Nika

Bored and Brilliant; Creative Coalition 2020 Festival; Reasons to be Cheerful; Lemn Sissay on Daily Acts of Creativity.

Can boredom lead to your most brilliant ideas?

Here’s Manoush Zomorodi’s story – journalist, entrepreneur and author of Bored and Brilliant.

Her son and the iPhone were born three weeks apart in June 2007.

While everyone was busy with this new toy, she was stuck at home with her hands full of something else sending out constant notifications.

A colicky baby who would only sleep in a moving stroller with complete silence.

She walked 10-15 miles a day and got fit but was bored out of her mind.

Three months into this daily routine, something shifted. As she walked her mind wandered, she started daydreaming and coming up with ideas.

She finally got an iPhone and created her dream job hosting a public radio show (on the hustle beyond Silicon Valley – it’s excellent, check it out here).

She could be a mum and a journalist.

In the playground and on Twitter at the same time.

She got busy again. But when tried to brainstorm ideas and how to boost audience numbers, she couldn’t think of anything.

When was the last time she’d had a good idea? She realised it was when she was out walking her baby.

When you fill all the cracks in your day with scrolling and multitasking, you don’t let yourself daydream and be bored.

What happens to the brain when we get bored or if we’re never bored? She spoke to neuroscientists and cognitive psychologists, and the results were fascinating. See more.