The beauty of boredom

Some people dislike being bored so much that they'd rather give themselves an electric shock than be bored. At least that's what UVA psychologist Timothy Wilson and his colleagues found in a series of experiments they did about a decade ago ("Just Think: The Challenges of the Disengaged Mind" (2014)). During the experiments, participants were asked to sit alone in a plain room with no cell phone, reading materials, or writing implements and entertain themselves for 15 minutes with nothing but their thoughts. But in one of the studies the participants had the option of giving themselves an electric shock during the thinking period by pressing a button. Of the 18 men in that study, 12 gave themselves at least one shock, while 6 of the 24 women did. (Which is why women should be running the world, though that wasn't part of the study.) Professor Wilson and his colleagues wrote that it was striking that "simply being alone with their own thoughts for 15 minutes was apparently so aversive that it drove many participants to self-administer an electric shock that they had earlier [told investigators] they would pay to avoid." The authors thus concluded that "[m]ost people seem to prefer to be doing something rather than nothing, even if that something is negative." 

 

Of course, nowadays no one ever has to be doing nothing because everyone constantly has a smartphone at hand to ward off boredom by doomscrolling, watching videos, playing video games, listening to podcasts, etc. But is that a good thing? Other books (e.g., The Upside of Downtime: Why Boredom Is Good (2017) by Sandi Mann) and studies (e.g., "Why Being Bored Might Not Be a Bad Thing After All" (2019)) say definitely not. The benefits of boredom including sparking creativity and the mental respite just from stepping away from stressful work emails and social media long enough to get bored. The former is particularly interesting, as Mann explains that boredom is actually "a search for neural stimulation that isn't satisfied. If we can't find that, our mind will create it," which could lead to creative ideas you wouldn't get if you reached for your phone instead of letting yourself get bored for a few minutes. So go ahead and be bored once in a while and see what happens.

 

*********

 

Lentils being a certified top-ten food on UaKS, I'm of the opinion that you can never have too many lentil recipes. This one uses pre-cooked lentils from Trader Joe's (I think you can buy them in cans elsewhere too, just like canned cooked black or other beans) to speed up the process, but you can certainly cook your own lentils if you prefer. For this recipe, a firm French green lentil du Puy would be best. Instructions are included in the recipe's headnote below. Once you have the cooked lentils out of the way, the rest of the process is just some easy chopping and grating and mixing of the dressing—sufficiently easy that you maybe could get bored enough to have some creative ideas for tomorrow tonight's dinner.

 

 

Lentil Salad

Adapted from Rebecca McPhee via the GI Foundation

Time: ~30 minutes

You can add or subtract anything you like, except the lentils, from the salad ingredients. I’ve made this with chopped cucumbers and radishes cut into matchsticks (as pictured above). Sliced celery would be good, too, for some extra crunch.

 

If you're making lentils from scratch, use at least 270 grams (1½ cups) French green lentils du Puy, picked over and rinsed. Place the lentils, 4 cups (950 grams) water, 1 teaspoon fine sea salt, and 1 bay leaf (or ⅛ teaspoon laurel bay leaf powder) in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat to maintain a lively simmer (medium or a notch or two below). Cook, stirring occasionally, until the lentils are tender but not mushy and still hold their shape, about 25–30 minutes or more for French lentils du Puy (depending on the age of your lentils).

Salad
500 grams cooked lentils, drained (store-bought or homemade, see the headnote)
200 grams cherry or grape tomatoes, halved, or quartered if large
1 or 2 carrots, peeled if you like, then grated
75 grams baby spinach leaves, finely sliced
60 grams feta cheese, crumbled
50 grams toasted walnuts or pecans, roughly chopped
A handful of fresh Italian flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped

Dressing
45 grams (3 tablespoons) fresh lemon juice
20 grams (1½ tablespoons) extra-virgin olive oil
¾ teaspoon Dijon mustard
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper

    1. Place all of the salad ingredients in a large bowl.
    2. In small bowl or jar, whisk or shake the lemon juice, oil, and mustard until combined. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
    3. Pour the dressing over the salad ingredients, and toss until everything is evenly combined. Taste for seasoning. Serves 4 to 6 as a side.