise focused thinking about that one topic for the next 20 - 30 minutes. Sitting on the train or bus (but mostly the train) helps me relax and do this without too many distractions. My goal is to know the problem inside and out instead of a cursory understanding. In fact, having read this book a number of times and applying the methods to my own thoughts has helped me grow intellectually. What is it I hope to achieve over the long term? To become a more effective thinker and problem solver and to think critically instead of haphazardly. 

So it's disheartening to read that people would rather receive an electric shock than be bored. Our minds are made to think effectively and critically analyze problems to make our world a better place. And it's no secret that doing so takes a tremendous amount of work. But it takes work for a reason and the best reason, at least to me, is to understand ones self at greater level. It's strange to think that some people don't want to know themselves at all. Or as Bertrand Russell once said "many people would rather die than think. In fact, most do."