How to get rid of boredom and monotony in life

Who is Max Hawkins and why he gave up a stable life in favor of uncertainty

Max Hawkins worked on The value of uncertainty. Aeon was an engineer at the Dream Corporation (Google), lived in the City of Dreams (San Francisco), and his daily routine was strictly regulated. He got up at 7 in the morning, had a cup of coffee at his favorite coffee shop, and then rode his bike to work.

Everything was great, but Max Hawkins gradually came to the conclusion that he had standardized his life to the utmost, and this began to bother him. He believed that in this way he limits his freedom, is trapped in his own preferences and does not live his own life. The study that Max read that a person's movements can be predicted with great accuracy by receiving geodata from his smartphone only reinforced the disturbing thoughts.

As a programmer, Hawkins decided to bring variety to life through technology. He developed an application - a random choice generator, quit Google, switched to remote work and lived "chaotically" for more than two years.

Algorithms chose what to eat, what city to live in (Max moved every two months), made playlists for him on Spotify, and helped him choose a random Facebook event he attended.

For example, Hawkins attended acrobatic yoga classes in Mumbai and a goat farm in Slovenia, attended a school flute concert and a cat cafe in Taipei. If the app asked him to go to a modest grill bar in the tiny town of Iowa, Max listened to him. He even got a tattoo on his chest with a randomly selected image from the web.

Quickly enough, Max began to feel comfortable in unusual situations. According to him, this helped him to feel like a more complete person, not tied to certain places, and also to get to know the world much better.

Here are some of Max Hawkins' projects:

- Facebook group with random events to attend.
- an application that allows you to chat with random people with similar interests.
- a playlist on Spotify that is randomly collected every day.
on GitHub, where you can find the code for Hawkins' applications in the public domain.

Why do we live monotonously

The reasons for the routine of life lie in the very mechanism of the brain. It is the most energy-consuming organ of the human body: despite its relatively small size, the brain consumes about 20% of the oxygen and calories that enter the body.

Our body always strives to reduce the waste of resources. Therefore, the brain carefully assimilates past experience in order to make decisions in similar situations in the future on its basis - to make “predictions”. After all, it is easier to assume that everything will happen again than to re-evaluate the situation. This develops in us a sense of control over the course of events, which is pleasantly soothing in a routine lifestyle, but disappears in unusual circumstances. This process is detailed in the theory of predictive coding, or predictive processing.

Scientists from the United States and China tried to demonstrate the predictability of human behavior in a 2010 study - the same one that Hawkins reviewed. Experts analyzed the data of 50 thousand mobile devices on the movement of their owners. It turned out that in 93% of cases, their route did not change over time.

In the same 2010, politician, businessman and head of the MoveOn.org organization, Eli Paraiser, introduced Pariser E. The Filter Bubble: How The New Personalized Web Is Changing What We Read and How We Think. - Penguin Books, 2012 filter bubble concept. By it, he meant a limited number of Internet sources that users trust to a greater extent, based on past experience of accessing them. For example, a person can read news on one site for years and be skeptical about other resources, even if they can find additional information there.

Monotony and stability are the most comfortable conditions for the brain.

This affects human behavior, interests and actions: we form an opinion about the "right" or "wrong" of any way of life. He is supported by the opinion of others, as well as social networks, suggesting what content we need to see.

Above, we talked about how routine and consistency give us a sense of control. However, our preconceptions about the world and other people can be wrong. These delusions can turn into false faith and lead to the opposite - to the feeling of impossibility to change something in the usual rhythm of life. And this state, in turn, borders on already learned helplessness.

Why Uncertainty Is Good

There is a lot of talk about getting out of your comfort zone, and in fact it can be helpful. So, in theory, deviation from mental stereotypes helps to look at reality from a different angle. A person can enrich his picture of the world and become more prepared for the unexpected. This theory of controlled uncontrollability is going to be tested by specialists from the Universities of Sussex (England), Edinburgh (Scotland) and Wellington (New Zealand) in the xSPECT project.

As the researchers note, the same energy saving of the body has The value of uncertainty. Aeon's downside is a passion for exploration. Staying within the expected range is only possible if you know what to expect. Therefore, our brain seeks to find out as much as possible about the world around us in order to reduce the number of uncertainties and make our predictions as accurate as possible.

In fact, this means that the more we step out of our comfort zone, the more comfortable we feel. Perhaps this is the explanation of the desire of people for science and creativity. For example, research shows that only uncertainty allows us to learn new things. After all, all the knowledge that we have is the experience of the past. But when we find ourselves in unfamiliar circumstances, the brain has to look for other ways to solve problems.

How Hawkins' experience can help diversify life

Hawkins' experiment in its original form, of course, is not suitable for everyone. But in fact, he was simply stress testing his beliefs and interests to explore his limits. Algorithms helped him break the stereotype of a "normal" life and gain new experience. And in this sense, his experiences will be understandable and useful to almost everyone.

To follow Max's example, you don't have to turn your life into chaos - two simple steps are enough.

First you need to "decode" the problem, that is, admit to yourself that the current way of life is boring and you want changes. Recognizing uniformity is the first step to change. When you see a problem and can look at it from the outside, start looking for ways to solve it - something that will help you verify the truth of your beliefs and break the routine.

In fact, you don't need absolute unpredictability. The same Hawkins, although he could not guess where the algorithm would send him, still knew that this would happen consistently every two months.

You don't have to do the same and move urgently. It is enough to start a new habit with an element of surprise. For example, cook a new meal every Sunday or sign up for an interactive online music or dance lesson. Meditation and mindfulness training are also helpful for developing mindfulness.

This managed uncertainty seems to be the secret to overcoming boredom and routine.